Producer

We are just now starting to un-fallow the farm and as such can mostly offer our plans and commitments. Our intention is to use minimal-till, organic, regenerative, minimal-carbon farming practices to create an intensive diversified farm that produces fruit, berries, vegetables, mushrooms, and other farm products. We will minimize the use of carbon producing machinery (preferring human and/or electric power as feasible and increasingly so over time as we make the investments). We will source our seeds from local, organic, non-GMO sources and will be practicing seed saving where it does not adversely impact produce quality and yield (this isn’t our first focus and we’ll suck at producing good stock as compared to specialists such as Deep Harvest Seeds or Uprising Seeds but we’ve had good luck with some crops such as my favorite salad and garlic). Our practices will include integrated pest management as well as the use of livestock (within regulations) to turn, fertilize, and manage the farm.

We believe that the farm is stronger and more resilient when working with nature to strengthen the environment in positive sum manners to make it healthier and more dynamic. Many of our practices should have the net effect of storing carbon in the soil and minimize the externalized emissions of the farm. Our practices, as described above, should minimize the carbon we use to tend our crops and deliver them to market. We are blessed to be near some wetlands and will be planting and maintaining riparian buffers to protect those valuable ecological components of our environment. Our integrated pest management approaches will lean heavily on diversifying and supporting the beneficial organisms that can efficiently keep the farm in balance and reduce the presence of damaging pests. Social controls (labor, practices, and accepting some loss to nature) will be used over top of those to avoid, if at all possible, any use of herbicides, pesticides, fungicides, and so on.

In summary we care to be thoughtful and effective stewards of our land and the land that is downstream and next to us.