Hi! we are adriana, connor, guia, and beatriz.
We moved to Humboldt County in 2021 to start a no-till, animal-integrated, regenerative, solar-powered, micro-farm. We don’t have any employees—our farm is our family. We are constantly changing and adapting to provide the highest quality food while prioritizing soil, animal, and family health.
We maintain a 1/4 acre diversified, market garden which feeds our CSA farm-ily and our dedicated farmers’ market customers in Eureka and Arcata.
We raise ducks on pasture and heritage pigs in our forest. We use holistic grazing practices which provides our animals with fresh forage and clean bedding while sequestering carbon into the ground. Our ducks diet is supplemented with certified organic feed. And we rescue local milk and baked goods to feed our very happy piggies.
OUR FARMING Approach
OUR FARMING PRACTICES
“The ultimate goal of farming is not the growing of crops, but the cultivation and perfection of human beings.”
—Masanobu Fukuoka, The One-Straw Revolution
We learned about natural farming through the teachings of Japanese farmer and poet Masanobu Fukuoka. For us, natural farming is both a philosophical outlook on life as well as specific farming practices.
Farming is a way for us to fully realize that we are the natural world. Our everyday lives are defined by our relation to our little farm. We want our hands in the soil. We want to bask in the sun and rest in of the forest. Work, play, rest are all part of farm life for us.
We believe that soil health is key to producing healthy, nutrient-dense food. There are four specific natural farming practices we implement to care for soil health.
No-tillage. We refrain from tilling the soil in order to minimize the destruction the soil structure; to nurture and diversify the biological life of the soil; increase water-holding potential of our soil and so much more.
No synthetic/chemical fertilizers. These types of fertilizers can be harmful to soil life and pollute waterways. Our farm fertility relies on good-old-fashioned compost, compost teas, and some single ingredient fertilizers like chicken manure and kelp powder.
No pesticides/herbicides. Pesticides and herbicides decrease life. We want to promote life. We don’t even use organic pesticides. These chemicals can be stored in crops and transferred to our bodies, especially the notorious herbicide glyphosate. We rely on crop rotation, healthy soil, beneficial insects, row covers, and more to avoid using pesticides and herbicides. We only use certified organic feed in our production of duck meat and eggs in order to avoid these chemicals.
No petroleum. Our farm is solar-powered. Electricity is an essential ingredient for the small farm. From farm tools (like our tilther and greens harvester), to refrigeration and freezers, to pumping water from our well to irrigate crops. We decided to start producing our own electricity to take control of this necessary resource. And it gives us peace of mind during power outages that our freezers and refrigeration will keep running.