Hand Farmed Organics
Fall City, WA — Snoqualmie River Valley
“It was totally crazy. We had less than one day of warning before the river flooded over the banks. We had just plowed up the entire field, had planted thousands of onions and leeks, the garlic were coming up. We had to move all of the chickens on top of the single rise, the only high spot, where the beehives are now. We were literally wading around in a swamp; the water level was up to the featherboards on the greenhouses. The next day, the news helicopters were hovering above our farm, filming these chickens stranded on this tiny hill that had turned into an island.” Casey pointed out the high ground refuge, a minute bump rising up from the flat valley, a mere 20 feet across in diameter.
Casey, the young farmer who had just pioneered Hand Farmed Organics (HFO) along with his friend Ryan, were in their first growing season together and, by the sound of it, were learning the trials and tribulations of organic farming in one of the toughest growing seasons in decades. They had met at a nearby biodynamic farm just up the road, where they had served as apprentices and employees, and had decided to try their own hand at the trade of organic farming.
I stood there, my gaze surveying the lush field chalk full of bushy squash plants, vigorous broccoli and Brussels sprouts, potatoes, various salad greens, full carrot tops, wondering how all of this could have been under more than three feet of water only four months ago. I had firsthand experience with the endless frustrations of organic farming; my wife and I started our own organic farm in Maine three years prior and, in our first growing season, had lost all of our tomato plants – 350 row feet – to a late blight epidemic that swept across the northeast, transported from Georgia by a big box nursery (Bonnie Plants), and killing an estimated 90% of organic tomato plantings in the region.
“You see, this entire valley is essentially one giant flood plain for the Snoqualmie River,” continued Ryan. “It doesn’t flood every year, but when it does it can be disastrous. It’s a good thing we hadn’t disked our field, yet, or we would have lost almost all of our topsoil to the flood. In fact, there was almost another flood in April, when the river swelled to just two feet from the banks. We had just planted our tomatoes and would have had to dig them all back up to save them if it had spilled over.”
I asked whether it was difficult to prevent erosion or maintain organic matter and nutrients in the soil during floods. “It’s extremely difficult,” replied Ryan. “It’s like starting from scratch with a blank slate after each flood.” But somehow, they seemed to be making it work. Using a combination of cover crops, compost from local animals, pelleted chicken manure, and fish emulsion sprays, they have developed an organic system of providing soil fertility and maintaining humus even in a floodplain, where improper or poorly timed tillage and soil mismanagement could mean the permanent loss of topsoil.
Casey and Ryan farm a total of five acres in two separate fields on opposite sides of a back country road in Fall City. Although surrounded by large tracts of GMO Round-Up Ready cornfields with nary a weed in sight, a Party Pony Ranch, and various cattle pastures, this region along the Snoqualmie River Valley is home to one of the greatest concentrations of small organic farms and young start-up farmers in the State of Washington. According to Casey, there are dozens of landowners in the area who are willing to lease their land for a few hundred dollars per acre per year. Another organic farmer in the valley later estimated that one can gross $20-30,000 per acre per year growing and selling vegetables, making the cost of the lease approximately 1-2% of the gross profit.
Although it may seem ironic and counterintuitive that so many organic farms are getting their start in a floodplain, where the land may be better suited for growing rice or cranberries than a diversity of vegetables and fruits, it is precisely the seasonal flooding that makes this region so attractive to motivated young farmers like Casey and Ryan. The frequent floods make the low-lying regions of this valley prohibitively difficult and expensive to develop into suburban tract homes, and the critical habitat protections for salmon make it unfeasible to do anything that might compromise or harm wetlands and riparian zones. Consequently, the land along the Snoqualmie River is some of the most affordable farmland in the entire Puget Sound. Less than 30 miles from Seattle and some of the largest farmers markets and organic restaurants in the country, the challenges of this valley and its unpredictable flood dynamics create a prime opportunity for small organic market farms looking for quick and easy access to high demand markets.
As Ryan prepped the tractor to disc a new set of rows for planting and then laid out irrigation lines, Casey and I began popping broccoli and cauliflower seedlings out of their trays. Casey was repeatedly interrupted by text messages and phone calls from local chefs solidifying produce orders. “Man, I was out until 11 pm last night doing restaurant deliveries after the market was over,” he told Ryan. “And I woke up at 5 am to do all the harvesting for market. What a long day. I got in today at 7 am, fed all the animals, and have been in a daze since. Sometimes we’re really on top of it and super busy, and sometimes we’re not and there’s not much going on. But we’ve got to get these starts in the ground. Seeds are cheap but the season is too short to not plant.”
As we settled into a rhythm of planting the new seedlings, I asked how the two of them managed to farm five acres with hardly any help (they have one intern).
Casey replied nonchalantly… “We don’t weed.”
You can visit Ryan and Casey on the web at http://handfarmedorganics.com/
wonderful account of the work of this dynamic duo — Edible Seattle needs to use you as their “in the field” writer!