Evening star., 1943-03-21
City-DweI|ing Condons Make
Farm Venture Going Concern
Navy Commander and Wife Happy
Over Shongri-Lu on Their Own Soil
BY JESSIE FAINT EVANS,

BY JESSIE FAINT EVANS.
With It. Comdr. and Mrs. Arthur
D. Condor, their "shoe-string, year.
around farming venture at London
Town Terrace, on the South River
In nearby Anne Arundel County,
Md, isn't a case Of going back to
the land" but of becoming in
creasingly and satisfyingly acquaint-
ed with Mother Earth.
City bred and born, this we'll
known Washington couple never had
had any previous experience in cop
ing with farming expedients until
they took over their present compact
little house, which they occupy the
year around as they till it's surround
ing IL acres.
In two years, by dint of ingenuity,
planning and their combined CO.
operative efforts Che commutes daily
to his duties in the Navy Depart
ment, they have made a going con-
Germ of their Victory" holdings.
They have had to do it on the pro-
verbal shoe string too, because
Comdr. Condor Immediately after
Pearl Harbor gave up a successful
law practice to patriotically offer his
services to his country from the
background of his experience as an
Annapolis graduate
Naturally, this sharp change from
civilian to Navy status did not permit
plunging on experiments that might
put them in the red financially.
Now, without having exceeded their
salary budget, they are enjoying
their own milk, chickens, pork, fruit
and vegetables, the latter either
fresh, dried or canned, according to
the season.
Real Home Grown Menu.
The day we interviewed Mrs.
Condor, every item on her delicious
luncheon menu was a home grown
product except the flour used in the
hot biscuits and the sugar and lemon
served with our tea. In this day of
complicated point rationing and
weary standing in chain store queues,
we frankly envied her the 700 quarts
Of canned vegetables, tenderloin
chicken and pork, sausage meat and
fruit which constitute her reserve
supply for their own family and that
Of the tenant couple who are helping
them make their farming aspirations
come true.
How did all this come about?
Feeling that another war was in
evitable, they determined that they
were going to help meet its problems
on a farm If this were possible. An
initial venture with tobacco farm
of 200 acres on the Patuxent River
and increasingly difficult absentee
ownership troubles luckily ended in
their disposing of 1t at sufficient
profit to make a substantial pay
ment on their present compact hold
ings. within approximately % miles
of Washington and a few miles of
Annapolis.
Terraced Gardens.
From the day they took possession,
the Condons, by mutual agreement,
determined they wouldn't put out
cash for any item that the place
itself could produce or that they
hadn't carefully shopped around
for In case it wouldn't. The locust
block steps pegged in to their front
shore line and 10O-year-old terraced
fruit and vegetable gardens are a
case In point. Comdr. Condor him
self hewed them out of locust trees
after he had first cut down the trees.
Now seasoned by wind and weather
into a picturesque gray color, their
durability is almost as great as con-
crete, and they represent a very
considerable saving in labor and
materials against the more elabo-
rate outlays of nearby neighbors
for similar purpose.
Painting aged outbuildings, long
lacking in protective coating,
would have been another consider
able item of expense. The CondoI,s
white-washed instead, with the re-
suit that their four room tenant
house and its nearby barn, pigpens
and chicken houses are now ex-
tremely attractive in their snowy
whiteness against the landscape.
I'VE have never been able to de-
cide," Mrs. Condor declares, "wheth-
er we came to the decision that this
place was earmarked as ours be-
cause Of the view of the South River
from every room In the house. its
fascinating terraced century old
gardens or the possibilities of the
most enormous trash pile we had
ever beheld. It had been heaped
high on the rear lawn, apparently
by succession Of tenants"
Utility Trash Pile.
Certainly the trash pile has func-
toned for its new owners in the
most amazing way. Bits Of twisted
iron and old nails have been mixed
with concrete to give additional
strength and durability to the un-
derpinnings Of chicken houses. An
old tin roof topping part Of the pile,
now painted . dark green, makes
these same chicken houses water
proof. Discarded window sashes
were utilized. Rescued portions of
beaver and asbestos board are
chinking up the openings In the old
tobacco barn and making 1t coxy
for bossy. the COW, and her calf, as
well as for the workhorse on the
place. Perhaps the most intriguing
use for all Of the many one-time
discards Is that to which the iron
support for an old sewing machine
is put. At exactly the right angle it
makes . runway by which the little
ducklings waddle into the concrete
basin evolved BY Comdr. Condor.
Being . member Of an old cave.
dwelling Washington family. q for