OUR FARM
Brightwood Farm is small (5 acres) and diverse (plants and animals). We are currently transitioning in the winter of 2023 from our Jersey cows to a flock of sheep. We'll take some time to make barn improvements and replace our perimeter fencing and then plan to start a sheep flock in the summer. Right now the resident in our barn is Chloe, our barn cat- still keeping the rodent population down in the barn.
We grow a broad variety of vegetables, year round, as well as perennial berries and fruit. At this scale, we can produce enough high quality compost to amend our soil and help keep our soil microbes healthy and happy.
We till minimally to ensure that we encourage a thriving community of beneficial fungi and bacteria in the soil which in turn make the abundant minerals in our soil available to our vegetable plants and pasture grasses. We recycle as many nutrients as possible on the farm, by composting plant material, growing some food for our animals to supplement the pasture, and using composted manure as soil amendment and fertilizer. We are establishing polyculture beds which include the elderberry plants we brought with us from Virginia along with a variety of compatable annual and perennial plants. Taken together, the style of farming that we practice goes beyond sustainable and organic and is now being referred to as regenerative agriculture.
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