ABOUT THE FARM
Growing in Grace Farm has over 200 strawberry plants in the ground and five beehives in operation. Although we are not a certified organic farm, we are raising our plants free from pesticides and chemical weed killers. We believe in the concept of regenerative farming and respect the abundant microscopic life that lives within the soil. This approach naturally keeps plant and insect issues to a minimum and is beneficial to the carbon footprint.
We take the same approach with our bees. We tend to them weekly and intervene as little as possible. Unfortunately, due to the introduction of the Varroa mite in the U.S. in the late 1980s, we do have to treat. We do our best to keep these counts to a minimum to keep the colony healthy. Without intervention, the colony will also be infected with the diseases these mites carry, be weakened, and potentially die. However, our bees are NOT treated during the nectar flow (honey season). We treat before and after. Keeping the honey as pure as we can. We harvest the honey in August using an extractor.
It is then filtered, never heated or altered, and then bottled for distribution to the local food pantries and of course, to our volunteers as a thank you for their service.
OUR FUTURE
Our long-term plan is to continue adding more strawberry plants as we can get volunteers willing to help weed, harvest, and package and have the financial means to do so. Additionally, we are currently investigating hydroponic farming so we can provide vegetables year-round. We have taken some classes and collaborated with several other organizations that farm this way. By God’s grace, we hope to launch this aspect of the Farm on a small scale in 2025.