Well, hello there.. How's everybody doing? It's been a month or so since I've posted here so I just want to take a minute to check in, say hi, and share a little personal update for anyone out there interested…
First, hey, for real, I love this place. I mean it. I’m especially grateful to have worked and formed friendships with Nate, Ryan and Matt, and to Phil for giving me the chance to do this the past decade. As they know, though, the time has come for, let's call it a career shift for me.
I’m not entering the transfer portal -ha. Nah, I’m still lingering around this message board out of heart and habit, probably writing an article here and there while helping Matt with the magazine. For the most part, though, I’ve decided recently to trade in my day-to-day duties to tackle a business venture of my own. A completely different industry, so I guess some might find this as a hard sudden turn. But I think those who know me see this as something that falls right in line with who I am. If there’s one regret maybe that I have during my time here it’s that I haven’t broadcasted much about myself from a personal standpoint. So to begin, here’s some background: I grew up on a family farm in the hills of northern Pennsylvania – the Endless Mountains, as some call it. We had a beef herd till I was in later elementary school and, always, a large backyard garden. My dad is the fifth generation of Owen on our farm. My older twin brothers and I are the sixth, so that makes the (almost) three-month old baby girl sleeping in my arms a member of the seventh.
Life brought my wife and I back to my little hometown recently. I've traveled back and forth from State College more times than I’d like to count as I've worked remotely the last few years; luckily both are wonderful places to be. Since I’ve moved home, I've returned to some of our roots, dabbling further in organic gardening and some less-than-conventional forms of small-scale agriculture on the side before realizing – understanding – it’s exactly what I need to do next.
Back in State College, I used to find myself spending Tuesday afternoons in the summer at the farmer’s markets. I'd grow tomatoes and peppers on my apartment balcony and patio. Nate’s the crock pot guy around here, but he’ll tell ya that I’m pretty food crazy myself. My wife is, too. I married into a family of Penn State and Cornell hospitality graduates and Liz is currently a restaurant manager. Originally from Brooklyn, her family were foodies before it was a hip term. What I’ve discovered with them, dining at some well-known restaurants in the city, is that the best dish starts with the ingredient. An amateur grill master myself, finding the freshest is what would bring me to those markets each week to meet the farmers – and I got to meet a lot of wonderful ones in Central Pennsylvania. There needs to be more of them, everywhere, for a lot of reasons.
It didn’t take long for me to recognize that what was being sold, what we were eating at those fancy places in NYC, was what my dad and I would grow in the backyard garden as a kid. Slowly but surely the idea of regenerating our farm for those growing markets galvanized in my head and kept me up at night. I had a background in this, had the will power and enjoyed working outside. Actually I used to landscape around Bellefonte and State College in the summer months after college before going full-time here. Most importantly and maybe even obligatorily, I had land access, which is a major barrier to entry, btw, forcing the average American farmer into retirement age. All this together, light bulb.
As I’ve gotten the rest of the family on board and renewed some energy behind the word farming we’ve spent the last few seasons in discover mode, zeroing in on a greater mission and figuring out our model/systems – all mostly as a weekend/evening hobby. We have now developed into a small-scale produce farm with intensive vegetable and cover crop rotations in the gardens – focusing heavily on soil health – along with a speciality niche of log-grown shiitake mushrooms. They are cultivated in our woods. I've documented a lot of our work in photos on IG (@growenfood), and we have some bigger plans in the works for the social media/online presence once we get going with the season. Altogether, it's been a lot of cooperation and hard work from a lot of family who lives nearby. Now we’ve gotten to a point where we are confident enough in our production volume and established markets (regional restaurants, farmers markets and a local online delivery service) to make a leap, give this a try and see where it takes us. I like to keep the faith. I mean, I like where it's gotten me so far.
For those of you who have read anything of mine the past 9.5 years – or even if you’re still reading this, ha – thank you. I’m stepping back not because I don’t enjoy this community or the job that I did; I do hope to be back more often once I get settled in. Rather, I see this as a step toward where I need to be for the future of this little girl – who has made me realize just how fast that future comes. I just wanted to take a moment to share all that with you, get that off my chest. I’ll try staying awake here for a little bit if anyone wants to chat if you’re interested in any more details about this or that or the time I’ve spent with BWI. I’ve seen my fair share here, starting with Paterno, then O’Brien and now Franklin. I've been from Dublin to Pasadena for football, and to each host city in between for the NCAA wrestling tournaments, covering the greatest of all-time. It’s been a great ride. Much appreciated
First, hey, for real, I love this place. I mean it. I’m especially grateful to have worked and formed friendships with Nate, Ryan and Matt, and to Phil for giving me the chance to do this the past decade. As they know, though, the time has come for, let's call it a career shift for me.
