The land provides all

Self-reliance is very important to Melanie and Tom DeVore. The DeVores don?t need to go to the grocery store very much because they grow or hunt for most of the food they eat. They have been sharing their produce and baked goods, and their way of life, at the Washington Farmers Market for the past three years.

Melanie specializes in the baked goods while Tom tends to the garden. Melanie said that the market may last only a couple of hours but it takes a couple of days to prepare for it.

?I spend pretty much two full days preparing for it,? she said. ?On Monday, I make noodles. I?ll have 22 bags of them when I get done. Then I make salted nut rolls and granola. On Tuesdays, I bake the breads. I make ground cookie dough and put it in the freezer. I finish baking the breads Wednesday night.?

Thursday, the day of the market, starts at 6 a.m. when Melanie takes the cookie dough out of the freezer. She will spend the entire day baking cookies until it?s time to package everything and load the car for Washington. Her cookies include chocolate chip, oatmeal raisin and peanut butter.

?At the Washington market, I became known for my cookies and people started calling me the ?Cookie Lady,?? she said. ?These are the kind of cookies I made when I was in 4-H. I?ve been making chocolate chip cookies since I was old enough to stand up.?

The walnuts in Melanie?s banana bread come from walnut trees in her backyard. Tom collects the walnuts with a walnut rake. Removing the edible nuts from the shell is a very labor-intensive process. Melanie said they use a sharp, pointed pick to extract the nuts from their shell. She and Tom will spend up to six hours at a time, sitting on their porch, shelling the walnuts.

?My husband likes to say he was born 200 years too late,? she said. ?He likes to live off the land. He feels it?s important to grow your own food, to utilize what nature has. We hunt and fish and raise 25 chickens. The only thing I buy at the grocery store is milk.?

The DeVores live on a 55-acre parcel of land near Columbus Junction. One of those 55 acres is dedicated to growing produce. The property is mostly timber with a pond. The couple has planted fruit-bearing trees in its orchard such as apple, peach and cherry. Melanie takes those fruits and dries them for her granola. She likes to use her own home-grown fruit so she knows there is no sugar added.

The number of vegetables in their garden could rival some grocery stores. In fact, they grow their vegetables to sell as part of a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA). Melanie said the market master at the Columbus Junction market asked her if she would start a CSA, and Melanie and Tom agreed. They have been producing food for the CSA for the past three years.

?My husband grows a little bit of everything,? Melanie said. ?He grows all the basics such as tomatoes, onions, broccoli, cabbage, rhubarb, peppers, zucchini, cucumbers, radishes, lettuce, eggplant, beats, turnips, kohlrabi, carrots, green beans and garlic.?

If one of those vegetables needs some extra flavor, the DeVores know where to find that, too. They grow herbs such as basil, oregano, parsley, mint, chives and tarragon. The couple can easily make any dish spicy since they grow an assortment of hot peppers such as cayenne, jalapeños, Anaheim peppers, hot banana and sweet banana peppers.

The long drought over the summer was bad news for vegetable growers in the area. They were faced with using lots of water or letting their plants wilt. Tom and Melanie?s garden survived the summer quite nicely thanks to the drip-irrigation system they installed. A hose runs throughout the garden. When it is turned on, water seeps into the dirt and is soaked up by the roots. Melanie said this method is much more efficient than spraying the plants with water from a hose since the drip-hose method goes directly to the roots.

Melanie said this will be her last year at the Washington Farmers Market because next year she will devote all her time to her new store in Columbus Junction, where she sells her baked goods and produce.