EATON, Ohio — Lucy and Eugene Goodman like to say they met while digging in the dirt; both have archaeology degrees. Nowadays, the only dirt they dig in is on their organic Boulder Belt Farm.

Neither came from a farm background, but they make their modest living from their property.

Because of the CBS show The Amazing Race and something Lucy found on Facebook that looked interesting, they hope to get some help from the Beekman 1802 Mortgage Lifter.

In 2007, advertising executive and bestselling author Josh Kilmer-Purcell and his partner Brent Ridge, a physician and then-vice president of Healthy Living for Martha Stewart Omnimedia, bought the historic Beekman 1802 Farm as a weekend getaway.

Then, during the 2008 recession, both men lost their jobs within a month of each other. "When we first started our farm, we were in desperate straits," Ridge said. "We had lost our jobs, we had this huge mortgage, the farm was definitely underwater. We knew we were never going to be able to pay off this million dollar mortgage selling goat milk soap."

They had taken in a neighbor and his herd of dairy goats and began producing soaps and cheese. So they learned farming from their neighbors and used their city skills to work with other farmers and artisans to market their goods and to host seasonal festivals, now attended by thousands.

"We had also come across this heirloom variety of tomato called the Mortgage Lifter," Ridge said. "It was first grown in 1929 by a West Virginia farmer, and it was so successful for him that he paid off the mortgage on his farm."

Kilmer-Purcell and Ridge decided to bottle a tomato sauce and call it Mortgage Lifter Sauce. "We’ll be transparent about it, that this is what is going to help us pay off the mortgage on our farm. In 2012, we grew about a half-acre of the tomatoes," Ridge said.

Then they had the opportunity to take part in CBS’s The Amazing Race. They planted the tomatoes in spring and ran the race in May and June. They won $1 million and came home in time to start harvesting their tomato crop.

"The Amazing Race paid off our mortgage, so we decided we would pay it forward to all those farms who won’t have the opportunity to run The Amazing Race and give 25 percent of the profits back to other small farms," Ridge said.

This is where Lucy and Eugene come in. The big prize is $15,000. There are three smaller prizes. To be considered for the prize, Lucy filled out the form she found on Facebook. A panel of three judges will decide the winners.

Lucy described their 9.1-acre farming operation: "We grow probably 70 kinds of vegetables," she said. "We grow a lot of garlic. Sometimes we have pastured poultry for eggs and meat, but we don’t right now. We have a CSA and a farm store; we sell to Moon Co-op (in Oxford), and we will be doing our second year at the Eaton Farmers’ Market."

They have a high tunnel and a hoop house. Their specialty is growing food, with no heat, 11 months out of the year. The couple does everything by hand, with walking tractors.

"We have learned when to plant things in the summer, which is tricky," Lucy said. "We are growing spring crops through the winter. They have to be hardy – kale, collards, lettuce does well for us. Carrots are a huge winter crop for us."

The winners of the Mortgage Lifter will be chosen in May.

For additional information, visit www.beekmanmortgagelifter.com