Hobby farm is a field of dreams

What set off the farmyard choral trio is anyone’s guess.

Perhaps Casy the dog was expressing his enthusiasm for spring when he lifted his nose toward the sky and started to howl. Then the donkeys, Taylor and Whipper, joined in.

After several seconds of improvisational voicing, as if on cue, the braying and howling abruptly ended. For Michael and Audrey Levatino it was just one of those quirky critter things that doesn’t have to be explained, only enjoyed.

Since May 2002 the Levatinos have embraced a lifestyle on their 23-acre Louisa County farm that makes such moments of mirth and entertainment the norm. Their connection with the good earth and country ways apparently is something an increasing number of people are eager to emulate.

To help others realize their dreams of partnering up with Mother Nature, the Levatinos have just released a guide on how to do it. The book, “The Joy of Hobby Farming: Grow Food, Raise Animals and Enjoy a Sustainable Life,” came out in April and already is in its second printing.

“When we started here, we didn’t know anything about farming,” said Michael Levatino, who holds down a full-time job with W.W. Norton and Company publishing house. “It was books that we turned to for information first.

“Later, we made a lot of farmer friends, but at first it was books. We discovered there were either straight how-to books with line drawings and stuff, or city-slicker-moves-to-the-country memoir-type things.

“What we wanted to offer was the best of all the books we had learned from. And give personal stories, and profile other farmers we know, to tell people what worked for us and what didn’t work.

“A lot of books assume so much about what they think you should already know. We wanted to show people exactly how to do things like cut down a tree or hook up drip irrigation, because it’s hard to find that kind of information.”

The book is replete with color photographs on things as diverse as tending beehives and trimming a donkey’s hooves. It’s also filled with knowledge that most farm kids know, but city folks probably won’t.

One tried-and-true tip is how to get a wayward domestic animal like a cow back in an enclosure. Just rattle something around in a bucket — grain works best — and the animal almost always will follow.

As the title of the book suggests, this is not a guide for those who want to become full-time, year-round farmers. It’s for those who want the ground they live on to nourish their bodies as well as their spirit.

Hobby farming by definition is farming without the expectation of it being the primary source of livelihood. That’s not to say it can’t generate revenue.

The Levatino farm is big enough to have a stand of timber, pond, large garden and grazing field. It’s also small enough to manage without the hobby farmers working themselves to a frazzle.

Most Saturday mornings the Levatinos can be found at the City Market in Charlottesville beneath a banner that reads Ted’s Last Stand. That’s their farm, named after a favorite rooster that has passed on.

The couple sells everything from eggs from free-ranging chickens to cut flowers and packaged llama manure. The manure, provided by Rico and Ferdinand, is proving to be a big seller, as it can be put directly on plants as a fertilizer.

“The majority of the farmers at the City Market are technically hobby farmers, because they really can’t support themselves just on that,” Michael Levatino said. “But without all of them, we would have no diversity at all at that market.

“It would just be a few big vegetable growers. So we encourage people to get in and do it on a small scale, like we do. They can provide the little niche products like honey, berries, specialty vegetables and things that aren’t usually profitable for larger farmers.

“A lot of people say hobby farmers aren’t real farmers or whatever. But it’s places like we have here that need to be rescued by people like us.”

Prior to moving to Central Virginia and becoming “responsible producers,” the couple lived as “responsible consumers” in Oakland, Calif. Their initial search was for a starter home with enough land for a garden, but then their farm found them.

Although the Levatinos were new to farming, their piece of land wasn’t. The house had been built in 1935 and needed work, the soil had been depleted and the fields had been overgrazed.

“We started with raised garden beds, because the soil was so bad when we got here,” Audrey Levatino said as she walked through her large garden, where she raises herbs, flowers and vegetables. “Since we’ve been here, it has been amazing watching the soil come back to life.

“It’s nice that we can do this on this scale so we don’t have to use pesticides and herbicides. With more people doing a little bit, we can all start to eat better and be healthier.”

In the first sentence of the book’s introduction, the authors reveal the best piece of advice they got when undertaking their farming adventure.

“The key is to start small and don’t overwhelm yourself,” Michael Levatino said. “Don’t go out and buy a whole flock of sheep; start with just a couple.

“Don’t make a giant garden right away. Instead of having a preconceived notion of what you want the farm to be, let the farm grow into itself.

“One of the things we realized on the farm really quickly is that so much of farm work is intuitive. People have been farming for thousands of years, and once you start doing it, you find that farming is a very natural thing for humans to do.”

Levatino and his wife believe a lot of people are reassessing their life priorities, and are instinctively being drawn back to the earth. At a recent book signing at Politics and Prose Bookstore in Washington, they were inundated with questions from people thinking about having their own hobby farms.

And the Levatinos are quick to point out that people can create mini farms in the back yards of their city homes. In Charlottesville, they even can have chickens.

But, generally speaking, one needs at least a few acres to experience the full cycle of nature and to be fully diversified and sustainable. The authors dedicate an entire chapter to finding the right farm, and the need for things such as an insurance farm rider that will cover accidents caused by farm animals.

Other sections address issues such as how to grow things, caring for animals, running the farm as a business and even how to bolster one’s spirit after a bad day at the farmer’s market. The book’s overriding theme is that much of the joy derived from hobby farming is found in the quality of life it affords.

Of course, this can become blurred at times when stinging sweat gets in the eyes.

“It’s a lot of work, but right now is a good time,” Audrey Levatino said. “The bugs haven’t come out yet, and it’s not a million degrees and humid.

“That’s when I start thinking, ‘Why am I doing this?’ But it is very rewarding. Every year the soil gets better, we learn more and we’re doing a better job. It’s very rewarding in that sense.”

The authors dedicated their new book to Tippy, their first dog, and Oswald, a much-loved cat. Like Ted, they have passed on, but while on Earth, Michael Levatino said, “No creatures have ever loved the farm more than those two.”

It’s likely that no human has loved the farm more than the two who live there now. And their love has been returned by the bountiful land, and in the countless moments of reflection that farming provides.

Since the Levatinos moved in, new houses have been built on either side of their property. But on their 23-acres, a farmyard symphony still can express happiness in ways words never could.

“Just walking out in the morning and seeing it is amazing,” Audrey Levatino said of the farm. “And watching all the animals living together without problems.

“It makes me really happy to see the environment we have created.”

The book, “The Joy of Hobby Farming: Grow Food, Raise Animals, And Enjoy A Sustainable Life,” is available at local bookstores and directly from the authors at the City Market in Charlottesville.