Nourishing Community since 2016

 

What started as a small garden, a fascination with plant ecology, and a what-the-heck-let’s-do-it attitude is continually growing into my own mini-farm.  Establishing myself as a local business is just one very exciting step in my journey of learning to grow food and develop community in California’s mild North Coast climate. 

I currently grow a mix of vegetables, culinary herbs, and cut flowers in a few small gardens that total about one-quarter acre. The plan is to start small, selling only at a couple local Farmers’ Markets. If all goes well, I hope to later expand the gardens and markets, as time, energy, and brain power will allow.

 

The Name:  I’m a total geology nerd, among other things.  The HUGE forces that move and shape our planet are fascinating beyond belief.  One of my favorites of these gargantuan forces and cycles is the UPWELLING.  Many of my fellow Mendocino Coast-dwellers are familiar with the upwelling: it is drawn in by those howling, frigid spring winds that make the new sunny days almost impossible to enjoy. But the upwelling also brings a crucial influx of nutrients from the depths of the ocean floor up to our shores, where it feeds the entire marine food web and, in turn, our entire community.  Without it, all coastal life suffers.  With the upwelling, we are all enriched.

This welling up of nutrients is a daily inspiration for my own land.  My main goal in farming is to develop healthy, nutrient-rich soils and use my plants to draw up those nutrients and spread their health into the community.  As with the marine upwelling, even a small increase in nutrients can have huge ripple effects on the food community they support.  And so I am motivated.

 

The Land: I’m very fortunate to have stumbled upon one acre of flat Southern exposure, complete with a well that only sometimes runs dry and an insane number of deer who won’t leave the fruit trees alone. This miniature semi-paradise is just east of the city of Fort Bragg, CA, one mile from the ocean on the edge of the sun belt. This means I can grow some crops year-round (kale, anyone?), but the fog still puts a damper on some favorite heat-loving crops. Sometimes in life, we just learn to deal.

 

The Gardener: With the help of my dearest best friend and a fluffy rambunctious kitten, I’m able to apply a background in natural resources and a lifelong love of digging in the dirt to the most productive venture possible: supporting a healthy community with food and smiles. Most days seem to end in exhaustion; but it’s a good kind of smiling exhaustion, knowing that every second has been and will be worth it.