O'Daniels Organic Growing

At a balmy 50 degrees, I set out to visit Joe O’Daniel of the 116-acre O’Daniel farms on Friday afternoon. O’Daniel, who grew up on a farm and began maintaining his own farm in 1991, grows most of his products organically and is one of the only local growers who refrains from using pesticides and herbicides.



“At first, I didn’t think I could make the leap to grow without pesticides,” he said. However, after 7 years, O’Daniel’s fears about being able to succeed while growing organically have been assuaged.

A steady profit was one of the reasons to convince him that he had what it takes to grow this way. He said that the farm grosses approximately $100,000 annually, with a majority of the sales coming from the SKy Farmers Market, delivery orders, or orders that customers pick up from the farm on Fridays.

“Customers seem to be happy with the farm,” O’Daniel said, “They like being able to see where the products come from.”

Although O’Daniel grows organically, he has not been certified by the United States Department of Agriculture.

“Until my customers demand it, I won’t switch,” O’Daniel said. Although he is not certified, O’Daniel Farms is one of the only organic growers that attends the SKy Market, automatically giving him a leg up on the competition.

On the farm, the O’Daniel works with his wife, Debbie, and their daughters to prepare the land, plant the seeds, grow and maintain, and harvest a myriad of crops, including: lettuce, arugula, peas, strawberries, raspberries, peaches, asparagus, carrots, kale, leeks, and multiple other types of produce.

O’Daniel said that he once had a family of nationalized Mexicans working at his farm, but he prefers for everything to be done by the family for the sake of carefulness and privacy.

Chicken and eggs are two of the O’Daniel’s other endeavors.

“I like to eat chicken and their eggs,” he gives as a reason for getting in to the chicken business, “But then I saw that there was more demand for them and they were more profitable.” This moment was when O’Daniel decided to raise chicken in a larger quantity.

Currently, he has a flock chickens that roam around a small pasture area and lay eggs everyday in their covered-wagon style coop. These aren’t all of the chickens that the O’Daniels have on their farm. Inside the dining room of their house, 153 three-day-old chicks peep and peck around as they bathe in warmth underneath 100-degree heat lamps. These chickens have been given no antibiotics or hormones, adhering to O’Daniel’s pure ideas about farming.

O’Daniel said that he likes to keep his chicken products and all of his other growth in the local community. While in one of his hoop-houses, he also said that he was proud to own a small, yet productive farm.

“I don’t see how they can be big and make it. The bigger they are, the harder they fall.”