Featured Farm of the Month Oct. (Philson Farm)

Featured Farm: Bushel and A Peck, Mercer PA.  An Interview with Amy and Eric Philson:

(see photos of the Philsons and their farm in our Photo Gallery on this website)

 How long have you been farming?

When and why did you create Bushel and A Peck? We have been “officially” farming for three years, but we have always had a garden and have raised chickens and dairy goats for ourselves in the past. We decided to grow things for sale because we wanted an endeavor that our entire family can be a part of.

Tell us something about your family life.

We are Eric and Amy, married for 22 years. Eric is a stone mason by trade and is currently fabricating and installing granite countertops. We have seven children: Lee is almost 20, Joel is 16, Gwendolyn is 12, Emma is almost 9, Isobel is 6, Elisha is 4, and Eleanor is 22 months. We homeschool our children, which includes learning how to work on a farm. For us, education is a way of life, not an activity to fit into our daily schedule.

What kinds of animals do you raise?

What do you use them for? Right now, the only animals we have are our laying hens, a hive of honeybees and two cats. We move our chickens to new grass every two days, resulting in rich, nutritious eggs and less grass to mow. We raise pastured meat chickens, but we don’t currently have any. We butcher our own chickens, with all of us taking on different jobs in the process. Gwen’s favorite job is evisceration (degutting), so she’s our expert in that area. At one point, we had 8 hives of bees, but we lost all but one in the past couple of years. We plan to expand our hives again next year. We have hopes of acquiring other animals, such as beef and dairy cows and sheep, but we haven’t made it that far yet.

 What do you grow in your gardens?

We grow lots of vegetables and herbs…carrots, potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, beans, lettuce, kale, melons, squashes…and basil, thyme, chives, sage, oregano, rosemary, cilantro, etc. This year we planted about 1500 asparagus plants, so we hope to have lots of asparagus to share in the coming years. And we finally started our own blueberry and raspberry patches after wishing for several years. This year we stopped using plastic mulch to plant in, and we’re transitioning to no-till farming. This is healthier for the soil and uses fewer non-renewable resources. However, it does produce more weeds, so we’ve been busy all summer trying to keep ahead. In the last few years, we have been learning a great deal about nutrition and the huge effect that healthy soil has on the nutrition in plants. We’ve begun fermenting foods and also learning about wild edible plants (I can’t believe all the “weeds” that we used to pull up are actually some of the most nutritious foods!). Like I said, when education is a way of life, there’s no end to what we can learn.

 Besides growing, we also have a passion for good bread. We make all of our own bread, and we also sell some through the co-op. The soaked whole grain bread that I make is my family’s everyday bread. We grind our flour fresh using a stone grinder. I soak the grains for 12 hours before making the bread because this reduces phytates. All grains contain phytates, which inhibit the absorption of nutrients in our digestive tracts. When phytates are reduced, our bodies can absorb nutrients from the grains instead of just passing them through our systems. The end result is similar to sprouted grains and sourdough, but through a different process.

Since this is a family farm, what do the kids do to help?

 The kids do everything to help! They help in sowing seed in the late winter/early spring, preparing the gardens, planting, weeding (which some of them complain about), harvesting (please, mom, not beans again!), caring for chickens, collecting eggs, butchering, and anything else that needs done. Like I said, this is a family endeavor, so everyone has to help out.

Do you have a favorite recipe that is easy to make for those busy evenings when you have had a full day with the kids and on the farm?

 Since we try to eat whole foods and avoid processed foods at all costs, there really aren’t many quick meals. Real food takes more time to make, but there are ways to get dinner on the table quickly when I need to. I usually have various kinds of dried beans cooked and frozen to use for quick meals. I often cook a few chickens and freeze some of the meat and chicken stock for a future meal. And we can lots of foods like spaghetti sauce. I bake our bread 8 loaves at a time, so I usually have some bread in the freezer. And for a really quick meal, we have an omelet with garden produce in it.

For a quick lunch that my entire family loves, I make black bean dip from beans that I have in the freezer. I serve it with fresh veggies and/or tortilla chips. It’s similar to hummus, but with different flavors.

Black Bean Dip 4 c. black beans, cooked (I think this is equivalent to 2 cans for those who buy canned beans) ½ c. water 1 tsp. Salt 1 tsp. Cumin 1 Tbsp. Nutritional yeast 2 Tbsp. Olive oil ½ tsp. Garlic powder ½ tsp. Onion powder Put everything in a food processor and blend. Simple and delicious.

 Do you have any short term or long term goals for your farm?

We have lots of goals for our farm, way more than we can possibly accomplish. We are working on becoming more and more self-sufficient, making more of what we use and doing without what we don’t need. We want to raise livestock both for ourselves and to sell. We want to build a bake oven and expand our offerings of bread. We want to share with others the things we’re learning about nutrition and disease. Most of all, we want to teach our children how to work and how to care for the land that God has given us.