The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

My vegetable epiphany happened after I purchased a bag of Hayshaker Farms Wild & Fancy salad mix from The Market by Andy's in Walla Walla. I have been trying to eat a mostly vegetable-based diet for a year now, and these veggies exploded my tastebuds.

Wild & Fancy is a veritable festival of green, each bite tastes unique, with some surprising, zesty flavors. Maybe some fennel, certainly some spicier greens, some kale, and spinach, too? The bright flavors shamed those supermarket salad mixes I had been relying on due to my laziness.

Of course, salad mix is not the only thing this eight-acre farm is known for. Described as a 'values-driven' farm on their homepage, seven farmers and two horses make up this crew which also grows: artichokes, basil, beans, beets, blackberries and on through the alphabet to turnips, treviso di tardivo, and winter squash, for a total of 41 different vegetables and herbs.

Although the farm is 100 percent organic, they have chosen not to be certified. They use compost, plant cover crops, spray dynamic compost teas, and grow flowers for beneficial insects instead of using pesticides or other chemicals.

The farming team includes Leila Schneider, Haliie Bruckner, Laura Xiao, Nina Jenson, Ramsey Demeter, and Hannah Berris.

The pandemic has changed business quite a bit for the farm.

"Our restaurant sales have suffered greatly, and we're supplementing some of those sales by selling to the BMAC Food Bank, fundraising for the Farm to Food Pantry Program, (donation page here: https://bmacww.org/campaigns/f2fp), and selling to LINC Food Hub in Spokane, and AR Teal's Produce in Walla Walla," said farmer Chandler Briggs.

Two of their notable restaurant clients, Whitehouse-Crawford and Soi: A Thai Noodle House, recently closed, due in part to the economic difficulties caused by the current pandemic

Briggs also noted that "Our marketing strategy has changed dramatically, as we've stopped going to farmer's markets. The lack of mask-wearing in public does not make us feel safe to be selling publicly if we don't have to, so we've turned to online sales with pickup and delivery."

This pivot to an online market is a streamlined system with clear order deadlines and accessible pickup locations around the area.

To pick up an order of $20 or more on Tuesday's from 2-5 p.m. at Butcher Butcher on Colville Street in Walla Walla, and from 4-6 p.m. at Petits Noirs Fine Chocolates on Main Street in Milton-Freewater, customers should place their orders from Fridays at 8 p.m. until Mondays at 7 a.m.

Friday pickups take place at the Showroom on Colville (aka the old Ford building in Walla Walla) from 3-5 p.m. Orders for those pickup options run from Mondays at 8 p.m. to Wednesdays at 11 p.m.

There are no seasonal commitments to these produce orders; customers can just order each week when they are ready.

Other goodies available on their website, besides the vegetables and herbs from the farm, include fresh chicken and duck eggs from Stones Throw Farm, cheeses from Monteillet Fromagerie, and the Walla Walla Cheese Company, and jams from Miles Away Farm.

New this year is the option for people to use their SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program of the United States Department of Agriculture) benefits to purchase from Hayshaker. "We managed to be approved for SNAP benefits, which are accepted at the Friday pickup location in Walla Walla," Briggs noted. SNAP/EBT users can choose that option when they register online and are not asked to confirm their order with a bank account or credit card. Additionally, SNAP users receive wholesale cost on all items in the store and can purchase with a $10 box minimum.

And did I mention they are a horse-powered farm? Dusty and Jackson are their two horses; gray dappled Percheron geldings originally from an Amish farm in Iowa, they are joined occasionally, by extras leased for busier times.

"We consciously choose to use draft horses for our fieldwork for a variety of reasons: ecological, financial, and cultural," they state on their website.

Utilizing the solar power of grass and hay, the farmers can power their equipment efficiently and effectively to plow, disc, harrow, cultivate, and harvest using their horses. The horses also turn their "fuel" into manure, which they can use to fertilize their fields.

They've been asked, 'why use horsepower when farming is already hard enough?" Their response? "It's not harder; it's just different. Once you ride quietly behind a team while turning over soil or killing weeds, it's hard to imagine doing it another way."

Imagine delicious, vibrant vegetables grown sustainably and thoughtfully by a cooperative that supports their community. To place an order from their online market, visit: https://hayshakerfarm.localfoodmarketplace.com/Index