12 Seasons Farm

When we started out on this journey to farm full time just over a decade ago, we had no idea the direction the farm would take. My job situation had changed during my 2 year masters program in Thailand and Germany (2010-2012) and we were faced with a decision when we were heading back to the States. We were pregnant with our first child, Simeon. We had paid off the farm but only had a few thousand dollars to our name as we were starting to the sell the citrus crop that fall of 2011. When discussing whether to find employment elsewhere, I remember Vicki stating, “We have the farm and each other—we have all that we need.” She wisely said let’s go all in for 5 years—any money that was made and every significant decision will be an investment into the farm. And that is what we did and have not looked back.

To make matters more challenging, we were starting to experience the first significant impacts of citrus greening disease on tree health and yield back in 2011. This occurred at the same time we also wanted to transition the farm to organic practices which was against conventional wisdom. We were already leaning towards growing organically, but after long discussions, research, and wanting our child (and now children) to be able to eat the dirt under the trees without consequence, we began to drop the conventional sprays on the citrus trees and opted for a nutritional approach to deal with citrus greening disease.

We knew the citrus income could not sustain our family and so we started with strawberries using an inheritance check from my Grandma Krueger that was enough to buy the original plants in the fall of 2012. My grandma loved strawberries and that first strawberry season was a success! With the generous help of so many friends we began to diversify and the following season we added tomatoes which then led to a host of other vegetables. It was not an easy transition to full time fruit and vegetable farming, but as my wife Vicki often says, the best things in life usually take work. We also know that whatever success we experience is not without the generous and big hearted support of so many friends and family and faithful customers. We are grateful to those who have hung with us this last decade. It has been an intensely full and remarkable journey!