Vogel's return to roots, growing Lucky Pick Farm

CHESTERTOWN — Like many Chestertown residents with deep roots on the Shore, Pam Vogel, and her husband, John, honed their careers and raised their family on the western shore. After a few decades of living a life packed with appointments, meetings, and traffic jams for her career in occupational therapy, and his in electrical engineering, Pam Vogel said, they were ready to transition away from Howard County and return to the Eastern Shore, closer to Cecil County where she was raised on a farm.

“I wanted to get rural again,” said Vogel, adding that they wanted to be closer to her mother, who was still residing in Cecil County, and at the stage of life where she was starting to struggle and needed help.

That was May 2014, and the couple would find just the right patch of “rural” roughly a quarter mile from the Chester River on a 15-acre farm that Vogel described as being just the right size.

“It’s really hard to find these smallish parcels. You can either find an acre or you can find 300 acres.”

While it may have been the size they were looking for, Vogel added, there were many unknowns.

“So, it was a quasi-impulsive thing.”

In a span of just three to four weeks, they had gone from just seeing the land to living on it.

“The property had a house (which needed some renovation), a beautiful seven-stall barn, and 15 acres of land. The prior owners had horses and it had various fences around the pastures,” explained Vogel, painting a bucolic picture.

And then as the rains came down, they learned a bit more.

“The first year we were here, we had significant amounts of rain, and the lower few acres (closest to the main road) were flooded for months. The ground is only 13- or 14-feet above sea level and the adjoining farms gently slope downward onto this farm.”

Eventually, as our environment became more unpredictable with heavier and more prolonged rains, flooding became an issue. A mitigation strategy would need to be devised. The couple would set out on a journey to divide and conquer.

It was around this time that word, including a story in this newspaper in 2016, about how the couple had sub-divided their property intentionally to provide enough land to create a community garden of 25 plots. That project sparked a good deal of interest as it provided a way for those without access to fresh vegetables or fertile ground, to experience the satisfaction of growing one’s own food. Soon, the plots they had sectioned off were spoken for, and they continue to turn them over every year for reuse. The impact of this particular piece of community outreach is now felt year-over-year, with plot tenders providing contributions that go back into the community by way of monetary contributions and getting surplus fruits and vegetables into the hands of residents who may need them the most.

This was only the first of three major steps the couple would take to rehabilitate their once under-served acreage. The Vogel’s then proceeded to intentionally manage their land in a way that would best serve them and their surrounding community well into the future.

With this, she said, they received advice from Maryland’s Department of Natural Resources Forestry Service who were called in to give their professional assessments of what could and should be done organically and using every possible natural land management tool in the environmental tool belt.

Along the way, Vogel said, she also read and took inspiration from a book written by University of Delaware Professor, Doug W. Tallamy. A professor for the University’s Entomology and Wildlife Ecology Department, Tallamy’s work, entitled, Bringing Nature Home, Nature’s Best Hope resonated with Vogel, and instilled in her a sense that the responsibility for protecting the environment will not ultimately lie in any grand governmental plan, rather it is up to each and every one of us.

The Vogel’s grand plan included a comprehensive overview of what was growing on their property and what shouldn’t be, followed by a years-long and extensive reforestation project that would not only help manage the land responsibly, but would entice various species of wildlife to inhabit a burgeoning and rebooted ecosystem.

The first thing to go was a coterie of Bradford pear trees, after the Forestry Service explained to her how invasive this species is. While they do offer an aesthetically appealing appearance when in bloom, that may be the only upside of this species as the blooms effuse an off-putting odor, and their crossbreeding with other types of pear trees produces offspring that is overtly thorny with aggressive patches of thickets that tend to crowd out native plants. Troublesome trees were then replaced with trees that would provide advantages for the ecosystem. These advantages include the improvement of water quality, reduction of soil erosion, and the enhancement of the wildlife portfolio.

Vogel added the Forest Service’s Buffer Zone Program was instrumental in providing a good portion of the trees they now count on to mitigate those critical land management issues.

“I started planting trees our first year mostly around the house such as River Birch, Dogwood, and Tulip Poplar, and I got a bundle of free trees through the Buffer Zone Program which gives people close to the river or streams wet tolerant trees and bushes to help reduce runoff. These trees included Swamp Oak, Willow Oak, Bald Cypress, American Sycamore, Persimmons, and Silky Dogwood.”

During this tremendously time-consuming and back-breaking process, Vogel was happy to say they were grateful for all the community engagement, encouragement, and camaraderie they received from many area farmers and residents.

The couple also sought the help of a friend and fellow permaculturalist, Shane Brill, said Vogel. Brill, a graduate of Washington College and now a Lifelong Learning Instructor there, gave the Vogel’s a valuable lesson on what edible species were growing on their property.

This type of ‘It-takes-a-village’ support started from their first days on the farm when they were offered free goats to help with pasture management and it has continued throughout the 10 years that they have now owned their farm.

Over that period, Vogel said they planted some 1,200 new trees and have now completed the reforestation part or, perhaps phase-two of managing their 15 precious acres.

Taking precedence now, Vogel said, is the day-to-day maintenance of keeping their property as healthy and productive as it can be. And that includes life with their current total of eight goats—two having been born on the farm, some chickens and roosters, a small colony of bats, which Vogel said is great for mosquito control, several bee hives that are humming along with the help of the various flowering species on their land, an orchard of fruit trees, and their own garden veggie plot.

All-in-all, Vogel said the farm helps provide about 20-percent of their daily sustenance, so when she’s not out on the land moving fences or picking the literal fruits of their labors, she’s inside cracking fresh eggs for breakfast or canning everything from apples to tomatoes. She is mindful to make the most of whatever they have, and they donate whatever they can to local churches or organizations in need, all part of an altruistic cycle that becomes second-nature in this community.

This aspect, Vogel said, may be best witnessed in a local permaculture meetup group out of Galena that they belong to. Vogel added the grouping of local farmers from all shapes and sizes of farms in the area is supportive and fun. Meeting locations rotate among the various host farms and include property tours, potluck suppers, and good, old-fashioned chit-chat sessions that help fuel that all-important camaraderie that helped make the Vogel’s relocation scheme a reality.

Having grown up on a farm and now returning to one, Vogel said, she is encouraged to see all the people who participate in the group, from millennials on up.

“There’s older folks like me and even older people who just are curious, or they have a past that they want to perpetuate in environmental gardening, or farming, or whatever,” said Vogel. “This is where the [real] networking and some kind of magic happens.”