MONTICELLO — Fresh manure, 1-year-old manure or really well-aged manure?

Terry Neutz Hayden needed to fertilize the new beds where she would plant blueberry and raspberry bushes and strawberries, and she was faced with a dilemma.

Who knew there were so many different kinds of manure?

Experienced farmers and gardeners probably, but Neutz Hayden is a novice.

"It's definitely been a learning experience," she laughed.

In recent weeks, the graphic designer has learned how to drive her new John Deere tractor and all about "back spreading," how handy a "quick-connect" is to attach various pieces of equipment, and when farmers tell you the alfalfa roots will be long, they're not kidding.

"This," she said, holding up a flathead screwdriver almost 2 feet in length, "is my favorite tool." She's used it to dig out the alfalfa roots that got stuck in the blades while she cleared ground for new beds.

How the blond, blue-eyed grandmother has gone from running her own graphics business to starting an orchard and fruit and vegetable farm has to do with a dream and a Sunday drive through the country.

A Kentucky native, Neutz Hayden grew up in Louisville and has fond memories of visiting her aunt's farm in Springfield, Ky. One memory that persists is playing with her cousins on the tire swing and a tractor tire with sand in it. When they were hungry they would run through the watermelon patch, pick up a good one, drop it on the ground and everyone would take a piece to eat. And they'd grab some apples for Dolly, the donkey.

A few years ago while visiting her newly-married daughter and son-in-law in Ohio, she told her daughter that one day she wanted her grandchildren to visit her in the country, and there she would have a big old tractor tire filled with sand and a tire swing. Maybe she'd have a donkey, too.

Not long after returning from Ohio, the Haydens, who live in White Heath, saw a real estate advertisement that described a property for sale with a "historical barn. ... I was attracted to the those words: historical barn," she said.

She and her husband Terry Hayden (yes, they share the same name) went for a drive.

The 17-acre farm is tucked off of Bucks Pond Road, not far from the Sangamon River, in rural Monticello. It turned out to be just a few miles from their home.

"And we come around the corner to the farm, and there's the tractor tire and the tire swing," she remembers.

Two concrete silos, resembling turrets with crenellations at the top, stand guard in front of an older, wood peg-construction barn. The silos are believed to date to the 1920s.

They bought the farm thinking they would build a new house on a hill on the site and update the farmhouse that was already there and rent it out. They started spending long weekend days working on the farmhouse's interior and eating lunch on the front porch looking out across the fields of alfalfa. When in bloom, they burst with butterflies, yellow finches and bluebirds.

"It grew on us really fast. ... We started to fall in love with it," she said.

They restored the main portion of the house, tore off a 1920s addition and then continued on to build out and add a three-car garage and rooms above. They extended the porch as well. They're hoping to move in this summer.

Although she still does graphic design work, Neutz Hayden said "after 20 years of graphics, I needed a little balance."

"This is still creative," she said, pointing to the rows of pink lemonade and patriot blueberry bushes to be planted.

The only name that seemed right for the property was "Twin Silos Farm," she said. It's now registered as a female-owned and -operated farm. Her husband works at Herff Jones, the cap and gown manufacturer, in Arcola.

"There's nothing like working in the dirt," she said.

More female farmers

Early in her career, Neutz Hayden worked as a field engineer at a nuclear site, followed by mechanical design and drafting for the construction industry, so big machines don't faze her.

But to learn the ins and outs of growing fruit, including choosing varieties to suit the East Central Illinois climate, as well as the business side of running a farm, she turned to many friends and neighbors and met many new ones through workshops.

One of those was Annie's Project, a farm education program for women run through an agreement with the University of Illinois Extension.

It has become a popular program for women from a number of different backgrounds, including women who inherit farmland, run the farm with their husbands or operate their own farm and provide the labor themselves.

According to the most recent U.S. Department of Agriculture's Ag Census from 2007, more women operate farms, own farms and produce more farm products than in 2002. About 30 percent of U.S. farmers are women, up from 19 percent in 2002, according to the census.

Annie's Project founder Ruth Hambleton said the program teaches them about financial and business planning, estate planning, marketing and more. And it empowers them, she said.

"A lot of these women had ideas in their heads, and they're getting to the point to where they're financially secure enough to now act on their passion," Hambleton said.

A $10,000 grant from the Illinois Department of Agriculture will help an upcoming Annie's Project program that focuses on educating women who have small farms and are interested in adding or expanding specialty crops. Neutz Hayden's farm, along with another female-owned farm in western Illinois, will serve as field day classrooms for the program.

Hambleton called Neutz Hayden "an extremely professional gal. ... She has a lot of what you would call technical skills and a lot of respect for education. She does not jump in because she wants to, but she jumps in prepared. She has a plan in her head and is able to share that."

"Terry has this thirst for knowledge and is more than willing to learn more about something to try to get it right," said Steve Ayers, a small farms specialist with the University of Illinois Extension.

Neutz Hayden participated in Extension's Living on the Land workshops two years ago.

"I will go to any class I can. The next one is compost school in Bloomington," she said. "I loved school, and I'm so curious about everything. Pollination is so cool. It's almost like being in first grade again," she said.

"Annie's (Project) really is a very popular and core program because it's so useful. Probably one of the greatest benefits is working with other classmates — and it's the same with Living on the Land — building a network of people with similar problems," Ayers said.

Indeed, Neutz Hayden mentions many people who have guided her so far, including Bob Lane from Kankakee, who has advised her on pest control for berries; her daughter's in-laws, Bernie and Connie Hinkle, who have tended large gardens over the years; and Lila and Ralph Miller, who sell their produce at the Monticello farmers' market and helped her on choosing seeds.

In addition to Annie's Project and Living on the Land, Neutz Hayden took a bee-keeping course through the Central Eastern Illinois Beekeepers Association and University of Illinois and will receive hives from Bill Fleming of Monticello (a past president of the association). She took a food services sanitation course through Parkland College, with testing done by the Illinois Department of Public Health. (She plans to develop a traceability and safety plan, which keeps track of products produced and sold at the farm.) She has worked with Mark Gramley of the Dewitt Piatt Bi-County Health Department to ensure that all the products that will come from the farm follow food safety codes.

Through UI Extension, she has worked with Paul Mariman on business planning, Jennifer Schultz Nelson on soil sampling and Ayers on managing legal risk.

"We have met the neatest people," Neutz Hayden said.

Plans in the works

Initially, Neutz Hayden considered growing grapes, but after talking to other producers around the state, she decided on fruit trees, berries, pumpkins and other squash.

Other than the orchard and the new rows for blueberries, raspberries and strawberries, many of the acres right now are planted with alfalfa. In the meantime, she has drawn up plans for fields of pumpkins and other squash vegetables, a field of lavender and a section for cut flowers. She dreams of children riding on a wagon (drawn by a donkey, perhaps) and of donating a certain percentage of produce to food banks.

She has signed up for the Monticello farmers' market and hopes to sell there later this year. She is following organic practices and has another 1.5 years until certification.

The orchard is on a south-facing slope protected by a line of trees on both sides. She has new trees planted there as well as ones that are 1.5 years old.

"That's why I chose this area for the orchard. It's so sunny and warm, and it's the most protected area" because fruit trees are sensitive to any possible spray chemicals drifting from nearby conventional corn and soybean fields.

On the hillside, she has planted cherry, plum, peach, apple, apricot and pear trees. She has chosen varieties like Saturn peaches (which look like little donuts, she says) and Asian pears.

"When I got my first tree, I kissed it and said, 'Grow, baby, grow!'"