Farming Practices

two Redtail hawks perching on the raptor roosts at the edge of the orchard

Our approach is one of balance with nature and the natural systems. Our 50 acre farm has pastures for our rescue sheep & alpaca and a few chickens, apple, quince & pear orchards, hay fields and a bit of woods that are left to the wild. As our orchards come into full maturity, we hope to integrate livestock management with sheep & fowl for nutrient, weed & pest management. We are certified organic and working towards biodynamic certification and believe these farming practices create the best products.

We are hoping to add some standard trees in another field; they would need to be tall and sturdy to handle the elk herd that traverse this pasture in the wintertime. Creating more canopy will also create more shade, allowing for more diversity in the pasture and better grazing management for livestock. We believe in having short term & long term farming goals and try and work towards those goals annually.

We value the wild and recognize that often Nature knows best. We farm applying natural systems and know that working along with Nature is often the best solution to our agricultural issues. Our wild areas are important to us and we plan to continuously add more plant diversity & improve our hedgerows to encourage more pollinators, birds & wildlife on the farm. Another long term goal is to add more bird boxes throughout the property; boxes for kestrels & barn owls for vole control & smaller boxes for birds in the orchard to help with integrated pest management. We’ve added a few raptor roosts to encourage the birds to hunt in the fields and orchard, it brings me great pleasure to see the red tails, kestrels and owls perching on  them.