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A little
about the farm...
combining farming, community and conservation
Crones Cradle Conserve
is a 756 acre, privately-owned, ecological preserve and education
center located in Marion County, thirty-five miles southeast of
Gainesville, an area of increasing sprawl and development.
Sustainability is the underlying theme of all the Conserve's
endeavors. The Conserve seeks to retain as much as possible the
existing flora and fauna in its natural state within Conserve
boundaries. Less than 100 acres are being used for human purposes.
The ultimate priority of the Conserve is protecting and appreciating
the earth before carrying out any of its "people-related" ventures.
This approach is the only way to achieve sustainability for farming,
for the local community and for the planet, emphasizes Jeri Baldwin,
co-founder with Deborah Light of Sag Harbor, New York of the
Conserve
"Even with our emphasis
on the land as wildlife refuge and land preserve, we still have
several activities here at Crones' Cradle Conserve which are heavily
people oriented." We do a Community Sponsored Agriculture, spend
Saturday morning at a farmer’s market and serve costumers here at
the farm seven days each week. We also run workshops, conferences
and rent the workshop space to groups.
 We offer eat facilities from
one person to 50 people. My vision as manager of the Conserve is to
have it be an on-going "demonstration project," exemplifying how a
business can care for the land, create community and connect people
with quality food sources and educational materials in a smooth,
seamless stream.
The Conserve, a conservation trust to ward off future development,
includes a variety of native ecosystems, including wetlands and
mature hardwood forests. It also includes areas radically changed by
farming and forestry practices. In these areas, Conserve staff has
initiated projects focused on wetlands and upland long leaf pine
restoration. Land which was drained almost a century ago for
agricultural use is undergoing restoration to wetlands. Areas
formerly owned by timber companies who planted quick growing slash
pine are being reforested with native, long leaf yellow pine. Two
sections of the Conserve are designated as wildlife habitat and are
off limits to humans so the native habitat can restore itself and
the wildlife live in peace.
While Jeri has always drawn inspiration from the diversity found in
nature, she put this philosophy into practice after she received a
wake-up call in 1993. A fire burned the Conserve's main building.
This building housed the bulk of activities and equipment used in
the operation of the Conserve. "I never wanted to be in that
position again, so instead of rebuilding that one building, we built
several smaller, multi-function buildings. The kitchen and dining
room also serve as a meeting room. There is a separate craft room,
library, on-farm store and single-person rental cabin for retreats,
as well as an open sleep area that can informally accommodate up to
twenty people in sleeping bags." Jeri also lives on the Conserve in
a separate house.
The Conserve has a full-time staff of nine, two part-time positions
depending on workload, and various volunteers. About two-thirds of
the Conserve's income comes from its organically-grown vegetables
and plants and a variety of related products. "We're what I call
'cyclical farmers,' meaning we try to use only things that have been
produced on this land." The worms eat food scraps and their
castings are added to soil nutrients, along with droppings from
rabbits and chickens." About twenty acres are planted in a wide
assortment of organic vegetables. Produce is sold at the weekly
Farmer’s market, through the Community Sponsored Agriculture weekly
subscription baskets that are either picked up at the Conserve or
delivered to a pick up station in Ocala, several annual garden
festivals and at the Conserve's on-site store. In July, they will
also be sold at the Conserve’s new Farmstead Saturdays.
The Conserve's produce sales are enhanced with a variety of
value-added products produced at the Conserve, again focusing on
utilizing things that are already growing on the land. "We've built
a reputation for wild orange products," Jeri explains. "There are
several hundred wild orange trees growing in our swamps that produce
a very tart juice which adds unique flavor to foods. We are
developing a cookbook for using wild orange juice in recipes for
foods such as salad dressing, pound cake and drinks."
Wild native fruit such as elderberry, plum and fox grapes go into
the Conserve's jams and jellies. Salves, tincture and teas are made
from the herb garden. These processed products can presently only
be sold from the on-farm store; however, Jeri is in the process of
getting the Conserve's kitchen certified with the state of Florida
so that these items can be sold at other storefronts and venues.
Wood-crafted items are made from scrap and recycled wood, including
picture frames, small trays, cooking utensils and beautiful wooden
furniture to order.
Workshops make up the remaining third of the Conserve's activities,
with about two to three dozen workshops annually scheduled around
farm activities and facilitated by independent contractors with a
range of expertise. Most are one-day workshops and cover a range of
topics, particularly oriented toward farming, feminist and
environmental interests. "Part of my reason in starting this place
here in Marion County is that I've realized many women can't leave
this area. This was one way to expose and educate people about
ecological and sustainability issues," comments Jeri. "Wild food
foraging is a popular topic as people are fascinated that they can
survive in the wild without a grocery store on the corner."
Organic gardening is another popular workshop topic, with emphasis
on raising plants in Florida's sub-tropical climate with its
plethora of bug infestations. Other workshop topics include a
variety of self-sufficient life skills, i.e., making baskets, soaps,
quilts, candles and furniture, writing, outdoor skills and utilizing
native herbs and tinctures. "A longer term project we're working on
is a book on native herbs," adds Jeri. "This part of Florida is one
of the most prolific in the country for native herbs and nothing
exists to document these plants in a user-friendly fashion, so we're
photographing the plants and writing identifications as we come
across them."
Jeri's and Deborah’s choice of name for their venture -- Crones'
Cradle Conserve -- exemplifies both their passion for education and
their commitment to community involvement. "'Crone' comes from a
reverence for our elders, particularly in Florida, where retirees
are too often ignored. “Cradle” signifies that this is a nurturing,
safe place," explains Jeri. “Conserve” refers to preserving and
restoring the land.
The importance of creating a strong community presence to educate
the community on the ideas the Conserve stands for became a notion
that the owners subscribed to. This led the Conserve to take on a
variety of community projects, from sponsoring a local public radio
show and story telling festival, to participating in garden
festivals and helping to restore a local historic bank building as a
museum.
The Conserve also produces a
newsletter containing information on upcoming workshops and events
and environmental articles. Jeri writes a popular column in the
newsletter entitled, "Then & Now," where she historically contrasts
a topic, comparing how something was in the area when she was
growing up compared to now. "The past provides me inspiration for
not keeping all my eggs in one basket," explains Jeri. "From kitchen
aprons to outbuildings, everything on farms from a generation ago
served multiple purposes, a philosophy we work hard at doing at
Crones' Cradle Conserve."
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