Local man cultivates at one location, sells at another
Atoah – Tom Orr started his latest garden just three years ago, but he’s been putting seed to soil his whole life.
He has two plots located on the banks of Atoah Creek – two acres in all that could more rightly be described as a small farm.
He has five rows of potatoes, 200 feet long from end to end – 1,000 feet in total, just of potatoes. There’s a row of tomatoes 170 feet long. He also grows peppers, corn and other crops.
It may be large for a garden, but it’s a one-man operation for a lean 77-year-old (soon to turn 78) who does all the work himself and sells what he grows from his home.
“It’s all I do anymore,” he said. “I do it all by myself.”
Advertising? Marketing? He doesn’t need to.
“They know where I live and come to the house to get it,” Orr said.
Orr lives with his wife Tricia off Eller Branch Road just south of Robbinsville. They have been rebuilding since their house burned down last year. He found deep, rich soil off Atoah Circle about 2 miles from home and commutes to his garden – two plots that he leases, separated by a seasonally occupied house and yard.
Orr begins his days at 6:30 a.m. and ends around 1 p.m., seven days a week – tilling soil, pulling weeds, fighting insects, fretting over weather, and tending his crops until the day he hand picks them and hauls them home to be sold or eaten.
“People say, ‘How’d you do this all by yourself,’” he said. “I don’t know. I just got out and done it.
“By 9:30 in the morning yesterday, I had about a bushel and a half picked.”
A bushel is 64 pints, in case you needed a reminder.
Though the years, he has developed a variety of methods to help boost his crops and save labor.
Orr may be old school when it comes to raising crops, but he’s not averse to technology. In case you were thinking about helping yourself to his vegetables, he keeps watch on his phone via hidden surveillance cameras.
Where are the cameras?
That’s a secret he asked that we not share.
* Gardener tips: Orr has tricks he won’t share, but he has advice he will share.
First, if you are thinking about gardening two acres, “It’s just a lot of hard work.”
Second, “you can’t stretch fertilizer.”