Our Farming Philosophy
"Learn how to see. Realize that everything connects
to everything else." Leonardo da Vinci
Our Farming Practices: All our organic farming and horticultural no-till gardening is done as naturally and God-centered as possible, keeping the natural laws of nature in mind. Growing trees, vegetables, herbs, and flowers for many years, we have realized the importance of fostering natural bio-diversity. We are very fond of native plants for their beauty, health-giving properties, and ability to attract and feed pollinating insects. Our gardens are full of a wide variety of native pollinator-friendly plants, which provide nectar and pollen for insects and natural habitats for wildlife. In addition, we have fruit tree orchards and colonies of culinary and medicinal herbs that provide havens for many kinds of insects. Recently, we increased our collection of natives to include more varieties of perennial flowers, grasses, shrubs, and trees that can be used to provide food, shelter, and nesting materials for birds.
We don’t use any insecticides or synthetic fertilizers because we appreciate that the soil is a living medium teeming with life. We don’t even till our soil. Instead, we use a no-till method by building new garden beds on top of overlapping cardboard, which we then layer with different organic materials such as leaf mulch, straw, grass clippings, spent hops, and kitchen scraps. Then we top off these layers with a few inches of good-quality compost and topsoil to directly sow seeds or transplant seedlings immediately. We continually fortify the soil in our gardens with compost, kelp meal, weed tea (freshly pulled weeds steeped in water for a few days), and organic animal manure. All in all, we do our best to live in accordance with the God-given laws of nature and express thanks in every way we can.