Helsing Junction Farm

We are Anna Salafsky and Susan Ujcic. Together with a crew of 12 amazing people we grow 30 acres of organic vegetables, fruit and flowers and run an 800-member CSA program. We've been farming in Rochester, Washington since 1992. Over the years, the farming community in Rochester has flourished, and we are now one of several small farms that sell their produce locally via CSA programs and farmer's markets.

Here at Helsing Junction Farm we grow a wide range of vegetables, and our small fertile valley produces some of the finest organic produce available. We like to think that we've tried pretty much everything in the seed catalog over the years! Some of our favorites are arugula, sweet corn, garlic, leeks, carrots, sweet onions, delicata squash, spinach, golden shallots and all-purple and all-red potatoes. Some of the more unusual vegetables we grow are bulbing fennel, escarole, French filet beans, radicchio, Italian zucchini, garlic scapes and 10 types of gourmet lettuce. We also raise several acres of strawberries and raspberries and have a small orchard of Asian pears and Liberty apples. In addition, we cultivate several acres of calla lilies, Asiatic and Oriental lilies, gladiolas, lavender and sunflowers and grow 10 different varieties of herbs.

We also sell produce direct to New Seasons Markets in Portland. They annually buy a large part of our shallot crop as well as radicchio, treviso, red dandelion and bok choy. We also sell some of these same items wholesale to the Olympia Food Co-op and The Organically Grown Co-op. Recently there has been such a huge swell in the demand for organic produce that we have been able to sell every bit we grow!

For the past 3 years we have been working in partnership with Pair, a Seattle restaurant. We provide them with fresh produce and they feature us on their menu. Together we hosted a 60-person farm-to-table dinner in our fields that included 5 courses and featured local oysters, lamb and our own vegetables. It received a favorable restaurant review in the Seattle PI and was a lot of fun. We are working on plans to host another dinner in 2008.

We also host a 3-day music festival in conjunction with K records, an Olympia-based record company. The festival features 20 different K records acts, homemade organic food (the proceeds from which are donated to Thurston County Gleaners Coalition), swimming in the river, and 2 nights of camping in our orchard and fallow fields. It attracts about 300 people annually and has already become a much-enjoyed tradition.

Our mission is to share the beautiful natural venue that is our farm with our local community, as well as using it as a tool to educate people about the necessity of small farms. To that end, we provide annual tours for school groups. The children really seem to enjoy picking and eating vegetables and it is fun to watch them get excited about beets or Swiss chard.

We work with the Thurston County Gleaners Coalition, who through GRUB and The Evergreen State College, provide volunteers who come and harvest our surplus, which is then donated to the local Food Bank. We also deliver 10 weekly CSA shares directly to Food Bank recipients here in Rochester. This program is funded by donations from our members, which we match.

Our long-term plans include developing a family farm camp, building a certified kitchen and writing a book (that's all!). We (Sue and Annie) are trying to turn as much of the day-to-day running (and profits) of our CSA program over to our employees so that we may continue to pursue these goals.

We have been working with Bonfilio, Eufrocino, Rosalio and their wives Lupe, Tomasa and Margarita for many years now and have developed close relationships with them. Their children are frequent visitors to the farm and together, we have the best parties! We try to provide higher than normal farm wages, autonomy and a relaxed working environment. In return we have some of the most loyal and dedicated employees a person could hope for. Each one of them seems to take real pride and ownership of the farm, and we think it really shows in the quality of our produce and the beauty of our fields.

The seamless nature of our work and family environment creates a rich life. Sue's partner Jared and Annie's husband Tom contribute technical support and help us with our infrastructure. Their skills have proved to be invaluable. Sue's son Jade has been working with us for several years now, which is very meaningful to us. He returned after college, fluent in Spanish and made a full-length documentary titled Growing Awareness, which is about the history of CSA farms in Thurston County, featuring Helsing Farm as well as other local farms.  It is available for purchase and is a great source of info about the benefits of eating local.  For more info go to www.lasercave.biz/grow. Annie's parents live on the farm and lease us land and are also part of our daily lives. It's been fun to watch Annie's 2-year-old twins discover the farm. They love picking fruits and vegetables and can already recognize raspberry bushes, bean and corn plants, and apple trees! We are deeply indebted to our entire local farming community, which makes living and farming in our valley a joy!