Soil is the foundation of our farm. Without healthy soil, we cannot have healthy plants, and therefore healthy us. It’s just not possible. We spend a tremendous amount of energy taking care of the soil so that we will have plants to take care of also!

But without water, there are no plants either.

We live in a part of the world where water is largely taken for granted. As Americans, specifically East Coast Americans, water is almost always there for us: piped into our house from a clean well or reservoir, exiting our tap and entering our glass. Our cooking pot. Our shower. Our hose for our gardens. Our swimming pools, even!

Our fields are thirsty. Water is our farm’s greatest limiting factor. We can acquire compost and soil amendments. Fortunately, there are fabulous organic seed companies. Equipment is not a problem. Capital can be challenging, but not prohibitive. We recently made the decision to go into debt for the first time in the interest of infrastructure. We’ve taken out a loan to drill a well, which is completely fine with us. It’s the single thing we need to do in order to grow enough food to feed our community and support our family. (Our current shallow well is not sufficient.)

Little did we know, when we decided to settle and farm here, that in this particular part of the county, in this part of the state, in this part of the world, water veins are very narrow. Meaning, you can drill in one spot and hit the vein but drill just a few feet (or inches) away and be dry down to 1500 feet. And the drilling company does not know where those veins are.

These guys have been great to work with, and I recommend them to anyone. Their job is to drill, and drill well, and work well with their customers. They are doing that and we are so pleased. But they even say: they can only see underground as far as we can.

To irrigate the amount of space we need to grow on, we need at least 15-20 gallons per minute. Folks around here generally feel lucky to get a well that produces 2 gpm. One neighbor up the road has a well with 60 gpm – he hit gold! We need water, and enough of it.

And so we drilled. In the best spot we knew to drill.

And right now, we’re getting 1.75 gpm at this site. That’s not even enough for a residence, according to county code. We know the water is down there – it just need to burst out into our well shaft.

So, this is a call for water prayers.

We can’t drill holes all over our place, hoping to hit a vein. We know there’s more water flowing around this spot – it just needs to come forth. So, if you’re willing, we’d be most appreciative if you would pray to whatever god/force/part of the universe that you pray to, in the interest of water pouring into our well. Pure, sweet, potable water to water all the plants that we coax out of this land.

Thanks.