Organic Gardening
We believe in taking care of the soil to feed the crops that feed ourselves and our guests. To this end, we do not use pesticides or herbicides on any produce, our chicken feed is organic, and we feed the soils organisms annually with leaf mulch and wood chips from real trees. In season, a lot of produce for our meal service is provided by the organically-tended garden and nearly all of our breakfast eggs come from our happy and healthy chickens.
Fruit & Vegetable Gardening
At Well Being Retreat Center, we tend a one acre vegetable garden and orchard that is maintained organically, that is, no GMO's, no insecticides, herbicides or fungicides.. We have ten raised beds that are mostly used for annual vegetables, but we also have a bed of asparagus and a bed of strawberries. We have sixty blueberry bushes that are thriving, asparagus, muscadines, aronia berries, and a variety of fruit trees that we planted thirteen years ago. We have a plant start room where we raise vegetable and flower seeds as well as root cuttings from trees and bushes.
Raising Chickens
At Well Being Retreat Center, we keep egg-laying chickens in a portable coop within the fenced one acre vegetable garden to keep them safe from predators. Everyone loves chicken (raccoons, o'possum, weasels, owls, hawks, coyotes, etc.) and keeping them safe can sometimes feel like a full-time job. We feed the chickens organic feed, healthy table scraps, and vegetable overage from the garden. And they of course graze on healthy pasture and whatever bugs they can find. The healthy varied diet is what makes the yolks so bright orange and make the eggs taste, well, like real eggs should taste.