We grow by living life sustainably

We care about respecting and preserving the gifts we’ve been given in nature.
Because we care, we do things like:

• Tenderly patting each plant into the ground; watering it gently; carefully weeding and mowing to avoid the use of herbicides; hand picking, cutting, and air drying our berries and herbs. We treat the plants and food with the respect they deserve.

Every living thing on this earth does better with tender loving care. We believe that translates into a better-quality product.

• We plant garlic bulbs in and around our rows of elderberries to naturally and humanely repel the gophers that would gladly terrorize and kill the elderberry plants. We are also building and placing owl houses and other bird houses around the property to encourage natural predators for those pesky gophers.

• We plant native pollinator attracting plants all around our farm to increase the habitat for pollinators like bees and butterflies. Many farms around us have active native and honeybee hives.

• We use gentle no-till methods on the ground and mulch thickly with alfalfa, comfrey, and wood chips grown either on our farm or neighboring farms. This helps the soil retain moisture in our dry climate and adds essential but natural nutrients to the soil at the same time.

• That’s kind of a given fact on a farm (think leftover ingredients fed to the chickens and pigs who then help turn and fertilize our natural compost pile). We also use the concept with our packaging (recyclable, BPA-free, glass bottles) and products.

• We haven’t gotten organized enough yet to offer refunds or buybacks, but we’re not opposed to the idea. This year has been especially hard to find bottles at times. Along with the pandemic came shortages of just about every kind of jar and bottle. Having people return our bottles to be used again was a big help with this!

It was heart-warming to see everyone pitch in and do their part so we could continue to provide elderberry syrup during hard times.