We moved to Whidbey in 1988, to what had once been the Patzwald’s Dairy Farm; we hear they used to grow good potatoes and strawberries here, too, when dairy didn’t pay the bills any more.  That first summer, Molly and John planted a vegetable garden where the old kitchen garden had been, and John started scouting out the best land for planting his wine grape vineyard.  The next season, a Mr. Gabelein plowed up that field for John, and said, “If I’d known soil this good was for sale, I’d’ve bought this for one of my sons.”  That seemed like a pretty good stamp of approval from a family that knows good Maxwelton Valley soils.

We’ve been growing here ever since– the veggies have been growing, the kids grew, and the business grew.  Molly and John started selling at the Tilth Market at Bayview, and their eldest daughter, Laura, achieved that South Whidbey mark of distinction: her picture on the front page of the paper, for the momentous uprooting of the FIVE POUND CARROT.  I love this place.

In 1998, Molly started the first CSA on Whidbey Island– her Community Supported Agriculture shareholders paid a deposit in the winter, and then picked up a basket of fresh vegetables from the farm every week through spring, summer, and fall.  We used to spend a lot of time explaining the CSA model to people– now the idea of a farmshare is everywhere!

While John and Molly retired from their day-jobs quite a while ago, they’ve had a much harder time retiring from farming– turns out, dirt is addictive.  In 2012, we cut back to the original kitchen garden, and leased out three of our acres to Annie Jesperson and Nathaniel Talbot of Deep Harvest Farm.  What great farmers they are!  This year, they are moving to their newly purchased land in Freeland, and Anna is returning to farm full-time.