Black River July 2021 Print by My Life Publications..Maljon LLC

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No. 19 Vol. 7

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July 2021

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At Totten Family Farm, It’s About the Soil, It’s About Love

By Steve Sears im Totten recalls the day he put a bid on an available Long Valley farm, and it was accepted. It was 6 months prior to his wedding. “This farm was originally 110-acres, it was originally a dairy farm. It was at an auction. I said, ‘I better do it now,” Totten recalls with a laugh. “So, I bought it.” That farmland and its house and barns, most of it dating back to 1738, was all his – and his future wife, Daria’s. “When he purchased this farm,” says his wife, “His dream was to have wide open space, have a farm just like when he grew up.” When Jim was a kid, his grandfather had a farm in Franklin Lakes. He sold it when Jim was 13. “I was really sad,” he recalls on a recent rainy Monday. “I always had fond memories of that. It was always in the back of my head.” With his 2002 bid and purchase, his Totten Family Farm was now front and center. “I think it’s a beautiful piece of property, and we’re lucky to have it,” says Daria, an OB/GYN currently working as a national medical director for Optum. “This was nice; we were able to come here when they (the twins) were born, we would come on weekends, and they loved coming here in the stroller.” The Totten twins, Adriana and Natalie, 16, attend West Morris Mendham High School. Respectively, they hope to study Premed and Animal Science in college. At ﬁrst, the girls weren’t farm fans. “I was more like a tomboy. I didn’t want to get dirty,” says Adriana. A little encouragement from their dad, a foot and ankle surgeon, to have a fun tumble down and roll down the hill and get a bit muddy, introduced them further to the fun they could have here. It would become educational as well. Initially Jim, 63, planted pumpkins, and then he and his dad planted tomatoes, doing conventional farming, but he was leaning towards going organic. “We have to make sure our kids eat organically,” he said to Daria. “My wife was very instrumental in that. It was a transition. It was over a period of time that we tried to bring the land back.” First there was chicken and pigs, and about 10 years ago, Heritage cows were introduced to the land, as was rotational grazing. And there’s nothing but the best for these animals. “I almost consider myself a grass farmer,” Jim says. “I converted everything over to organic. I planted the whole farm in clover, and it took about three years for the grass to come back.” His cows are fed the non-gmo grains from local Jersey Girl Brewing. “95% is all grass fed – the cows and the other animals, and the other 5% we augment with that.” Jim also gets leftover organic vegetables from Dean’s Natural Food Market

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in Chester for his animals. The meats that result go from the land right into the Totten Family Farm store. “CBD is the latest thing I’ve been doing,” says Jim, “and originally it was a Class 1 drug, and now they’ve brought it down to a dietary supplement. I got involved with it with one of my great aunts; she was 96 at the time and she’s still alive, but she had colon cancer. I said, ‘This is perfect between doctoring and farming – it was a good hybrid. So that’s how it came about. We have our own crop, about 1.5 acres.” “All my life, this has been such a big part of who I am,” says Natalie. When asked if the farm were to be taken away, removed from their lives, she reflects. “I remember me, my dad, and Adriana. We were walking, and the sun was setting, and we saw all the cows grazing – it was so beautiful.” She looks at her dad. “He has definitely grounded me; made me an independent, responsible, grounded person who appreciates nature and animals. Without him, I would be a different person.” “I love it, the family dynamic too,” says Adriana. “I am so proud of what he’s done.” With that, Jim Totten’s eyes get misty. “Healing people and healing the soil, it’s the same thing,” says Jim about Totten Family Farm’s purpose. “It’s all about the soil. My wife thinks I’m nuts: I talk about the soil and I salivate. What you put in the soil is going in your body. We are not organic certified, but I always say everything is beyond organic.” Totten Family Farm is located at 442 Naughright in Long Valley. For more information, visit www.tottenfamilyfarm. com.

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