FARMERS — Shawn and Beth Dougherty, who have been farming in Jefferson County for nearly three decades, stood in their Toronto barn during the winter. -- Contributed

TORONTO — Shawn and Beth Dougherty believe that successful farming means working with the system nature has in place, not pushing nature beyond its limits. In the Dougherty’s minds, nature has a pre-ordained pattern that must be followed to yield its benefits.

“We call it God’s pattern,” Shawn Dougherty said, “and God has allowed us, if we manage our pastures and gardens well, to get this super abundance of stuff all for free, just by following his pattern and not getting greedy — not making the farm do what it can’t do but being patient and working with nature.”

The Doughertys have been farming in Jefferson County for nearly three decades, tending to their own 17-acre Toronto property along the hillside below Church Road and partnering with the Franciscan Sisters T.O.R., who allow the Doughertys to pasture their dairy cows and sheep on the convent’s 35 acres up the road.

Along with four other individuals, the Doughertys are founder-directors of the Healing Land, an Ohio-based nonprofit aimed at education and mentorship related to regenerative farming and homesteading. Incorporated in 2021, the nonprofit hosts conferences, talks and on-farm workshops in Jefferson County to share skills and bring more individuals into the practice of farming or homesteading.

One effort from the Healing Land has been a four-part speaker series called “Real Food and Real Community,” the next installment of which will be at 7 p.m. Thursday in the third-floor ballroom of Leonardo’s Coffeehouse. That night will see the Doughertys speak on “How to Build Real Community” and the proposed importance of local connectivity as it relates to food sourcing.

The Healing Land’s work is a local extension of the couple’s educational mission, which has brought them all over the East Coast and to California to speak about farming to a purportedly growing number of groups or individuals interested in taking up the practice in their own small way.

“The Independent Farmstead” is the name of the Doughertys’ book, which Shawn Dougherty said has “quadrupled in interest” during the last four years — in spite of being published in 2016 — due to so many people wanting to return to the land and seeking advice.

Although they may be seen as mentors, the Doughertys didn’t start their farming journey with everything figured out perfectly.

Shawn Dougherty was born in Texas and grew up mostly in Oklahoma, while Beth Dougherty grew up in the Houston area. The two were children of medical professionals whose own parents had operated non-irrigated farms during the Great Depression. They had a similar upbringing with both fathers seeking job security in medicine while still choosing to operate farms, which Shawn and Beth Dougherty grew up managing.

The two met in college and developed a strong bond over their desire to farm, being mutually attracted to the lifestyle.

“We both knew that we wanted to have farming in our future and had now bumped into somebody that also was determined to have this as a part of our life,” Beth Dougherty said.

The family moved to suburban Steubenville around 1989 so Shawn Dougherty could teach theater at the Franciscan University of Steubenville, affording him free summers to work on a farm. Six years passed before the family could secure its own suitable piece of property, the parcel along Church Road.

Challenges appeared from the start, with the Doughertys having difficulty keeping insects from attacking their potato crop. They realized the crop wasn’t receiving enough nutrients in the soil, as the soil had been cut off from the source of its nutrients — plant matter like leaves and grass are broken down by micro-organisms that provide what other plants need to grow.

That discovery led the Doughertys down a path of research, learning more about regenerative farming practices and trying them out on their farm. Regenerative farming, in essence, is tapping into the natural cycle of plants capturing solar energy and feeding into animals, which in turn fertilize the soil for plants to grow better.

For the Doughertys, that meant mulching their soil to restore the nutrients, obtaining a dairy cow to provide the family with a large supply of milk and butter and having a pig take care of waste and surplus. Another crucial aspect in the chain is fertilizing the soil, which the Doughertys said is accomplished through “holistic grazing,” which is when animals are directed to pasture in a way that imitates natural herd migrations.

Animals like cattle and sheep are ruminants, meaning bacteria in their stomachs can digest food like grass that other animals can’t, which provides them nutrients. Naturally, herds stick together to eat and then slowly move to another, fresh spot, manuring the eaten-down area as they go. Holistic grazing — farmers regularly directing where their animals eat — is meant to imitate this natural action, resulting in pastures being evenly consumed and manured, leading to better pasture health.

Regenerative farming is at odds with “big agriculture,” which is aimed at getting the most out of the crop to feed supply chains at the expense of the soil, Shawn Dougherty said, with Beth Dougherty adding that unhealthy soil means unhealthy crop — hence why their potatoes stopped being vulnerable to insects once they began mulching.

In reality, Shawn Dougherty said, farming won’t provide “cash trees,” but it will provide a lifestyle for a family to subsist from.

“On the farm, a lot of stuff comes from the farm, so you can feed animals, yourself, heat yourself, build the fertility into the soil from. … All of these things God provides through the farm, if you’re patient.”

The key is working with nature, Shawn Dougherty said, even in a place like Jefferson County, where the hilly topography is seen as unsuitable for big agriculture but is actually advantageous for small-scale farming due to the pockets of micro-climates.

Through research into these topics and more, the Doughertys have emerged growing an estimated 90 or 95 percent of the crops and animals they eat — all nutrient-rich, Shawn Dougherty said. Inspired by that model, approximately 70 local farms have popped up in Jefferson County and are on the Healing Land’s mailing list with the desire to learn more and live the farming lifestyle themselves.

“We really think this lifestyle is fabulous for families, and the more small farms our country has, the better country we’re going to be,” Shawn Dougherty said, adding that he and his wife can be contacted at shawnandbeth1960@gmail.com if people trying farming for themselves have questions.