The Schlangen Organic Farm originated in 1986 when we decided to look for a country home to raise our two kids. We found a 5 acres parcel with a farmhouse and operational henhouse of 15,000 hens- where we continued to work off-farm (full-time) to support our new habit until 1990 when we got serious about farming and expanded. For .5M we were able to construct and equip a contract egg-layer facility for 80,000 hens.

After ten years of a naturally ventilated (no fans) operation in a system NOT suitable for the MN coooold winters- we had equipment that was ready to scrap. After recycling some 50 tons of steel from cages and feeders, we remodeled half of the length of the henhouse to accomodate nests and roosts, etc for the new organic farm. Hens now have shavings in which to scratch and sunshine thru the southern glass windows until summer when they have access to green pastures and direct sunlight.

The original henhouse had been converted into an anaerobic digester site (used for hens now) where we were able to produce natural gas from manure in the mid '90s and more recently into a site for a small wormfarm. This was an exciting but very costly endeavor. Still paying for the $20k we invested. We can do this again in a profitable manner as fuel costs soar....

We're looking, again, (do-it-yourself research is cheap) at using efficient designs of passive solar and on-farm energy production as we did in the '90s. Anaerobic digestion is a viable means of energy production when it fits the farm operation. Our roadblock was the inability to remove the water content from the expelled slurry (mudlike consistency) after 40 days in the vessel. We're also interested in converting our diesel powered delivery truck to veggie oil as soon as proper components are sourced. This would be great environmentally and good for the budget now that fuel exceeds $3 a gallon.

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