For Red Lion man, farming becomes a 'way of life'

After pausing a minute to gaze at a patch of his farm washed away by a torrential downfall earlier this summer, Jonathan Darby went back to raking his soil into theoretically weatherproof mounds.

Darby, of Hellam Township, didn't grow up wanting to be a farmer. But he now works on two farms and manages one of them, spending nearly all his time in agriculture.

Born and raised in Red Lion, the 35-year-old traveled for several years before moving back to Pennsylvania and has worked as a massage therapist and in kayak sales, touring and instruction.

Six years ago, he started working at the Goldfinch Farm in Wrightsville.

This year, he switched to doing that job part time in order to join Horn Farm's

newly started Incubator Farms Project, which prepares aspiring farmers to buy and work their own land.

As of last month, he also acts as farm manager of Horn Farm.

'Way of life': Darby said farming as a career grew out of his lifelong activism and belief in locally sourced produce.

"We're at a point in time in our culture where I think we need to approach a more local way of life," he said. "A lot of the agriculture around here isn't directly growing food for the table, which is a need that really needs to be met."

One of three farmers in the project, he works a plot just smaller than two acres for up to 14 hours a day.

He named it Sterling Farm after his grandfather, who spent his life working on a farm in York County.

He routinely starts working around 5 a.m. and said he never leaves the farm for more 24 hours at a time.

"I don't think that there's been a day in the last month that I haven't been out here for some purpose," he said.

He grows everything from tomatoes to sweet peas to arugula, using a number of farming techniques including companion planting -- putting together plants that benefit each other -- and no-till raised beds, where soil is raked into horizontal ridges to deal with rainfall and minimize the amount of tilling necessary.

How it's used: He said about half his produce goes directly to individuals through the Community Supported Agriculture program, in which people pay to receive a share of a farm's crops throughout the season.

Those interested in getting involved for next year can search for local programs on www.localharvest.org/csa/ or email sterlingfarmproduce@gmail.com.

Some of his customers take advantage of an option he offers by which they work on the farm in exchange for some of the produce. Others, including his children, ages 6 and 9, volunteer their time for free.

The other half of his yield is sold to local markets. He and the other workers at Horn Farm plan to open a produce stand outside of the farm's corn barn on Wednesdays and Saturdays sometime in early August.

Although it is only his first year, he said the farm has already proved profitable.

Beyond his own plot, he has also been working at Horn Farm's mission -- to encourage agriculture moving local. As farm manager, he is in charge of overseeing operations at the farm and organizing educational outreach.

"I really want to push the educational side to things here," he said. "I would love to see everyone growing their own foods until it makes my job obsolete."

Bedding down nicely with Norton Rose

JOHANNESBURG – The managing director of Norton Rose South Africa, Rob Otty, says the firm hopes to further expand its operations into Africa. Currently Norton Rose Group is active in 39 offices on five continents. We have 39 offices across Europe, Asia Pacific, Canada, Africa and the Middle East. On June 1 2011 Deneys Reitz, and its pan-African division, Africa Legal  merged with Norton Rose Group making it one of the top 10 international legal practices by the number of its lawyers.

Otty, who was also the managing director of Deneys Reitz before the merger, said Deneys Reitz needed a global partner that it felt comfortable with in order to service clients in the rest of Africa and across the Globe. The global aspect meant that clients abroad, who were thinking of doing business in Africa, would have the expertise to draw on in this country and overseas. Otty says Norton Rose has the interests of Africa at heart and is completely committed to black economic empowerment, thus providing growth opportunities for black lawyers. The global executive board recently met specifically to discuss BEE and ways of providing education and development opportunities on a global level for Norton Rose South Africa’s lawyers, Otty said.

He says plans for the immediate future are to tie up the loose ends of the merger which had involved business teams working flat out for the last six months. The next would be to expand to other parts of Africa to augment teams already operating in, among others, Nigeria, Ghana, Uganda, Morocco and Dar es Salaam. With the combined global expertise, Norton Rose is able to service clients in Anglophone, Francophone and Lusophone Africa.  Otty says the new developments are not only exciting for the firm, but also for the country in creating employment in South Africa.