Producer

5 acres of our 350 acres of rangeland is fenced against deer and wild pigs and is fully farmed. There are multiple orchard and row crop sites, the orchards containing something upward of 150 trees of diverse varieties of apples, pears, quince, persimmon, peach and plums with very few repeats. The rows range from 30-80 ft in length and all were originally hand dug by us. Our 100 or so chickens are free ranged in groups of 20 each with a rooster. In a large area we raise two pigs once or twice a year which we purchase from Zeni Ranch, not far from the farm. Our 3 breeder yaks and 2 young ones and a cow are in two separate areas of around 15 acres total both adjacent to the farmed 5 acres.

We designed and had built a commercial kitchen in the heart of the farm which is where all our crops are stored for either marketing fresh or for processing (canning/drying, etc). It also acts as our "farm stand" since with signs along the road we invite people in to visit and purchase foodstuffs.

Up the hill from the farm in a large barn that was on the property, we have built a large aquaponic system and attached greenhouse in which 1000+ fish feed a long list of fruits and vegetables in a circulating water system.

We are totally organic and as self contained as is possible. We own the watershed and put in a water system fed by our 4 wells. We create our own compost, rotate crops, save seed and do all our own pruning, harvesting and food prep, both for sale fresh or canned,dried or processed in some way. We do not have organic certification mainly because we do not believe the government should be permitted to own and corrupt the word "organic", which is what is happening. We invite people to visit and tour the farm to certify for themselves that we do and are what we say.

The aquaponic system can ONLY be organic since any other practice would kill the fish. We invite people to tour it as well.