Happy Harvest All!
The last three weeks have been quite the first-year farming adventure! We harvested our first organic cranberries, created two healthy value-added products, and took those products to Pike Place Market in Seattle for the inaugural trial run of our brand. Crazy!
Among the whirl wind of all these new things, we were quizzed by countless new people about who we are, what we do, and how/why we do it.
I'm writing today to try and answer those questions:
First, we are a small farm, a family farm.
Starvation Alley Farms has one paid employee and the rest of us are just hoping that something big happens and one day we're all rolling in the dough (that happens with farms that are small, sustainable operations right?) Our farm is located between my partner, Jared's sister and his parent's homes. It's 10 acres total on two pieces of land. We're officially WSDA certified one year transitional organic as of August 2011.
What we're doing is... hard.
Of the approximately 2,000 acres of berries in Washington state. We'll be the first to succeed with organic when we make it to year 3. The Ocean Spray Cooperative, which most US cranberry farms are a part of, offers a good price for fruit, but the fact is many farmers (especially ones that have 10 acres) still have full time jobs outside of the farm. And though Ocean Spray once dabbled in organic production, it currently offers no organic products with it's label, which begs the question, if the biggest supplier of cranberries doesn't find it profitable to grow organic, who will? (I tried Googling "Ocean Spray" and "Organic" and found nothing at all from the Co-Op, just a bunch a petitions and questions from concerned buyers of berries)
How we are doing It: Organically, Sustainably
We started out in August 2010 knowing nothing (Jared hates when I say this, but it's pretty much true!) so naturally, people think we are crazy. We've both farmed other things before and we have had much help from his parents who've farmed conventionally for 3 years. We figured, "What could be so different about farming this plant??" Well it turns out the way cranberries grow is very different from any other commercially grown produce AND (because of the reasons mentioned in the previous paragraph) there is
not much research being done on organic methods. Ocean Spray doesn't need it and independents don't have the resources/infrastructure to risk there farm on something unknown.
So where do we get information? Well, we've found the few studies that exist out there, talked with our local Extension Office, and even visited other farms to gather data. With the pieces we've collected here and there, we're learning more every day. It's a slow process, but we agree, a good one.
Why Farming?
The easy answer, for me, to the "why are you doing this question?" is because I think it's what is right. It's important to be on both a personal and worldly scale. As mentioned before, I know and love the families that are living on this farm and I know that extra exposure to strong chemicals like those used for herbicides and pesticides in bogs are NOT healthy for people, especially kids. I also know that cranberries can contaminate much of the area around them because of how much water moves through them. If you are putting unsafe inputs in, then that's what's leaving the bog too. Food in our country (and the world) is in a dire state, and I believe change must start somewhere.
Okay, so I hope this is a good introduction of Starvation Alley Farms' history and my opinions on the venture. I decided to add this post because if other farmers out there are curious about going organic maybe, just maybe, our farm can help be a catalyst or just an inspiration!
