Seattle Tilth Farm Works – Farm Walk, July 14, 2014

Marcy Ostrom of the WSU Extension Small Farms Program starts off introductions. (Photo credit: Becky Warner)

Marcy Ostrom of the WSU Extension Small Farms Program starts off introductions. (Photo credit: Becky Warner)

Growing New Farmers through Urban Agriculture

On a hot July day, 35 farmers, community members, educators, and non-profit representatives gathered at Seattle Tilth Farm Works (STFW) in Auburn, Washington. This farm incubator program provided a wonderful example of how the agricultural community can approach training new and successful farmers. In addition, many resource people were on hand from WSU extension to answer questions regarding small farm production.

The walk began with an introduction and history of the STFW program by Andrea  Platt Dwyer, executive director of Seattle Tilth. She explained how the program was initially piloted by BURST for Prosperity with a groups of Somali-Bantu refugees. While BURST had a great handle on coordinating refugee involvement, they were not well-equipped to manage the agriculture side of the program and looked to Seattle Tilth as a community partner. In 2011, the entire program was handed over to Seattle Tilth and the non-profit received a Beginning Farmers and Ranchers Development Grant (BFRDP) from the USDA to jump start Seattle Tilth Farm Works.

Andrea Platt Dwyer (center), Seattle Tilth's Executive Director, gives a history of the program. (Photo credit: Becky Warner)

Andrea Platt Dwyer (center), Seattle Tilth’s Executive Director, gives a history of the program. (Photo credit: Becky Warner)

Matthew McDermott, STFW farm manager, and Micah Anderson, STFW educational coordinator, then gave an overview of the farm site. In total, there are 40 acres to the piece of land that they technically lease from a youth camp organization that owns the land. The program only works on 9 acres which is broken in to quarter acres parcels that are doled out to program participants. The farm hosts 10-12 new farmers every year, and farmers can lease land from the STFW site for up to 4 years. Currently, they have 18 farmers on site. Matthew shared that the USDA reports that is takes approximately seven years to build a successful small farm business so that goal of STFW is to give a strong start for beginning farms. Even though the subsidies that the program provides for participants decreases over the 4 years, the farmers always have technical assistance available to them to help ensure their success. To further support its farmers and graduates, Matthew said they often connect growers with Cascade Harvest Coalition and USDA-FSA (Farm Service Agency) to help them find land and the financial resources to be successful on their own. He has noticed that financial institutions really appreciate the support of STFW, which makes it more appealing for them to lend money to STFW farmers.

Matthew explains how the STFW plots are divided. (Photo credit Becky Warner)

Matthew explains how the STFW plots are divided. (Photo credit Becky Warner)

Micah went on to explain the structure of the educational component of STFW. They interview potential participants in November/December and then the program itself starts in February and goes through the end of June. Classes are held on Wednesday evenings where the focus is on the “book-learning” side of things, covering all aspects of farming including business planning, plant production, equipment, and marketing. Since farming is best learned by doing, Micah explained that they also have all-day Saturday classes that are meant to be hands-on. This is when they will go out to the STFW site, take field trips to other farms, or invite guest speakers to talk about a particular topic. The curriculum that STFW uses is a combination of different resources that Micah and others have found to be useful such as resources from UC Santa Cruz farm internship program and NIFTI (National Incubator Farm Training Initiative).

Nook and Cranny farm explains their mushroom cultivation enterprise. (photo credit: Becky Warner)

Nook and Cranny farm explains their mushroom cultivation enterprise. (photo credit: Becky Warner)

For the rest of the farm walk, attendees were taken to different farms incubating at the site. The first farm we visited was Nook & Cranny Farm, a mushroom growing enterprise. Maria Anderson and her sister Monica Burnison were first year STFW participants. The goal for Nook & Cranny is to produce mushrooms year round. Specifically, they decided to first grow pearl mushrooms which they found to use substrate the most cost-effectively of all the mushroom types they were considering. They currently purchase their spawn from Fungi Perfecti with the hopes of producing their own in the future. Their mushroom operation is housed in the old pool house of the former camp that was located on the grouds of the STFW site. Maria decided to grow in 5 gallon plastic buckets that she will disinfect and reuse. They expect their first mushroom harvest this fall.

