Couple farms their Pescadero land with horses

But Pfluke and his wife, Stephanie Jennings, have operated Green Oaks Creek Farm in Pescadero since 1999, and they plow their fields with horses, reports Julia Scott in the County Times.

"I like the idea of not using fossil fuels," said Pfluke of the horse team he purchased a few years ago. "Plus, you’ve got manure out the back. They don’t have any parts to replace, and they make their own little tractors."

The couple has used Mack and Margarita, their draft horses, to push vegetable seeds into the ground and to help dig a ditch for potatoes. This weekend, they will help distribute cover crop seeds in preparation for winter on their 3-acre farm. They have an orange tractor parked in the barn, but they’re trying not to use it; this coming spring will mark the start of their first growing season driven solely by horsepower.

Most of their equipment comes from Amish farmers. The couple buy it at auctions in California that are attended more by antique collectors than farmers. This is a fascinating story.