Back to the earth

Fledgling farm focuses on nutrition and education

By JENNIFER VOGELSONG
Daily Record/Sunday News

Updated: 05/29/2007 08:48:07 AM EDT

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Michael Blank waters plants inside the large greenhouse at Common Ground Farm, which he started three years ago after a lifetime of gardening as a hobby.<br />· <a href="http://w2.ydr.com/forms/sendPhoto.php?photo=26794">E-mail photo</a><br />· <a href="http://ydr.mycapture.com/mycapture/lookup.asp?originalname=051607-PMK-BLANK.jpg">Order photo reprint</a><br />

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MULTIMEDIA: A tech guy finds peace in farming

May 29, 2007 — Michael Blank's ancestors hail from a village in Germany where farmers once cultivated the land and gathered regularly at the market in the town square to sell their harvest.

It seems that routine is still encoded in the 59-year-old's genes because he has always had a green thumb and a penchant for playing in the dirt.

Until a few years ago, it was just a hobby; a way to de-stress after a long day at work, get out in the fresh air and grow a few veggies for his dinner table. Then, Blank lost his job when the technology company he worked for downsized. He decided to pursue his dream of running an organic farm.

It was a leap of faith.

"A lot of times I wonder if I made the right choice," he said. "But just about that time, something comes along to tell me I did."

He helped his wife, Wilhelmina, start a massage therapy school in Hanover (Pennsylvania Myotherapy Institute) just before he lost his job, so he had an idea what running his own business would

involve.

He had spent time with organic farmers in Lancaster and Adams counties and attended a sustainable farming conference in State College to learn about the industry. He devoured books on everything related to organic farming and nutrition.

It was just a matter of doing it.

So he bought used greenhouse parts and put them together on his seven acres of land. He built raised beds inside and planted salad greens and herbs, vegetables and some flowers for cutting. He pruned his fruit trees and fenced off four-and-a-half acres for a pasture. He bought roosters, hens and lambs.

With only a couple of hundred dollars' profit last year, the farm continues to be more a labor of love than a sustainable source of income.

It's not that his stuff doesn't sell - he runs out of salad mix by 10 a.m. most Saturday mornings at the Hanover Farmer's Market. It's just that he has been putting much of what he makes back into the operation.

Willa Lefever, manager of Sonnewald Natural Foods in North Codorus Township, sells Blank's salad mix in her store whenever he has extra.

She said the way he farms - using raised beds and putting the plants very close together so they shade and choke out weeds and require a minimum of water - is the way she thinks all farming will be done in the future.

She and Blank are working together to make and sell non-toxic herbicide that kills weeds without poisoning the ground, which she hopes will soon be available both at his market stand and in her store.

"We need to get every farmer we can doing this," she said. "Thankfully, there's more all the time because Americans desperately need this. We are overfed, but undernourished."

A Bible passage on a sign dangling from the ceiling of Blank's 60-by-28-foot greenhouse reminds him why he does this: "For as the soil makes the sprout come up and a garden causes seeds to grow, so the sovereign Lord will make righteous and praise spring up before all nations. Isaiah 61:11."

So, every two weeks, he sows more seeds.

He gets down on his hands and knees with shears and snips spinach and Swiss chard, kale and chives into a large plastic bin to wash, spin, weigh and bag for salad mix.

Together with his 10-year-old daughter, Brittni, he fishes for large-mouth bass and bluegills in their stream and puts the smallest ones in a small pond to grow.

When he's able to hire more than a single part-time worker, he'd like to get into aquaculture, raising farm-fresh tilapia and other fish. This fall, he'll butcher his first batch of fresh lamb.

He likes experimenting with new items. Even more, he enjoys educating others; swapping tips for growing and recipes for cooking.

His vision is to someday have a larger-scale organic farm with an on-site store for daily sales of fresh produce.

"I like teaching people how to grow this stuff and eat healthy," Blank said. "I get more enjoyment out of my customers on Saturdays ... it's worth all this hard labor."

Reach Jennifer Vogelsong at 771-2034 or jvogelsong@ydr.com.