Our Growing Practices
We practice sustainable agriculture, which is a way of growing food that heals, restores, and regenerates the vitality of the farm, the surrounding ecosystem, and the local community.
We practice sustainable agriculture primarily by nourishing the soil and our plants through:
- Deep soil preparation
- Crop rotation
- Cover cropping
- Copious amounts of compost
- Growing over 150 varieties of crops
- Caring for the plants’ needs (including trellising, pruning, and mulching)
- Thoughtful planning (including planting after/before pest cycles)
- One of the most important renewable sources of energy: the community!
Healthy plants, grown in healthy soil, are less likely to attract pests and diseases. When we do need to use an additional step, we only use organically (OMRI) approved products, such as a clay mixture to repel cucumber and flea beetles, or beneficial microorganisms that only affect caterpillars. Feel free to be in touch with more questions about our farming practices — sustainable agriculture is our passion. Better yet, come see it and be part of it yourself, at one of our monthly community workdays on the first Saturday of each month!
The Garden & Farm Connection
In 2004, Scnobia Taylor provided the five-acre community garden site that continues to be the hub of our work. We gather at the garden for monthly Saturday workdays to share community potluck lunches, and daily to process the harvest, and pack produce boxes to deliver to our community through the HarvestShare CSA program.
In 2014, in an effort to grow more vegetables and include more people, we began to lease land from a 33-acre farm about 5 miles down the road. From 2014 to 2019, most of Anathoth’s fruits and vegetables were grown at the farm site, as the HarvestShare CSA program continued to grow in size. However, in 2020, Anathoth will ended the farm lease and we are re-focusing on the original garden site.
