Welcome to Old World Garden Farms!
“It is often said if you do what you love, you will never work a day in your life. For us, today, that statement couldn’t hold more true. Old World Garden Farms has been our passion now for 14+ years – and for good reason. We love what we get to do every single day – and love even more that we get to share it with you!” – Jim & Mary Competti
Located in East-Central Ohio, our 46 acre farm is the inspiration for our collection of Home & Garden websites, Simple Garden Life podcast, YouTube video channel and more. In addition to being our personal “Creative Space” – the farm offers scheduled group tours, overnight cabin accommodations and multiple event rental spaces. The farm also hosts occasional special dinners, events and classes open to the public by reservation only.
Here is our story and the story of our farm:
How It All Began…
In late 2010, all while juggling four active teenage children and two full-time professional careers, we decided to begin our quest to create a small, self-sufficient farm in the middle of Ohio with one simple goal in mind – to create a space to live, laugh, garden – and enjoy life to the fullest!
It wasn’t easy. We started by clearing off 3 acres of overgrown land in the fall of 2010. From there, we began to build the foundation of the farm, first with our garden, and then with a small chicken coop built from pallets. All along the way, we kept a promise that no matter what, we had to keep it fun.
Not long after clearing the land, we started to document the entire story on a personal blog. Not so much to share with outsiders, but as a way to update our family, friends and co-workers on the progress. In the beginning, the updates were all about the little adventures building a small farm can bring – like planting our first vegetable garden, raising chickens and building our first barn from scratch. Along the way, we began to post a few of our favorite recipes as well.
And then a funny thing happened. People from all over the country and beyond began to ask us for more. How did you grow this? How did you build that? And what is your favorite recipe for making salsa? And we realized how many others shared our passion.
It began with just a few loyal followers in the first few months. Six months in, it grew to a few hundred followers, and then a few thousand. We have always had a passion for writing, and found a lot joy in writing our weekly articles. We shared the successes and the mistakes while building our little farm – and everything in between. And it just kept growing.
Today Old World Garden has a little over 17 million annual views and followers from some 220+ countries. In addition to Old World Garden, our 6 other Home, Garden & Recipe websites, Simple Garden Life podcast, YouTube channel and Social Media sites reach an additional 150+ million viewers.
So, while it wasn’t our original intention to create a Home, Garden & Cooking business, sometimes things just have a way of working out – especially when you follow your dreams and passions! The joy of writing our weekly articles carried us through the challenges of building our very first farm some 14 years ago – and today, they continue to do so as we create the “new” farm at Old World Garden in Quaker City, Ohio.
Our Lives Before Old World Garden…
With two very different careers and busy lives, we never could’ve imagined that we would be where we are today. But with that being said, we also couldn’t be happier!
With one of us working in marketing and one of us working as an occupational therapist, our professional backgrounds are clearly very different. However, one thing that bridged those gaps and brought us to where we are today was our childhood experiences.
Both of us grew up with a love of the outdoors, learning to mow, garden and work in the yard at an early age alongside our parents. Those experiences cultivated a passion for the outdoors, one that we were happy to have the opportunity to once again experience with the farm. Writing about it all just made it all the better!
It was at that point that we knew we had found what we loved to do and what we were meant to do. Over the course of the next few years, we each retired from our “professional” day jobs to follow our passion for gardening, cooking, DIY and writing full time.
In April 2016, we published our first book, Growing Simple, chronicling the story of building that first farm. And in 2018, we published our second book, Raised Row Gardening, while launching two more websites, This Is My Garden and Make Your Meals. Two years later, we launched our YouTube channel, garden podcast, and two more websites, Simple Garden Life and I Cook For Two.
In late 2020, we purchased 20 acres to build what we now call the farm @Old World Garden. Our goal? To build a farm large enough that we could share it with others! The new farm has now grown to include 46 acres, two ponds, 2 gathering pavilions, 5 rental cabins and 3+ miles of walking trails.
Even more exciting, in late 2024, we hope to open an Event Center that can host garden classes, events, weddings and more.
Our ultimate goal is to turn our current farm into a destination where everyone can feel at home. We truly want to show people that life doesn’t have to be complicated or cumbersome – and that you should always find fun in the journey rather than focusing solely on the end result.