Our Story:
Building Soil and Building Community
It all started with the desire to grow our own food. Chris and I wanted to build a resilient homestead to feed our family well, but the problem we faced was the lack of good, affordable farmland. So, we decided to grow where we were planted. We began converting the lawn into garden beds and started growing. We wanted to teach people that you can grow food anywhere! It is important for us to grow produce without harmful chemicals so we can be proud to share it. We are committed to producing fresh, nutrient rich food that supports the health of our family, our community and the environment. Stop by the farm stand and enjoy the season with us!
Kelly Wheeler and Chris Allard
Front Yard Farm
What we Believe
We believe that healthy food comes from healthy soils. We continually strive to improve our soils with the application of nutrient rich compost, mulch, cover crops, and crop rotation. These methods increase soil nutrition and organic matter making the plants grown in it more robust and resistant to pests and disease.
Weeds, pests, and disease are managed using controls such as row cover or kaolin clay to protect the plants without using harmful pesticides. We believe you can't have a healthy garden if you use toxic chemicals. Our growing methods strive to support beneficial insect populations who will help maintain the productivity of our gardens. As a result of not spraying pesticides, our gardens are always alive with buzzing bees and helpful insects!
Weeds are managed either by cultivating with hand tools, a flame weeder or a small tiller. We also use the stale seed bed method and cover beds with tarps to smother weeds. Pests and disease are managed by monitoring and using organic pesticides only when absolutely necessary. We reduce our need to spray by avoiding crops with heavy pest pressure, excluding them with insect netting, using kaolin clay as a barrier, and rotating our crops.
We strive to produce the best food we can because we care deeply about the people we feed it to.
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Beyond Organic
Did you know that organic doesn't mean pesticide and herbicide free?
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"Beyond Organic" goes beyond the watered-down USDA organic standards.
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No synthetic pesticide
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No herbicide
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IPM pest monitoring to reduce the need for organic pest controls
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No GMOs
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Authentically Grown food produced by your neighbors, not far away strangers
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Using direct marketing and local food distribution channels to sell the food where it is grown. That means no long truck trips for our tomatoes!
