The goals of sustainable agriculture are to preserve and protect natural resources, meet the food and fuel needs of a community, and be financially viable for both growers and consumers. If one of these legs is out of proportion, the system will be out of balance and it will collapse. We try to regularly evaluate the well being of each of these aspects of our farm in order to continually improve and strive for greater sustainability.
Ideally, we’d like to not just sustain the land but REGENERATE the soil…making it better through our interactions while growing food for the community.
Habitat for Bees 🐝 and Beneficial Insects 🐞
Native bees and other beneficial insects find habitat for food and shelter throughout the seasons on our flowering cover crops, herbs, perennial flowers,, and annual flowers that add additional beauty to the farm for us all to enjoy. U-pick flowers are now available anytime during the summer season.
Working with Animals and Nature
Through observation of how certain species naturally behave, we have chosen to pair systems on the farm that are mutually beneficial. One example of this system is how we raise our laying hens on a three season rotating pasture where there is also an orchard, a pasture, and an asparagus patch. The hens fertilize the land while eating bugs, getting exercise in the sunshine, and having some dirt to bathe in. Pests in asparagus patch are lessened, dropped fruit from fruit trees is quickly consumed, and the soil is not barren throughout the chicken yard as areas are rested. This system has proven to be a win:win for all over the last several years.
Keeping It Green
Often times as a business grows, more resources are consumed in order to meet the needs of customers and increased productivity. One way we have focused on “keeping it green” is by building a composting outhouse for our customers to use. Instead of creating a waste product and expense, we’ve chosen to properly compost waste for 2 years which is later applied to hay fields.