Karla and her daughter of Feliz Farms. They grow pastured-pork. (Photo credit: Becky Warner)

Karla Farias and her daughter of Feliz Farms. They grow pastured-pork. (Photo credit: Becky Warner)

The next farm that we visited was Feliz Farm, a pastured-poultry enterprise run by Karla Farias and her family. Originally from Jalisco, Mexico, Karla spoke to the group in Spanish and Malaquais Flores (WSU Latino Programs Coordinator) provided translation. Karla is a 4th generation hog producer who wanted to raise organic, pasture raised pork as she believed there was a market for it. Finding land to start her enterprise was a challenge for her until she had found out about STFW early in 2014. Karla went through the program and now pastures 70 hogs at the STFW site. Once ready to butcher in August, her pork will be sold through STFW’s market channels. The processing of her hogs will be handled by a mobile processing unit in Pierce County. Karla also spoke about how you can manipulate the flavor of your pork by what you feed them. Even though she and her family commute from Bellevue every day to care for their hogs, Karla loves being a farmer and hopes to grow her enterprise to sustain itself outside of STFW.

On our way to the mixed vegetable plots, Matthew stopped by their water storage area to explain how they approach the water needs on the farm. The site has a well that is only able to pump at 10 gallons per minute – a rate that is not sufficient to meet the needs of the farm. Instead, with the help of H.D. Fowler Company, the farm was able to acquire cisterns that store 60,000 gallons of water. Well water is pumped to the cisterns, and from the cisterns it is pumped to irrigation lines at a higher rate of 40 gallons per minute. Matthew shared that the system is not perfect, but it is able to meet their needs.

Matthew McDermott, STFW farm manager (left), and Micah Andersen, STFW education coordinator (right), explain the workings of the program. (Photo credit: Becky Warner)

Matthew McDermott, STFW farm manager (left), and Micah Andersen, STFW education coordinator (right), explain the workings of the program. (Photo credit: Becky Warner)

The group then gathered in the vegetable wash station area where Matthew and Micah explained the logistics of their multi-producer CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) program and Food Hub program. In the spring, the STFW farmers build a crop plan together to plan for what will need to be grown and available for the CSA throughout the growing season. This year, the farm grows for 75 half shares and 22 full shares. While most of the farmers participate in the CSA, they can also utilize other marketing outlets. STFW utilizes a Cool-Bot to provide refrigerated space to store produce. To deliver their products, STFW has a reefer truck.

The group then walked through the vegetable plots and various STFW participants shared about their farm and experience with the program. A fourth year STFW farmer, Ramadhan Mugasa, briefly shared his experience in working and growing with the program. Originally from Somalia, Ramadhan first came to the program in connection with the BURST for Prosperity program. He now farms a half acre of vegetables at the STFW site, with some help from his family. In 2013, Ramadhan made $8000 from his plots, and he would like to continue farming and gaining experience to run a successful farm business.

Chris Sechrist. STFW's youngest farmer, talks about is plans for pastured turkey as part of his farm, Windy Acre Farms. (Photo credit: Becky Warner)

Chris Sechrist. STFW’s youngest farmer, talks about is plans for pastured turkey as part of his farm, Windy Acre Farms. (Photo credit: Becky Warner)

Next the group met up with Chris Sechrist of Windy Acre Farm, a first year STFW participant and the youngest at 19 years old. Chris shared with the group that he wanted to farm to provide better quality food for his family and the community. Chris and his family also have animals and farm land in Enumclaw,WA. At the STFW site, he farms a quarter acre plot of mixed vegetables and at the time of the walk, he was prepping an area planted in rye cover crop to grow 50, ‘Double Breasted Bronze’ turkeys for sales this fall. Chris hopes to become more diversified in his farming operation incorporating more animals and to eventually be able to earn a living from farming. It was great to see such a young farmer already seeing success and having such a wonderful vision for himself and the farming community!

Click Here! Farm Walk Booklet – Seattle Tilth Farm Works


SpecialtyCropBlockGrantProgramLogoUSDAThis project is supported in part by the WSDA Specialty Crop Block Grant Program and by the Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program of the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, USDA, Grant # 2012-49400-19575. For more resources and programs for beginning farmers and ranchers please visit www.Start2Farm.gov, a component of the Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program.

Summary by Angela Anegon, Tilth Producers Education Coordinator