Rodale Organic Gardening Experimental Farm facts for kids
Quick facts for kids |
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Rodale Organic Gardening Experimental Farm
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Rodale Farm Clapboard & Stone Bakeoven, September 2012
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 Location in Pennsylvania
Location in the United States
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| Location | 2056 Minesite Rd., Lower Macungie Township, Pennsylvania |
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| Area | 39.2 acres (15.9 ha) |
| Built | 1940 |
| Built by | J. I. Rodale |
| Architectural style | Federal |
| NRHP reference No. | 99000515 |
| Added to NRHP | May 12, 1999 |
The Rodale Organic Gardening Experimental Farm is a special old farm in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania. It's also called the Working Tree Center. This farm is very important because it helped shape how we think about organic gardening and farming in the 1900s.
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A Look at the Rodale Farm's History
The main house on the farm is very old. It was built around the year 1830. Later, a man named J. I. Rodale bought the farm in 1940. He lived there and worked on his ideas about organic farming until 1971.
What J. I. Rodale Added
J. I. Rodale made many changes to the farm. He wanted to make it a better place to live and work. He added a farm office and a greenhouse around 1945. He also built a turkey and goose coop, a tennis court, a pool area, and a special bake house.
Rodale also created five different garden areas for his experiments:
- Cultivated gardens
- Stone gardens
- Sir Albert Howard test plots
- Two types of compost heaps (aerobic and anaerobic)
These additions helped him study and develop new ways of organic gardening.
Older Buildings on the Farm
Some buildings on the farm were there even before Rodale bought it in 1940. These included:
- A Pennsylvania bank barn
- An implement shed (for tools)
- A corn crib (for storing corn)
- A chicken coop
A Special Place in History
The Rodale Organic Gardening Experimental Farm is very important for the history of organic gardening and farming. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1999. This means it is recognized as a place that is important to the history of the United States.
