Laura G
l ID:
7040
Interested In:
For Sale
For Lease
Land Share
Preferred Acreage: 2-20
Description:
Our goal is to produce healthy, affordable food for the community in a way that also builds good soil health. We are focused on growing a large variety of vegetables, herbs, and fruit. For the last 3 years, we (Andrew and Laura) have been transitioning our urban lot into a food forest; expanding the annual vegetable crop area, propagating a large variety of perennial herbs (and some annual self-seeding), and adding a variety of berry bushes and fruit trees. We have significantly increased our yield each year, and plan to continue this endeavor. The past two years, we have shared vegetables on a farm stand for free. We are now transitioning to selling produce online (with pickup onsite) and at the farm stand starting this Spring, as well as possibly vegetable starts. One of our goals this year is to seek future land expansion opportunities, eventually ideally 2+ acres. We are planning to continue non-farm jobs to provide income to cover living expenses and invest in the farm.We have been growing vegetables and fruit in home gardens for 20+ years. We are also passionate about learning and experimenting. For many years, we have been reading about growing, propagating, harvesting, and seed-saving edible and native plants. We are keen observers of nature and enjoy spending as much time as possible outside. Laura has volunteer experience on an organic CSA farm, taken an online beginning small farm course, and will be participating in a training program in 2023. She also has received a Permaculture Design Certification from Geoff Lawton’s online course. Andrew is a woodworker and has built the initial infrastructure on the property related to the food forest, including farm stand, workbenches, raised beds, cold frames, and a chicken coop.
Our primary farm objectives are:
-Produce healthy produce for the community while improving soil health and biodiversity.
-Create a growing system that requires minimal outside energy inputs and continues to reduce the dependency on outside inputs as it matures.
-Increase equitable access to local food.
-Follow permaculture principles and be a resource for others.
Our strategies to achieve these objectives are:
-Implement practices of crop rotation, cover cropping, on-site composting, no-till methods, year round planting, seed saving, and companion planting.
-Only organic methods will be used. No chemicals will be used.
-Plant a diverse set of crops with supporting plants to deter pests.
-Grow mulch materials for use to replenish nutrients, help soil retain moisture, and suppress unwanted plants.
Ideally, we would like to obtain 2+ acres of land to manage for vegetable and fruit production either by lease or purchase. The 2 acres would include growing area as well as infrastructure for starts, processing, and food storage. Ideally the land would also support a location for an unstaffed farm stand. Land characteristics that are important to us include:
-Located within ½ hour drive of Olympia.
-No toxins in soil. Decent soil to support growing.
-Farming would not be in conflict with neighboring land.
-Water access.
-Support onsite mulch creation and composting.
-If leased, amenable to daily visits at certain times of the year and farm stand. Also amenable to a hoop house(s) and cold storage structures. There would be more details to discuss in a lease arrangement.
Farm Business Type:
- Row Crop
Intended Farming Practices:
- Sustainable and Organic Practices
