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JEFFERSON TWP., Montgomery County — A farm doesn't have to be doomed just because it's an 11-minute drive from downtown Dayton.

Business partners Jana Dalton and Beth Gilliland have demonstrated that selling pasture-fed cattle as freezer beef, as well as honey and free-range eggs, from Dalton's 40 acres at 5555 Germantown Pike (Ohio 4).

Their rescue of the farm's outbuildings, including the repainting of a "Chew Mail Pouch Tobacco" advertisement on the end of one barn, has caught the eye of passersby, from budding photographers to Africans interested in chickens to descendants of the farmhouse's first dwellers.

"Everyone wants to at least visit or be a part of it," said Dalton, head golf pro at Dayton's Kittyhawk Golf Center.

"It's an inspiration to everyone, including myself," said Marion Privett, a neighbor of Branch Creek Farm since 1974. "It's a beautiful property. ... It's nice to see a farm being used as a farm and not turned into a housing development."

When Dalton purchased the farm in July 2000, many outbuildings were in a state of disrepair. "If you didn't have an imagination, you wouldn't have touched it," she said.

Friends and family, especially those who knew how to operate heavy machinery, stopped by at their own risk. "If people showed up, we put them to work," Gilliland said.

A brick house nestled in a hillside anchors the farmstead. Henry and Mary Eshbaugh built the house, which has "1879" inscribed in a brick beneath the roof's peak. Nearby is a "two-seater" outhouse and vegetable garden.

Reminders have been kept of those who more recently called the farm home, including bus driver and farmer Elmer Rauch, who lived there from 1920 to 1976. Rauch or his family used license plates dating from 1937 to 1972 to patch barns and sheds.

Those license plates now line the wall of a barn where tobacco once was hung and dried. Family and friends have added some of their own. During the Tunstall family's ownership of the farm (1976-1986), the tobacco barn housed a nightclub.

Gilliland, who works at Premier Health Partners, uses eggs to barter with co-workers.

"The chickens came with the farm," she said. "The first time I went out and found three eggs, I was ecstatic."

Dalton and Gilliland have seen demand grow for their freezer beef since starting their herd of 11 Hereford, Angus and Simmental crossbred cattle during the winter of 2006-07. That's partly because of publicity this year of the mistreatment of downer cattle at a California meat-packing plant, Gilliland said.

A $100 deposit is requested for the farm's freezer beef. To check availability, call the farm at (937) 263-9948. The Web site is www.branchcreekfarm.com.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-7457

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