Property ID:
3043
For Lease 
Land Share 
Number of Acres: 21
Location: Lopez Island
Land Description:
S&S Homestead Farm (www.sshomestead.org) on twenty-two acres raises biodynamic vegetables; fruit; grain; custom-slaughtered beef, pork and lamb; dairy products; eggs; and animal feeds (grains, green forage, and hay) for its own use and for sale to the local community. Fertility is provided by manures, composts, compost teas, and biodynamic preparations. The farm produces its own electricity (20,000KW/year); water (3 wells, and 750,000 gallons by rain catchment); and wood products (lumber, firewood, hog fuel). The farm soil is mostly gravelly sandy loam.Over half a century, S&S Homestead has implemented a long-term farm plan conceived in 1970 (see Fifty Years of Biodynamic Farming: Essays from the Field, 2023, on our website under “Research”). It has offered classes in ecological food production for the local school, courses in biodynamics, workshops, farm tours and stays, and on-farm research. Social services have provided eldercare and CSA shares to food-insecure families, with support from local faith communities.
We are searching for a farmer (or a couple) for a two-year trial period, during which the candidate(s) would undertake a vegetable CSA for their own profit under a partial 2-year lease of a fenced 2-acre piece. The long-term goal would be to transition the whole farm to the new tenants by a 99-year lease from the Lopez Island Land Trust, which will own the farm after the present owners die. (We are planning a living estate on the property and are working toward a future agreement with the Trust).
Successful candidates would have completed training and several years of experience in regenerative agriculture. Farming within the established biodynamic systems of the farm is desired. In lieu of lease payments for the CSA field, the candidates would participate in overall farm management during the trial period for a specified number of hours each week.
Small cabin for single person available now. Family housing is possible in collaboration with Lopez Community Land Trust.
Current Uses:
- Currently Farmed Organic Practices
- Other
Current Uses (other)
Biodynamic
Past Uses:
- Farmed Organic Practices
- Other
Past Uses (other)
Biodynamic
Farm Business Activities Allowed:
- CSA/Direct Market
Types of Farming Allowed:
- Dairy
- Row Crop
- Livestock
- Poultry
- Hay
- Pasture
- Organic
Land 
Organic Ready: Yes
Sun Exposure: Full
Is your land conserved?: No
Housing 
Landowner Lives Onsite: Yes
Housing: Yes
Infrastructure 
Fenced: Yes
Fenced: Yes
Equipment:Yes
- Irrigation
- Packing/Processing
- Tractor
- Tillage Equipment
- Cultivating Equipment
- Livestock
- Poultry
- Milking Parlor
- Other
Cheese-making facility (state-certified), woodshop, 3 greenhouses, distribution shed, barns (hay & machine storage), 20KW solar power, water catchment & pond
