A Short History of Bob
I was born in a small rural town about 75 miles from Champaign, Illinois. It is, however, ironic that in my day in this agricultural/rural background "gardening" was not really considered "farming". "On the farm", the summer garden consisted of weeds, old tomato plants and monstrous weird tomato horn worms. Having grown up amid fields of corn and beans, I can remember my surprise at seeing eerie fields of cabbage and other vegetables along the road in California while on a family vacation when I was six years old.
As a child, I remember having to go out and try to weed the garden with a dull hoe after the summer sun had baked the soil into rock. No one believed in watering in those days. What you saw was what you got.
While attending the Big U, I tried to grow a garden in a friend's backyard despite the forest of trees with which the plants had to compete for light, moisture and nutrients.
A few years after getting married, my wife and I moved into a dilapidated old house on Springfield Avenue in Champaign which had a humongous backyard without any trees. My mother gave me a book on intensive gardening as a Christmas present, and I got so carried away in the Spring that I double-dug the whole backyard and created about 2,000 square feet of raised beds and began playing in the dirt in earnest. Eventually I had the "brilliant" idea of going big time, but the only small parcels of land close enough to Champaign were beyond my budget because of the fancy new houses which had been built on them after the old farm houses had been torn down. I finally found my 3.5 acres,but without a house, in 1985. The plan was to build there and have a "farm". The house doesn’t exist yet but the "farm" is there.
Although I have grown by the organic method since 1980, I did not originally come to this from an anti-chemical standpoint. The organicists made some fantastic claims (about flavor, productivity, etc.) and I {naively, no doubt} accepted the challenge. It was only after I experienced firsthand the effects of conventional agriculture on the soil that I realized that the organic method offered a better though less convenient alternative. Soil is a very fragile thing, and we owe our existence to it. The cumulative effects of heavy machinery, continuous row-cropping and chemicals can destroy its texture and life over time. Something had to be done to halt the process of turning it back into rock.
It has taken copious amounts of organic matter and even more physical toil of many people to make it what it is today. Though it is a long way from being perfect, it is a vast improvement over the "shale" it used to be. Reclaiming farm land, as I call it, is a slow process.
From 1985 to 1990 I worked 80-hour weeks in the garden and at my other jobs of painting and carpentry. In those early days the garden also functioned as a venue for child care since I would take my oldest two sons with me at times when I went out to work the land. Once they were old enough they started working for pay. My oldest son officially worked in the garden for 11 years before going on to bigger and better things in the "real" world. My second son, who was more challenged by the work, the heat and the duration of focus necessary to raise food in such a labor-intensive adventure still works for me and has benefited from the experience, though he might dispute this when asked. My third son started working more in earnest in 2004 and has become my main helper at the Urbana Farmer's Market since his older brother "left the farm". My fourth son will have his chance soon. I hope in all of this that they will have gained something that otherwise they would have never had in life. Whether it was always positive or not, they did have a chance to be with their dad more than the typical child in our culture.
My wife has participated in many ways in this venture/lifestyle, whether directly or indirectly. She has put up with my obsession/passion, despite the fact that it was not hers. Who knows, maybe she's gained something from it also, though she probably got the short end of the stick. Despite hard work, long hours, excessive heat, less than fantastic pay, and many other frustrations, many people have participated in this ongoing drama of soil improvement and food production. Without their help it would not have happened. And this says nothing about the loyal customers along the way--
Back in 1993 or 1994 I was invited to help grow for a new experimental CSA just starting up. I attended two meetings, but soon realized they were only interested in my fruit. The other farmer could supply all the vegetables. Because I think of myself as a "package deal", I bowed out. The following year another farmer and I began growing for the official version of this CSA. We had problems from the beginning, and they never seemed to want to go away. The other farmer hung in there for 5 years and then got out. I lasted another two years. I learned a lot about CSAs and people from that experience. Despite that, I decided to create my own CSA. In 2001, the BRACKETT-CSA was born.
