Rodale Organic Gardening Experimental Farm


The Rodale Organic Gardening Experimental Farm, also known as the Working Tree Center, is a historic home and farm located in Lynn Township, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania. It is important in the history of organic gardening and farming in the 20th century.

History

The home on the experimental farm's property is a farmhouse which dates to roughly the year 1830. It was altered by J. I. Rodale in order to improve the quality of life at his residence and further his work during 1940 to 1971. Also added by Rodale were a farm office and greenhouse, turkey/goose coop, tennis court, cabana and pool, pavilion, and clapboard and fieldstone bake house, as well as five garden sites: the cultivated gardens, the stone gardens, the Sir Albert Howard test plots, and the aerobic and anaerobic compost heaps. The farm is important in the history of organic gardening and farming in the 20th century.
Other buildings and structures which pre-dated Rodale's 1940 purchase include: the Pennsylvania bank barn, implement shed, corn crib, and chicken coop.
The property was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1999.