Mark A
l ID:
2199
Interested In:
For Sale
For Lease
Preferred Acreage: 5-25
Description:
Songbird Haven Farm is a half acre farm in the Sammamish Valley on the ancestral land of the Coast Salish people. We've been farming there since 2019. Noa Kay and Mark Albonizio are the family behind Songbird Haven Farm. We believe that human health and environmental health go hand in hand.We farm in a way that supports habitat for creatures above and below the soil. We use organic growing methods that support soil health by not tilling (i.e., plowing), using lots of compost, growing year-round, and planting a wide variety of crops. We try to have as much growing in the soil as possible to maintain diversity and maximize photosynthesis and carbon sequestration. When we talk about our farming methods and principles, we are upfront to say that our farm is not a natural ecosystem but we can strive to create and model ourselves after natural systems as much as possible. We are evolving with every seasonal changeover and we find this to be very rewarding and soulful work.
Once we learned about all the benefits of no-till agriculture we felt like we had to join in the movement of small farmers relearning regenerative practices and making a real difference in our food systems, local communities, and climate. We are so grateful to the many farmers around the world who have farmed with nature for generations and continued to pass on this knowledge.
Currently, we are part of the Viva Farms Incubator site in Woodinville. Viva Farms is a non-profit organization and they offer education, so we took their Practicum in Sustainable Agriculture class, which is like classroom and on-farm experience. And they offer farm space to farmers who’ve gone through their Practicum program. We lease from Viva with an annual contract. It's a great setup because we have farm neighbors who are such an invaluable resource and community for us. We have some shared infrastructure that Viva manages. We all share a wash station, cold storage, propagation houses for our seedlings, and some key equipment like a tractor and walk-behind tractor. Those are all so helpful for getting started so you don’t have to build all that infrastructure from scratch. You can kind of test out what works well and get ideas for what you’d do differently if you built it yourself.
Our primary outlet is a 36-member weekly CSA in the summer and a 30-member monthly CSA in the winter. We also have several wholesale clients, sell to a few restaurants, and have an incredible partnership with FamilyWorks in the Wallingford neighborhood of Seattle. We've even teamed up with Farm Cycle Collective, a neighborhood buying group who delivers produce by bicycle!
Prior to owning and operating our own farm, we volunteered for one season at 21 Acres in Woodinville. We attend workshops and conferences to expand our knowledge and insights into how we can make our small-scale operation more efficient and more effective at growing healthy vegetables and edible flowers to feed our community.
Farm Business Type:
- Row Crop
Intended Farming Practices:
- Sustainable and Organic Practices
- Certified Organic
