Someone has rightly said that 'Necessity is the mother of invention'. Over decades, weather patterns became less predictable across the Pacific Northwest, and farmers contended with hotter temperatures, drought and shrinking snowmelt that strained water supplies. It was then that a different method, developed over four decades of experimentation by one Oregon farmer came to the rescue. Known as Dry Farming, it is a technique for growing crops without irrigation by carefully managing the moisture already in the soil. A study published by Oregon State University in 2014 states that for 40 years (1974-2014) a farmer grew organic tomatoes, potatoes, winter squash, garlic, favas and other beans without irrigation. He started dry farming in California but moved to a 9.6-acre site near Veneta, Oregon, in 2007. The property had no water rights, but he grew food for his family and sold crops to small grocery stores in Eugene.
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