Farmer

Farming in my life I have been farming Willow Haven Farm for over 10 years, but my farming experience began as a child. My father grew up on a dairy farm and I began helping make hay when I was too young to lift a bale. We lived in town, but most of my friends lived on farms. There was always farm work to do and I helped with the harvest every summer. I picked asparagus, raspberries, strawberries, sweet corn, tomatoes, cucumbers, beans, and more.

Beginnings Desiring to raise our children in a rural community, my wife and I moved to Pennsylvania in 2005 to the home in which she was raised. In 2009, I was ready to expand my garden from 1/4 acre to 2 acres. It was a challenging year as I learned how to grow on a larger scale and how to estimate costs and harvests. It was also a year in which late blight killed the tomato plants by the end of August. This was my introduction to the challenges that farmers must overcome in order to produce a harvest.

The Joy of Farming By the end of several years of farming, I had learned the basics of organic production and the need for organic food. More importantly, I quickly discovered the joy of producing an abundance of food for people and that in growing the food I was able to share the joy with others.

Connecting Farming to Health Next I started to discover the state of our food and quickly became concerned with the deficiencies in food. Because the way that food is produced affects our land, our water, and our health, food can be a source of nutrition and healing or something much worse. I found that people were suffering from chronic diseases that in some cases could be connected directly to the food that they were eating.  By visiting farms, reading, and listening to experts in many fields, I understand that farming is much more than simply growing food for people. It is a responsibility to continue improving our soil, using the best organic practices, in order to produce safe, nutritious and healing food for my family and my community. The goal of Willow Haven Farm is to connect as many local people as we can with our real, nutritious, farm fresh food in order to help them build real health.

Farm Daughter, Flower Farmer

Annika has grown up alongside Willow Haven and has embraced her farm girl identity. In order to pay for college, Annika started her own cut flower farm on our land. As a young farmer and business owner, Annika is using all the skills she learned as a farm girl and recieving the guidance of her farming father to create a successful and flower farm.

Her beautiful bouquets are a delightful blend of seasonal flowers and greenery, grown chemical free, picked and arranged by hand.  Her CSA members are flower lovers whose lives and homes were brightened by the every changing bounty of only one acre of flowers.

Farm Daughter, Vegetable Washer, Packer

While Britta is quite good in the field, her skills really emerge in our packing room. She is often the “right hand girl” when it comes to custom packing your CSA Farm Share boxes. Britta likes things consistent and organized so that your box is full of the great-tasting, clean and fresh vegetables that you choose each week.

Farm Kids, Field Workers and Helpers

The rest of the kids, no matter their age, help around the farm all year, but especially during the growing season. They experience every aspect: from helping seed the trays, watering the greenhouse, weeding rows in the field or picking strawberries, beans or cherry tomatoes. Their energy and quick smiles are a great asset to everyone and since they know every nook and cranny, they make great tour guides when you visit us.