As Ali Mohadjer of East Oaks Farm near Poolesville tells us, he was just seven years old when his father in Tehran began gardening. His dad, a retired military officer, had his young son assist him with the flowers and fruit trees. As it happened, a passion for growing things began to grow within him, and the young lad developed quite a “little green thumb.”
               As an adult, his formal education and career were in electrical engineering and satellite communications. Still, the “farmer in the boy” never left the man, and his interest in agriculture found him inspired to complete several courses at the University of Maryland Extension in Sharpsburg, Maryland.
               After emigrating in 1976, this American dreamer became a highly-successful farmer and even received awards and public recognition for his exceptional farming practices, including publications regarding his innovative and successful growing techniques. In fact, it was through his first farm, a thirty-three-acre farm in Sharpsburg, near West Virginia, purchased in May of 2007, that he eventually was named the 2013 “Washington County Farm of the Year.” His selection was from 844 farms in the county!
               He sold the farm in 2017, but just a few years ago, his heartstrings called him to return to farming, and he bought the historic 166-acre East Oaks Farm right here in the Poolesville area.
               He sells beef, lamb, goat, chicken, and seasonally, turkey. The large animals are sold as whole animals, but the beef can be shared. An example of a shared sale is when four parties purchase a head of beef that he raises which they will share equally. The beef will be raised, butchered, packaged, and delivered to the owners. The smaller animals are sold whole. He also sells fresh eggs from his free-range, GMO-free chickens right from the farm. He even has one peacock, although we confess, we are not sure exactly how it fits into his plans other than for his personal enjoyment.