SMALL TOWN FARM IS CULTIVATING THE LAND AND A BUSINESS

WORDS BY ASHLEY BROWN | PHOTOS BY ASHLEY BROWN AND CRISTEN ANDREWS

Small Town Farm is the permaculture passion project of Cristen Andrews and Miguel Guerra. The one-acre farm outside of Martindale is a wonderland of fruit trees, vegetable plants, herbs, medicinal plants, “volunteer plants” (plants that just show up and thrive), and critters like harvester ants and armadillos. On the acre sits a tiny house the two built together in addition to a 100-year-old farmhouse that they call home.

Andrews and Guerra met at Emo’s in Austin in 2006. “We discovered that we had a lot of things in common, like our passion for gardening, creating things, saving animals and cooking big meals to share,” says Andrews. “And though at the time neither of us was looking for a relationship, we started hanging out all the time and have been hanging out ever since.”

For Guerra, Austin had been a pit stop on the way to San Francisco right after high school — but he fell for the city and the locals and never left. Guerra moved to Austin with his grandpa’s World War II tote bag and a skateboard. “I started working in kitchens and trained to be a chef the old-school way: from dishwasher on up,” he says. In 1997, he started a small eatery on the corner of 22nd and Guadalupe, called Spudnik. After four years in business, he moved on to help a friend start a skatepark in Austin and worked a variety of “cool jobs like Vulcan Video,” all while learning carpentry.

Andrews and Guerra called Austin home until 2018 when the couple found a small piece of land. “The house on it was in rough shape and the land a blank slate in a lot of ways, which was perfect for us,” says Andrews. “It's offered us a chance to pour our energy into the space and connect with it in a deep way."

Like Guerra, Andrews is a person of many talents and interests. She studied photojournalism at the University of Texas at Austin, worked for an internet marketing startup for many years, and has been working successfully as an educational writer for 15 years.

“In my mid 20s, I won a free trip around the world from a photo contest and spent the year traveling by myself,” says Andrews. “That experience was life-changing. It inspired a lot more travel over the years, and my love for learning about other cultures and their cuisines seeps into everything I do. I studied herbalism at the Wildflower School of Botanical Medicine, got my permaculture design certification from the Austin Permaculture Guild, and I’m loving the process of applying a lot of what I learned on our land.”

Permaculture is ecological design based on the practice of considering your space as a living ecosystem. It involves careful observation of that ecosystem to understand how one can work with natural processes to create sustainable, healthy, thriving landscapes. “It’s important to acknowledge that the core ethics and principles of permaculture are deeply grounded in Indigenous knowledge from around the world. The phrase ‘permaculture’ is relatively new, but the foundational elements are not,” explains Andrews.

“Rather than forcing our desired outcome on the land and planting crops in isolation [like most traditional farming practices], we spend a lot of time mindfully observing how the land wants to be shaped and how all the small pieces fit together,” she says. They spend a lot of time building healthy soil, cultivating wild edible weeds and perennials and self-seeding plants that serve multiple functions, and allowing the garden to evolve slowly and organically. “The system continues to grow and expand over time,” she says, and they are able to reinvest abundance back into the system so it gets stronger every year.

Andrews and Guerra started Small Town Farm in October of 2020 — spurred on by requests from friends and community who were interested in their produce and products. They’ve always had big gardens wherever they have lived and enjoy connecting with friends and community through shared food, gardens and inspiration.

As the pair has cultivated the land and their business, they’ve maintained a flexible “let’s try it and see what happens” attitude, says Andrews. “It’s important to take risks and try new things, knowing not everything we do will be successful, but even the things that fail are valuable lessons that help us learn and grow. When gardening, you can plant a lot of seeds and some may take much longer to germinate than others. It’s the same with ideas. On the surface, some may not seem very productive or fruitful initially. But they’re often just lying dormant, gathering energy, and waiting for their time to shine.”

Andrews and Guerra see their farm as a partnership with nature. Their mission goes beyond their ecosystem and farm. Andrews and Guerra want to share their passion and knowledge so that more people feel comfortable and confident in growing their own food and medicines. “The goal is to normalize this way of living, and we joke that hopefully our business will eventually be obsolete because everyone will be doing it. What a cool world that would be, right?” says Andrews.

For people who might want to get started gardening, she offers this advice: “It’s a lifelong learning process, and you just have to start. Even if you have a few containers on your porch, you can start. Choose a few plants and get to know them well. Spend time with them, sit with them, and learn what they have to teach you. A lot of the wild plants growing in our yards that many people consider weeds are also foods and medicines too, so don’t forget to pay attention to what’s already growing and thriving around you. Oftentimes these are exactly what you need.”

While they’re not certified organic (which can be quite a financial burden and lengthy process), Small Town Farm is organic in practice and all the herbs they use in their products are homegrown or organically sourced. When asked what each of their favorite plants on the farm are, Guerra chooses the curry tree and tatume squash because they’re prolific, hardy and not very common. He also likes oregano and bee balm because they help alleviate his respiratory issues. Andrews has a harder time choosing.

“Oh, so many!” she says. “Yarrow is top on the list because it’s beautiful, evergreen, serves a variety of functions in the landscape, and is a wonderful first aid plant [it’s antimicrobial and effective in stopping bleeding]. Passionvine is another one. It thrives in the heat of the summer and rambles over fence lines. It’s a host plant to swallowtail butterfly larvae, its otherworldly flowers are always covered in bees, and it’s a great nervine herb that supports the nervous system. Then there’s rosemary, holy basil, bee balm, lemon balm, chamomile, calendula, skullcap and mugwort. I have a lot of favorite plants.”

To learn more about Small Town Farm's offerings, visit smalltownfarm.com

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