Last year when deciding that I wanted to make it my mission to preserve the small historic farm that I am now working on, I talked my dear friend Rebecca Rivas into capturing some stories from the farm on film with me.
We interviewed Caroline Mueller, the now-90 year old woman whose husband’s grandparents settled the farm in 1883. We dug up old newspaper articles heralding the health benefits of the organic produce that was unique to the Mueller Farm in the 1950’s (when the other farmers at the market would mock the Muellers). We found old photographs of the mules that pulled the plows even into the 1980’s. We interviewed lots of neighbors of the farm and residents from the Ferguson community who worked on the farm during the summer as teenagers or shopped their on-farm farmstand year after year. We heard stories from Andy Ayers, a local restauranteur that started buying fresh produce from local farmers such as the Muellers to his patrons’ delight long before it was vogue. We even had a little jam session in Caroline’s kitchen with Curtis and Dennis Buckhannon, two brothers who grew up on the same block as the farm and who first started playing folk music with Al Mueller (Caroline’s husband) on their property and now have a popular bluegrass band in St. Louis.
The documentary is 14 minutes long, so unfortunately the whole thing isn’t on YouTube, but here’s a little teaser for it:
Connoisseur of Fine Foods - the short version of our farm documentary
(It’s named after a sign that Al used to have posted on a tree on the farm for customers to see as they were leaving the farm: “Thank you for being a connoisseur of fine foods!”)
Wondering if there were any customers in Bainbridge Island searching for me today, as I didn’t vend at that market. I felt that this weeks tomato harvest was a bit too small to divide. We keep a lot back from the markets in order to give our CSA the best of our efforts. I look forward to the year that we’re working along side others farming. After re-reading the blog about the Tomato Taste Off, I am sorry to say that I didn’t state that I wish I would of had more time to do a better job with the contest. A bit bummed on how it went down, this year has been a very busy one for us. Today our sales in Poulsbo jumped up quite a bit from last week. Many market vendors and workers purchased from us today. It’s inspiring to be apart of a such a wonderful market and community.
Side thought. The tomatoes are leaving us real soon. Lots of plants down and out. All of our outside tomatoes are done. Dispite the nice growth of the plants, their health turned south during my time away on tour. The pacific northwest, I was told received lots of rains earlier this month along with low nighttime temperatures. I got home to diseased plants but not before we finished up a fifth or sixth round of harvesting off of some of the heirloom varieties.
They are turning the dirt and hoping to be successful enough to turn a profit, and to become a valuable part of their communities as suppliers of organically grown food.
Peaceful Valley is giving them a head start by offering them special pricing as part of this Freshman Farmer program.
| Freshman: | |
| New Farms Coming Soon! | |
| Sophomores: | |
![]() | Laughing Duck Farm Newcastle, CA |
![]() | Starbright Acres 12575 Polaris Dr, Grass Valley, CA |
| Graduates: | |
![]() | Coyote House Farm Palermo, CA |
![]() | Daily Grace Farms Crescent City, CA |
![]() | DeepSeeded Community Farm Arcata, CA |
![]() | Driftwood Farm Fort Bragg, CA |
![]() | EarthDance Farm St. Louis, MO |
![]() | Ellwood Canyon Farms Goleta, CA |
![]() | Freestone Family Farm Vernal, UT |
![]() | Hand Sown Homegrown Heritage Farm Poulsbo, WA |
![]() | Home Plate Organic Farm Orleans, CA |
![]() | Honey in the Heart Farm Nevada City, CA |
![]() | Willow Springs Farm Penn Valley, CA |
![]() | Wise Moon Farm Redding, CA |
| Coyote House Farm Palermo, CA |
| Daily Grace Farms Crescent City, CA |
| DeepSeeded Community Farm Arcata, CA |
| Driftwood Farm Fort Bragg, CA |
| EarthDance Farm St. Louis, MO |
| Ellwood Canyon Farms Goleta, CA |
| Four Frog Farm Penn Valley, CA |
| Freestone Family Farm Vernal, UT |
| Hand Sown Homegrown Heritage Farm Poulsbo, WA |
| Home Plate Organic Farm Orleans, CA |
| Honey in the Heart Farm Nevada City, CA |
| Laughing Duck Farm Newcastle, CA |
| Starbright Acres 12575 Polaris Dr, Grass Valley, CA |
| Willow Springs Farm Penn Valley, CA |
| Wise Moon Farm Redding, CA |