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Article: ORGANIC FARMING NORM FOR 80-YEAR-OLD FARMER.(Living Today)
- Article from:
- Albany Times Union (Albany, NY)
- Article date:
- June 13, 1989
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1989 Albany Times Union. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Byline: Paul Grondahl Staff writer
Charley Reese holds the metal handles of a homemade plow in his strong hands and wheels the modified bicycle rim down a row, turning a fresh, 4-inch furrow of black dirt under a threatening May sky.
The 80-year-old sharecropper's son from Georgia is happy to be out scratching in the rocky Catskills soil at the start of another growing season, working his 4-acre plot all by hand on his own terms: no pesticides, no tractor, no rush.
"It may go faster with a machine, but it's not done as well," says Reese, whose big, sweet mush melons have earned a loyal following for miles around. Years of manual farming have ...