Calixta writes from her road trip around the Pacific Northwest where she’s visiting organic farms…
I’ve now done 12 farms in 12 days which is pretty cool! Yesterday I went to Commonplace Farm, run by Ashli and Jeremy and very different from the other farms I’ve visited. They are running 15 acres but crop it three times a season so essentially, they’re doing 50+ acres of cropping, with just five product lines of baby leaf salads, like rocket, spinach and mustard. Their farm is immaculately structured and well organised, with systems that are so carefully considered and thought out.
Jeremy has invested a lot in efficiency and machinery so he has a huge custom-built pack barn - all the farms have a pack barn and walk-in fridges but his is the most efficient set-up I've seen in my life. They have a wash-pack line that triple washes the salad and dries it with special fans, weighs it and packs and seals it into bespoke bags. Jeremy was super generous with his time, talking me through all of the production systems and the machinery. It was insightful - they only sell their products for five months of the year but are able to keep year-round employees. A very interesting visit and another perspective that helps me focus on areas we need to improve on at Flourish.
Next stop was Gathering Together Farm which has been going for 37 years and is something of an institution. They've got something like 10 acres of tunnels and a huge field-scale operation over 5 different sites with loads of workers. They do farmer's markets and a CSA, they have an on-farm restaurant, supply other restaurants and do wholesale as well. I had an amazing tour with two of their managers - Justin, their cultivation manager, and Crosby who’s their propagation manager. It’s really cool to have the perspective of both of those people because they each see the farm slightly differently. We looked at their machinery, including amazing harvesting equipment like a root harvester and a bean harvester. In addition to all of their other kit, they have about 15 different tractors that are just for weeding, all set up differently - a remarkable, diverse operation.
A huge perennial kale, a breeding project at Gathering Together
They're doing huge quantities of year-round production, with different radicchio, loads of salads and an incredible range of other produce. Most inspiring is their composting operation - they generate all their own compost for 60+ acres of vegetable production; they get all the dried leaf litter from the local area (all around the fields were really tall, established trees which is something that I haven’t seen before and definitely doesn’t happen much in the UK), so there’s a lot of leaf material, plus manure from a rabbit farm; and a huge compost turner. It’s the first operation I've seen that’s really prioritising the making of their own compost on this scale.
Ther propogation house was insane and they have a really cool grafting set-up. They graft thousands of tomatoes, which is something we’re going to be trialling, so it was amazing to chat to Crosby about it. It’s super advanced in terms of hygiene, timings - all sorts of things that we’re going to be learning about and trying not to mess up! Gathering Together are also doing seed breeding and have the most amazing kales I've ever seen - I’m hoping we'll be able to trial some in the future.
The next stop was Even Pull Farm, an amazing market garden run by Beth. It’s much smaller scale, but she focuses more on unusual crops for restaurants. She‘s growing loads of varieties I’d never seen before, as well as cut flowers and especially dahlias, which I love.
Beth in her prop house, taking me through her dahlia tubers
Beth also grows amazing radicchio and some incredible purple-pink cabbages. She’s growing Unicorn Horn cabbage right now which is something we’re growing next year. It was really nice to talk to a female farmer and we really bonded over some of the same challenges that we’d faced. She had loads of clever things in her set-up and it was inspiring to see a small-scale farm that’s really focusing on growing really nice, niche things but also has so many slick and well-thought-out systems in place.
Then I went on to Hayshaker Farm, where I stayed for a few days. its on the other side of Washington State, a totally different landscape to the areas I've been so far. Chandler and I have been friends online for ages. He also started off doing horse power, and it feels like our lives and trajectories have been very similar. We’ve been friends for a long time but had never met so it was super cool to get together. He’s incredibly kind and generous and his farm is amazing; we did some Tardivo (forced radicchio) processing together and he showed me photos and videos from his multiple research trips to Italy.
Processing Tardivo with Chandler
I also went out to Welcome Table Farm while I was out in Walla Walla - Welcome Table focus a lot on agroforestry and integrating livestock into their system, they have goats and horses and were originally a horse-powered farm although they’re now tractor operated. They've got sheep and and Kunekune pigs - much of their land is orchard so they’ve got everything from elderberries to almonds, nectarines, peaches, apples, plums and pears, and all the pigs live among the trees and forage. I’ve never seen such happy pigs - it was incredible to be in an environment with hundreds of pigs and piglets running around doing their thing, living their best life in the orchards. Seeing animal production in that way - that’s how animals are meant to be.
Their floral studio is amazingly built with a tree growing through it and this open window which looks out over the farm. A detail that’s remarkable if you’re working long hours in the summer, it got me thinking about the importance of work spaces. They have a farm shop with a living herb roof and host school groups and are all about getting kids onto the farm. Again, a different set-up but very interesting to see.
My last two stops will be Local Roots and Dharma Ridge Farm, two bigger scale operations near to Seattle that i’m so grateful to get to see. Stay tuned for updates from those!
