Family makes a business out of farming on a small scale

By Laura Clark

Published: June 26, 2008

A steady spring rain fell over freshly planted cabbage and onions, and soaked the beds of asparagus and garlic and the strawberry patch.

It was cool and dry inside the hoop house (less insulated than a greenhouse) on Appalachia Star Farm in Roseland, where the Bertoni family prepared for seeding.

Everyone got their hands dirty. Eli, 3, helped his parents, Michael, 33, and Kathryn, 30, break up clumps of soil in a wheelbarrow. He got to work the hose, too, while his brother Luca, 1, scattered plastic flats and tried to eat the soil.

The Bertonis began cultivating two or three acres of their five-acre farm in 2004. They grow a range of vegetables, herbs and fruit, and sell their produce at three area farmer’s markets (Charlottesville, Lexington and Nellysford) and through community supported agriculture (CSA) subscriptions, in which people in Charlottesville and Nelson County receive one box of vegetables and herbs a week for 22 weeks.

The Bertonis are a new generation of farmers. Neither Michael or Kathryn grew up on a farm. They learned the basics by working an eight-month internship in Rappahannock County, and decided to go for it.

“I guess just working at Waterpenny and seeing that they were making it work,” Kathryn said. “That they were able to make a living, and it was just a fun lifestyle.”

“I always thought if I had to have a job,” Michael said, “farming made the most sense as a way to spend my time. I still do.”

Appalachia Star Farm is environmentally sustainable and organic. The Bertonis decided that becoming certified organic would be too expensive and time-consuming, and have found that speaking directly to their customers has worked.

At the most basic level, organic farming means growing food without the use of chemicals. But Kathryn said it starts with caring for the soil, often by adding organic matter.

“We wanted to grow in a way that reflected our ideals of taking care of the earth,” she said. “Whatever we take out with growing the vegetables, we try to put back in.”

One way to do this is rotating plots by season and planting cover crops like clover and rye. To keep pests away, the Bertonis cover young plants with agriculture fabric, as well as trying to attract bugs (and the birds that eat the bugs) to shrubs around the garden.

The Bertonis plant several varieties of one vegetable, including 20 kinds of tomatoes, because different plants are susceptible to different diseases.

That afternoon, Kathryn was seeding seven or eight different varieties of squash and cucumbers. She plunked a seed into a finger-sized hole, then covered the flats and seeds with another layer of soil. Later she would water them and take them inside the warm house to germinate.

“Growing food for people just feels good,” she said. “People are so appreciative of what we do.”