Young farmers' online network helps move pile of manure

By STEVE BROWN

Capital Press

BOISTFORT, Wash. -- It may have been social media that brought the crop mob together, but it was dirty and sweaty work that kept the conversations flowing.

About a dozen volunteers descended on Justin McClane's and Addie Candib's Full Circle Farmstead, equipped with work gloves, shovels and the energy of youth.

Pulling weeds from around the blueberry plants was just the warm-up act. The big task at hand: Move a pile of compost from a garden to a pasture 100 yards away.

A free load of horse manure had turned out to contain a herbicide registered only for pasture and rangeland applications. The chemical survived the composting process and ended up damaging the farm's fava bean, tomato and pepper plants.

As the group descended on the compost pile, Candib marveled: "I live in the middle of nowhere, but I feel more like I'm in the middle of a community than when I was in the city."

Through emails and Facebook and listserv posts, word got around that hands were needed in a secluded valley a half-hour drive west of Chehalis, Wash. From farms on the Olympic Peninsula and the islands of the Puget Sound, from Seattle's urban hillsides, workers answered the call for a "crop mob," a loosely organized and thoroughly modern version of an old-fashioned barn raising.

Chandler Briggs, Vashon Island farmer and organizer with the National Young Farmer Coalition and the Greenhorns, said this was the second crop mob in the area, with plenty likely to follow.

"This is a different kind of community, people coming from all over," he said.

He pulled Candib aside to tell her about an ad he saw in Capital Press that advertised free chicken manure available at a farm an hour or so to the northeast.

Such advice flows as freely as sweat at a crop mob. It helps make up for what young farmers lack in traditional farming background.

Candib, for instance, has her roots in urban Worcester, Mass., and in a liberal arts degree. McClane grew up in Seattle, "but I've known for a long time I wanted to work outdoors."

Working on trail maintenance satisfied him for a while, but "when I gave it a try, farming added meaning to working outdoors, working with my hands."

The couple started at a farm on Whidbey Island. Then through FarmLink, a matchmaking service sponsored by the Cascade Harvest Coalition, they found Brett and Lizzie Barnts, who were looking for someone to work their land.

"Much of the land was uncultivated before, just in hay," Candib said.

Now they're nine months into their farmstead operation, with the initial goal of feeding themselves.

"That was hard to do this spring," McClane said, "but now there's more than we can eat. Next year we plan to start direct marketing and work toward a full-diet CSA. We're somewhat set up to do that here."

In addition to potatoes, quinoa and vegetables in the garden and the greenhouse, the couple raise dairy goats, laying hens, bees, meat rabbits and pigs, and they're trialing some grains.

"We'll be able to feed ourselves through next winter," McClane said.

As the work crew headed in to wash up for dinner, the Barntses' daughter, Ruby, asked someone to open the garden gate: "I need to go play in the manure pile."

Neighbors from miles around came for the potluck on the carport. While kids crawled under the tables and the family dog sniffed about for dropped crumbs, conversations ranged from the benefits of legumes, marketing strategies, food preservation, recipes and cheese-making to the latest turmoil in Washington, D.C.

Bluegrass music and dancing in the pasture wrapped up the day, and all headed home tired.

Information

Chandler Briggs: 206-463-0341, info@washingtonyoungfarmers.org

Facebook: The National Young Farmers Coalition, The Greenhorns

Follow Greenhorns and The National Young Farmers Coalition on Twitter

www.thegreenhorns.net/

www.youngfarmers.org/