We aim to integrate with the natural patterns of ecosystems in which energy and matter cyclically transforms through producers, consumers, and decomposers. We work to provide food that holds respect for the plants, the people, and the land that we steward. Our goal is to feed the souls of all beings from humans to fungi, from insects to birds, and from forests to the Puget Sound. Together we dance in decomposition, reinvigorate through regeneration, and grow with gratitude. We want care for ourselves, each other, and all the living beings of Earth with whom we share the transformations of life and death.

 

Some of our ecological practices as a small, no-till, chemical-free, human-scale farm:

• minimizing soil ecosystem disturbance

  • ​"breaking ground" through sheet mulching
  • no heavy machinery

  • ​​cutting crops at the soil surface and leaving root residues in-ground to decompose with tarping (occultation)

    • note: tarping isn't ideal but it is very helpful as a big "eraser". we use woven landscape fabric which lets water through (unlike silage tarps), but it is still plastic and lowers aeration of soil.​

  • broadforking to aerate soil

  • having permanent beds and protecting the soil with living plants and/or mulch

• growing with and keeping organic, non-GMO, open-pollinated seeds

• interplanting and building polycultures that include annual and perennial food crops, pollinator plants, native plants

• making/using natural amendments rather than synthetic chemicals

  • compost, fermented plant juice​, fermented fish

• harvesting right before distribution

• building organic matter on the land to improve soil

• experimenting with resilient food crops

• growing culturally relevant vegetables (let us know if there's something you're looking for)

• slowly transforming the grass lawn into a small ecological medicinal food forest

• strengthening caring relationships through food and plants

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The profit-driven capitalist nation-state demands of agribusiness/conventional agriculture:

• Growing food not for health but for profit

• Exploited labor of themselves and others, especially of migrants, who are branded and persecuted as "criminals"

• Ecologically destructive farming practices that include monocrops, heavy tillage, and synthetic pesticides and fertilizers.​​ The serious consequences include pollution, chemical runoff, soil and general ecosystem destruction, increased water usage, and release of carbon

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This generally results in the destruction of soil, plant, animal, and human ecosystems that extend past the boundaries of the cultivated fields. It is a vicious cycle in which land becomes more lifeless as increasing amounts of fertilizers and pesticides are added to compensate. Certified Organic produce also does not mean that they are no-till/low-till or free of synthetic chemicals. That said, ecologically sound practices require a lot of labor and resource inputs that may be economically or physically difficult. These practices are not incentivized economically, socially, or politically. Across the globe, many Indigenous communities of all ancestries worked collectively to hunt, fish, forage, and farm. This was done for the collective good, rather than profit which is demanded and incentivized in capitalism. The current industrialized food system is built upon serious injustices to people, other organisms, and ecosystems on every scale.

 

We work to challenge the dominant institutions by showing that prioritizing the health of all entities is the best way to live, grow, and share food. We farm to distribute fresh nutritious food, share the passage of knowledge and resources, and defend our collective right to healthy, joyful life. Our collective roots are intertwined with each other, which includes non-human beings. There is much ecological care, teaching, and healing if we learn to listen and grow with each other.