At this point in the year I often question owning a farm business. We just got through a challenging season and are aiming our sights toward winter, a brief period of recuperation and dreaming. A season when we light fires of warmth and light to heal and see where Folks Farm is heading. There is much inner work afoot, asking ourselves the hard questions of what worked and didn’t to plan for a successful season ahead.
I find agriculture interesting because it is the confluence of humanity and nature. Farmers build businesses alongside the natural world to produce food and fiber to profit from our relationship with nature. Dealing with the natural world can go great or terrible depending on circumstances well outside of our control.
For my farm that has meant more protected growing spaces, using regionally adapted seeds, and marketing our crops directly to members of our community. Other farms have used mechanization, chemicals, economy of scale, insurance, and other tactics to profit from their production.
Many farmers, across scale, share a mentality of constantly innovating their business to regain control from nature. Even going so far as to 100% block nature from mingling through closed, soilless, sterile growing conditions. I have leaned more towards the side of letting nature guide. While I grow in high tunnels, I very rarely spray for pests. This allows predator insects a habitat and they in turn consume the problem insects. By using seeds developed for diversity and growing here in our climate we take advantage of genetic coding to respond to environmental challenges instead of relying on strictly hybrid vigor or pesticide resistance.
For the most part, this strategy has worked. We have thriving insect communities, produced regionally adapted produce and seeds, and provided 10s of thousands of pounds of produce to local buyers. Some years are just simply more environmentally challenging than others. Each year we face these challenges as growers we adapt, grow, and change.
Where does that fortitude come from? In much the same way spending time in nature can create a deep sense of beauty and awe, so does witnessing the growth of a farm. There is striving in creating the perfect balance of domestic order and chaos, cultivated and wild. In this intersection is where I find great joy in the mystery of our world and our human light shining towards the unknown.
Agriculture offers a peak into deep historical lineages, the intersection of nature and humanity, and ever-present challenges to facilitate growth. Saddled with a business, farming is truly a wild ride that would test any person’s resilience.
Rest is slowly taking a precedent these days as I build back the internal fire needed for warmth and light. Entering the dreaming and planning phase of the season I am reminding myself why I have chosen this path. Involving oneself with the creation and facilitation of life has led me to experience the world viscerally. In this rawness I feel most alive. From the unknown comes the most growth. Wherever this world takes me, I know that I have grown into a resilient human being carrying a torch of humanity into the darkness. Consciousness carrying life along for the next generation.
Farm News
Thanksgiving Boxes are available for your annual celebrations. I consider these boxes to extend well beyond one meal as they are packed with plenty of delicious farm fresh items that store into winter. Consider this box an investment into your health as we grow farther from the growing season.
The Farm Stand is open Wednesday-Sunday from 10am-5pm. Stocked throughout the week, it will be full of fresh and storage foods along with other tremendous local products. Available this week:
Greens- Arugula, Hearts and Souls Salad Mix, Spicy Mix, endive, green and purple napa cabbage, purple and green cabbage
Roots- Red and Gold beets, yellow and red onions, shallots, purple and watermelon daikon radish, garlic, kohlrabi, orange carrots, purple top turnips
Fruits- ORGANIC Apples and Pears from Ela Family Farm, organic winter squash (kabocha, delicata, spaghetti, butternut, pie pumpkin)
Local Products- Lehi Ranch Grass-Fed Beef, KREAM Kimchi, Bread Chic Sourdough, Bee Squared Honey (from the farm), Jodar Eggs, Christie Leighton Jewelry, Rey Atelier hyper-local medicinals for home and body.