We are Mark and Lexi, nearly life-long residents of Virginia, and have lived in Goose Creek Valley since November of 2012. We lived in Rappahannock County for 12 years while doing various things, but mostly learning how to raise vegetables and chickens sustainably and responsibly for the owners of the estate on which we lived for the previous 7 years. Mark also picked up some animal husbandry experience in addition to what he'd learned from his parents who still live on a farm in Forest, VA. During all that time we became increasingly aware of issues of conservation and sustainable living.
Wingstem Farm rests directly between Goose Creek and the mountains just west of the Peaks of Otter in Goose Creek Valley, north of Montvale, Virginia. Jefferson National Forest is to our north, and the Blue Ridge Parkway to the west. The land was purchased by Mark’s grandparents in 1975; they raised Charolais cattle and Beefalo for nearly 40 years. We moved here in 2012, chickens in tow, and have been selling eggs locally ever since. We started keeping bees and cultivating shiitake and oyster mushrooms for market in the spring of 2015. Our hop rhizomes were planted at the same time. In the spring of 2015 we also planted some dye plants including indigo, woad, and golden margarite, an extention of Lexi's interest in the fiber arts. Look out for future blog posts on the subject. Check out her website here.
We are learning more and more everyday about a permaculture approach to how we live on the farm, it's main principles informing our evolving philosophy. Human health depends on the health of the environment. Our production sites are planned according to these principles, and altered based on successes and failures. We strive to maximize the ecological integrity of the farm and it's wooded mountains, grasslands, and wetland ecosystem (protected by USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service conservation easement).
In addition to us, there are multiple feral barncats that we inherited, and whom we have been trapping, sterilizing, and releasing for a year. So far 24 have been fixed. The cattle herd was sold by Mark's grandparent's estate but are still grazed on the property. Some of our most interesting inhabitants are a river otter spotted multiple times on the pond, coyotes, kingfishers, Great Blue heron, a pair of Green heron, painted turtles, box turtles and snapping turtles, black snakes, all manner of song birds, Grey treefrogs, Eastern American toads, Fowler's toads, Pickerel frogs, "spring peepers" and Five-lined skinks. We also appreciate the mosquito-eating bats!
The farm is named for the multitude of plants that bloom here in August and September commonly called "wingstem" a.k.a. Verbesina alternifolia; they are an important bee forage source.
