Growing food and medicine has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember, I grew up among vegetable and herb gardens and worked on ranches and zoos through my schooling. Meanwhile I’ve spent the last three seasons with an urban farm, including this whole last year of producing for and selling at markets. The plan has always been to move back to Oregon to be around all my family and first community again. The next step in farming for me is to start growing on a larger scale, and producing enough food for not only my family but for other local families too. Without a garden most of my winters have been spent studying various farming practices such as organic certification requirements, chemical free farming, regenerative farming, and especially low resource farming (I’ve been farming through a drought and have had to be a little extra careful and creative). I would like to add poultry into my farming as soon as possible, and someday plan to work my way up to larger livestock. My farming is focused on foods primarily like vegetables and herbs that most people use in their kitchens, but I also take special interest in practical herbs for household and body care. More than anything I’m ready to make farming a bigger part of my everyday life, and finally be able to use what I’ve learned over the years to work towards something meaningful.
Honestly a roof over our heads and a place to park the truck is enough to get started. Beyond that we're a pretty crafty family and are looking forward to the hard work that will follow.
For the last decade or so I have worked on ranches with horses, in zoos with game hoof stock like elk, deer, and bison, and on my own property changing a flat lawn into a food source for my family and my neighbors. Most of my produce at market has been things like tomatoes (which were very handy during this year's shortage), peppers, roots, squash, brassica, herbs, and florals. I've been experimenting over the last couple years a lot with soil health including cover cropping and companion planting to get the healthiest produce I can manage using just a backyard. It's always been a goal of mine to be on a farm for the rest of my life, but nothing set that goal in stone like spending a year at the market and connecting with the people that are buying the produce I've been working so hard to cultivate.
Short term my plans are to grow more of the staples, things people need for their pantries but are becoming more scarce at the grocery stores. It's been a little unnerving trying to grocery shop lately, I think now more than ever people need a connection with their farmers. So that's my first goal, keep people fed. My other main focus will be on soil health, careful resource management, and regenerative practices. It takes three years of organic practices if I remember right to become certified, so that would happen as a part of the first few years, as well. Poultry will be the first livestock to be included as an integral part of biodiversity on the farm.
Long term I would like to be reaching local stores and restaurants. I would also start bringing in more livestock if the space allows. At this point I hope to have the farm established enough, and possibly even my education added onto, to allow for more community engagement. Not only do I believe farmers should be a part of the community, but I believe the community should be a part of the farms. Allowing people the safe space and freedom to get their hands a little dirty, and empowering them to consider patio or even countertop gardens has got to be one of the best medicines for our ecosystem. My goal ten years into farming is to have brought at least some people back to nature.
I'll be moving out there with my son (4), his dad, two cats, and two dogs. We are looking for housing as well, but we are flexible in how it looks. Our family spends most of the time outside so house size is not much of a concern, and as far as structural age goes we've had our fair share of fixer uppers. As long as there's a roof to cover us we can pour any extra love into it that it needs to provide what we ask of it.
To be a successful farmer I think being open to different ideas and welcoming to all cultures is the most important part. Diversity is what makes this melting pot nation so special, to ignore anyone or their opinion because of their background would only be a disservice to oneself. There is no one right way, and I find in life the more ways I take the time to understand and learn the more adaptable I become in times that would otherwise be impossible. I truly believe that farming is community, and community is what we all seem to be missing the most right now.
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