About Helsing Junction Farm

We are Anna Salafsky and Susan Ujcic. Together with a crew of 15 amazing people we grow 35 acres of organic vegetables, fruit and flowers and run an 1100-member CSA program. We've been farming in Rochester, Washington since 1992.

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 potatoes. 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.

For the past 7 years we’ve hosted 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, 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 broccoli or beets.

Many of our employees have worked on the farm for 10+ years. 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 co-workers 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 as are Annie and Tom’s twin girls. We are deeply indebted to our entire local farming community, which makes living and farming in our valley a joy!