Soil is the foundation of life. Soils are living media that includes nutrients, decomposing matter, insects, and microbes. Without healthy soil, vegetables would have no nutrition. We use minimal tillage and add organic matter to the soil to keep it balanced.

Cover crops are plants that give back to the soil. They prevent erosion, sequester carbon, and decrease compaction, and provide nutrients for crops. We use cover crops in rotations with vegetables to decrease diseases and build soil health.

When we do use pest protection, we opt to use all organic-approved products. We prefer to use products that use beneficial microbes to control pest populations rather than broad spectrum chemicals. All of our fertilizers are also organic.

Water is a limited resource - especially in semi-arid South Dakota - so we strive to make best use of our access to the shared resource of groundwater by using drip tape that delivers water directly to plants root system and minimizes loss of water through evaporation.

Small-scale farms use a lot of plastic in production and packaging. We use plastic mulch for certain crops as a way of weed management and water retention. But we look for alternate solutions to plastic and try to reuse and recycle the plastic that don’t have alternatives.

Sustainability is a buzzword, but we believe it relates to all facets of our farm - labor, the environment, and finances. We strive to be a farm that balances sustainability in a greater system. We want to pay people a fare wage, be a wise business, and stewards of our environment so we can sustain people and the earth.