Whitney Jacques of Verdant Hare Farm with her resident pigs. YOUNG KWAK PHOTO
AGRICULTURE
After First Frost How two local farmers extend the season past harvest’s peak while investing in the future of farming BY CARRIE SCOZZARO
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arming is a full-time job, with a to-do list that bookends each year’s harvest season, from late spring through mid-fall here in the Inland Northwest, depending on the crop. Many farmers utilize Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) subscriptions to get a jump on the season. Also called a farmshare, a CSA is essentially an investment in the farm — a share — in exchange for what the farm produces, like meat or produce, and on a mutually agreed upon schedule, typically weekly throughout the harvest. CSAs can be pre-paid — sometimes months in advance of when crops are started or livestock is born — pay-as-you-go or some other model. CSAs are only one source of regular revenue, however. Many farmers now employ multiple practices to stretch the definition of farming season, from selling additional items they derive from the farm to extending the CSA timeframe. Such practices promote more and different income streams, a larger or diversified customer base, and the kind of vertical integration that helps other industries mitigate risk, especially in farming’s climatedependent business model. There are as many ways to extend the season as there are types of farmers. Idaho-based Prairie Home Farm, for example, sells pies from their pumpkin patch, and Greentree Naturals sells seeds to a southern Idaho cooperative.
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In the Spokane area, two first-generation farmers are also implementing ways to extend the season and sustain their own operations, while also planting the seed for future generations.
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hitney Jacques admires the animal that inspired her farm’s name, Verdant Hare. “Hares are fertile and clever, changing with the season, running a step ahead,” says Jacques, who also likes the color, feeling and scent that “verdant” evokes. Jacques worked on other organization’s farms for nearly a decade before starting Verdant Hare, including Washington State University’s organic farm and Catholic Charities’ Food for All Farm, where she started the Volunteer Farmer Intern Program. She hoped to pay forward the assistance she received as a budding farmer, but when COVID hit, she had an epiphany: A hands-on intern program wasn’t sustainable if people couldn’t gather. Moreover, she was ready to go all-in with a place befitting what she calls her “big energy.” “I’d been working for other people for a long time because it was super safe,” says Jacques, who’s held onto the dream of being a farmer since she was a little girl in Alaska. In 2020, she started Verdant Hare on 20 acres of
leased, historic farmland west of the Iller Creek Conservation area off the Palouse Highway. Jacques’ garden and livestock operations both offer opportunities to extend the traditional farming season. A weekly fruit and vegetable CSA from Verdant Hare runs July through September, a typical season. But from February through June, Jacques also works with Main Market Co-op to produce garden starts for their customers, and for Verdant Hare. Also helping with post-harvest sales is the farm’s livestock menagerie: 10 turkeys, a Jersey milk cow and calf, and 22 pigs Jacques will slaughter for meat in December. Verdant Hare sells eggs from 75 laying hens through its CSA, while an additional 100 birds are destined for the chopping block, and then on to customers’ refrigerators and freezers. And during October, Jacques has been on sheep-breeding duty to prepare for lamb-a-palooza next spring. Jacques’ 23 Clun Forest, Finn and Romney sheep are vital to Verdant Hare. They provide both meat — harvesting is on November’s to-do list — and milk. Two ewes, Hilda and Temple, also yield richly colored fleece, which Jacques gets spun into yarn and also sells as raw fleece to provide a modest but year-round source of income that’s independent of weather. ...continued on page 24