I’m not entering the transfer portal -ha. Nah, I’m still lingering around this message board out of heart and habit, probably writing an article here and there while helping Matt with the magazine. For the most part, though, I’ve decided recently to trade in my day-to-day duties to tackle a business venture of my own. A completely different industry, so I guess some might find this as a hard sudden turn. But I think those who know me see this as something that falls right in line with who I am. If there’s one regret maybe that I have during my time here it’s that I haven’t broadcasted much about myself from a personal standpoint. So to begin, here’s some background: I grew up on a family farm in the hills of northern Pennsylvania – the Endless Mountains, as some call it. We had a beef herd till I was in later elementary school and, always, a large backyard garden. My dad is the fifth generation of Owen on our farm. My older twin brothers and I are the sixth, so that makes the (almost) three-month old baby girl sleeping in my arms a member of the seventh.
Life brought my wife and I back to my little hometown recently. I've traveled back and forth from State College more times than I’d like to count as I've worked remotely the last few years; luckily both are wonderful places to be. Since I’ve moved home, I've returned to some of our roots, dabbling further in organic gardening and some less-than-conventional forms of small-scale agriculture on the side before realizing – understanding – it’s exactly what I need to do next.
Back in State College, I used to find myself spending Tuesday afternoons in the summer at the farmer’s markets. I'd grow tomatoes and peppers on my apartment balcony and patio. Nate’s the crock pot guy around here, but he’ll tell ya that I’m pretty food crazy myself. My wife is, too. I married into a family of Penn State and Cornell hospitality graduates and Liz is currently a restaurant manager. Originally from Brooklyn, her family were foodies before it was a hip term. What I’ve discovered with them, dining at some well-known restaurants in the city, is that the best dish starts with the ingredient. An amateur grill master myself, finding the freshest is what would bring me to those markets each week to meet the farmers – and I got to meet a lot of wonderful ones in Central Pennsylvania. There needs to be more of them, everywhere, for a lot of reasons.
It didn’t take long for me to recognize that what was being sold, what we were eating at those fancy places in NYC, was what my dad and I would grow in the backyard garden as a kid. Slowly but surely the idea of regenerating our farm for those growing markets galvanized in my head and kept me up at night. I had a background in this, had the will power and enjoyed working outside. Actually I used to landscape around Bellefonte and State College in the summer months after college before going full-time here. Most importantly and maybe even obligatorily, I had land access, which is a major barrier to entry, btw, forcing the average American farmer into retirement age. All this together, light bulb.
As I’ve gotten the rest of the family on board and renewed some energy behind the word farming we’ve spent the last few seasons in discover mode, zeroing in on a greater mission and figuring out our model/systems – all mostly as a weekend/evening hobby. We have now developed into a small-scale produce farm with intensive vegetable and cover crop rotations in the gardens – focusing heavily on soil health – along with a speciality niche of log-grown shiitake mushrooms. They are cultivated in our woods. I've documented a lot of our work in photos on IG (@growenfood), and we have some bigger plans in the works for the social media/online presence once we get going with the season. Altogether, it's been a lot of cooperation and hard work from a lot of family who lives nearby. Now we’ve gotten to a point where we are confident enough in our production volume and established markets (regional restaurants, farmers markets and a local online delivery service) to make a leap, give this a try and see where it takes us. I like to keep the faith. I mean, I like where it's gotten me so far.
For those of you who have read anything of mine the past 9.5 years – or even if you’re still reading this, ha – thank you. I’m stepping back not because I don’t enjoy this community or the job that I did; I do hope to be back more often once I get settled in. Rather, I see this as a step toward where I need to be for the future of this little girl – who has made me realize just how fast that future comes. I just wanted to take a moment to share all that with you, get that off my chest. I’ll try staying awake here for a little bit if anyone wants to chat if you’re interested in any more details about this or that or the time I’ve spent with BWI. I’ve seen my fair share here, starting with Paterno, then O’Brien and now Franklin. I've been from Dublin to Pasadena for football, and to each host city in between for the NCAA wrestling tournaments, covering the greatest of all-time. It’s been a great ride. Much appreciated
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