Michael J. Chen

Sunshine and her youngest daughter, Natasha, in a high tunnel harvesting baby lettuce. Their day typically starts at 6:30 AM and goes until 7 to 8 PM.

Harvested baby lettuce ready to be washed,  packed  and delivered.

Sunshine and Isis, her first daughter marching over the hill to check on their herd of cattle. They practice rotational grazing in which the pasture is divided and the cattle are moved from section to section mimicking how herds constantly move to fresher grass in the wild. 

Scott Skrabal cutting down garlic from the rafters. He hopes to have his own one acre farm. "There seem to be a lot of younger people getting into farming but it’s definitely an old people’s game." According to the USDA, in 2012, the average age of a U.S. farmer was 58.3, it has been rising for over thirty years.

Isis goofing off with Scott as he breaks open garlic cloves. It will take about ten months for the garlic to be ready to harvest again.

Zahra Hooshyar and Gerardo Patron-Cano are pursuing careers in agriculture. They broke open roughly 2500 cloves and competed to see who could find the biggest one.

Bella. No farm is complete without a dog.

Isis attends home school while Sunshine prepares an invoice for a local co-op's order of vegetables. "Our highest goal right now is to make sure that the farm can be sustainable for us in what we call the triad of sustainability. It has to be economically sustainable, ecologically sustainable, and it has to be emotionally sustainable...we're still working on that last one."

Emmett Phinney lives in the woods close by and is the primary caretaker of the cattle. He has also learned to drive the tractor since working on the farm. He's checking the potato digger, a device used to dig up the earth to make picking easier. 

The digger stops working every ten to fifteen feet. It gets clogged with earth, stone, and roots. Sunshine must unclog it all so Emmett can continue driving

This season's harvest was smaller than hoped. Organic farming is a dynamic relationship with the land which requires patience, fortitude, and grit. 

 Sam Horrocks and the rest of the crew pick the potatoes after the digger runs through each row.

Isis gives Aiden a hearty neck scratch.

Steve is building their future house by hand to avoid hiring expensive contractors. They hope to move in the next year. It's hard for Steve not to be farming.