Alida and Rory were fortunate enough to have the chance to visit two really amazing farms this weekend to talk with the farmers and learn about their operations. This gives us a chance to better understand the inner workings of some small farms, and to see how different farmers are making it work. It gave us a lot of ideas of what to do and what to watch out for.
The first farm, Riverhill Farm, is in Nevada City, CA. Riverhill is a beautiful farm that grows all kinds of vegetables, including some of the most gorgeous kale we’ve ever seen. Alan Haight has been farming there since about 2003 and runs a very successful CSA. He estimates that he’s feeding about 600 people, which is really significant given that the town only has about 3,000 people. So Alan is feeding 1/5 of the town. Who says small farmers can’t feed the world?
The second farm, Yolo Bulb, is right outside Davis and is run by Mike Madison. Mike produces lots of delicious olive oil and has an amazing cut flower operation. Rory’s hoping to grow a lot of cut flowers at Langwater Farm, so it was great to get to ask all kinds of questions about how he does it. He had a lot of helpful suggestions about everything from varieties to tractor implements. Mike even gave us a big bag of books to jump-start our farm library!
All in all it was a very inspiring weekend and made us excited to get started with our own operation!
