As we drove from the front of the farm back to the crops, we learned about Sandhill Organics, and the land that they lease to other farmers to give them a safe place to start growing, where they can get support as they run into unforeseen issues in their first crops, and where they have certified organic land so they know the vegetables are growing in untainted soil and they can farm using sustainable practices from the outset of their farming career.

Our farmers grow on the last lot on Sandhill Organics – just over the crest of a small hill, so it feels more secluded than the rest of the land.  The farm is much smaller than I had anticipated (5 acres in total), and I was amazed to think that all the food I’ve already seen at the market each week had come from such a small plot of land, and that there was still so much growing on the land that would feed us and the other CSA members for another three months.  There was such a variety of plants growing on the land, too:  a couple rows of one vegetable growing right next to a couple rows of something else, with flowers scattered throughout.  It was such a beautiful farm as compared to large-scale industrial farms that I’d seen on family vacations when I was younger.

Our farmers gave us some scissors and put us to work filling a large box with fresh onions.  Supermarket onions and some of the onions from our farm are cured so they can be stored in a cool, dry place for longer periods of time, but these onions would be eaten fresh, so we simply pulled them up, knocked off some of the dirt, trimmed the roots, and cut down the stalk, leaving the scraps to fall back to the ground were they will provide nutrients to the soil as they decompose.  After the larger onions, we moved on to the last of the purple scallions for the season, bunching them up and trimming them to be ready for the market the next day.

Our last harvesting duty for the day was helping one of our farmers gather flowers for the bouquets she sells at the market.  We got to talk with her then about how they got started with farming, and she told us a little more about their farming philosophy.  Both of our farmers are passionate about the food they grow, and about living in a sustainable way and helping to educate others to be similar “future-minded stewards of the land” as they explain on their website.  K and I chatted on our way home about how glad we are about our choice of CSA farm this year, and how our visit to the farm further peaked our interest in growing our own food, something that we’re looking into even more seriously than ever before, and that I’ll be writing about later.

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Be sure to check out my previous post in which I discuss helping with the eggs and chickens at Red Tail Farm.