Sep. 11, 2009 - Blackberry Lane Farm: The Story Behind The Name
How We Named Our Farm
Our farm isn't a working farm. Right now, it is only a hobby farm. One day, with the knowledge I hope to gain and improvements we hope to make, I would like it to become a part of a home-based business of sorts. With that in mind, I thought it was only appropriate that we name our farm.
First, let me give you a little history of our land. Most of our land was once part of the land owned by my great-grandfather. He bought 2 homesteads and combined them into a working dairy farm, in the 1920s. My grandfather was his youngest child and inheirted the farm. He took over the dairy operations. My father grew up working on the farm. When he married, he bought some of the land from my grandfather and built a house. My grandfather got out of the dairy farming business and went into the landscaping business. Eventually, my uncle bought some of the land and built a house. Now, several of us grandkids live on some of the land.
The land we own was once part of my father's land and my grandfather's land. My father or daddy (that is what I call him, although I am almost 40 years old) gave us the land our old trailer sit on and we bought the land our new home sits on from my grandmother. The land our new farmhouse and buildings sit on once housed the pig pens and then a mulch pile area for the landscaping business.
I love blackberries and they grew abundantly around this area. Behind our old trailer we had a bank area that I made into a large flower bed. I kept this area weeded and cleaned out. I kept trying to kill what I thought was wild rose bushes. When I asked my daddy for advice on how to get rid of this pesky plant, he looked at them and said they were blackberry briars. Since then we have left them along and let them take over the bank area.The exsistence of those blackberries is where the Blackberry part of the name comes from.
We live very near the road and part of our land was once part of a state road before they straightened out a sharp curve and changed the road. Our old trailer actually sit on the old road bed so that is where the Lane part of the name comes from.
A working Farm is what I hope our 1.3 acres will eventaully become. I already sale eggs from our few chickens. I hope to expand on that idea some how and start selling produce at a roadside vegetable stand. That is why I am here at Homesteadblogger. I look forward to meeting and making new friends. I want to learn new ways and get advice on how we can become more self-sufficent. I want to learn from more experienced farmers and homesteaders. So any help or advice I can get will be greatly appreciated.
Stayed tuned for an introduction to our farm animals.
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