Graham and Bianca from Valhalla farms will be the preface for a short three part series on CSA farms. I met them recently to do an interview for an article about their farm and found more than I bargained for. I ended up with a series about CSA’s on top of it. The best part is that I’m going back to work on the farm with them just for giggles, so I hope that puts in perspective the depth of knowledge that these two have for their trade.
In the Beginning
I always liked that sentence in the Bible, and I thought it fitting to start off the birth of Valhalla Farms. I found it fitting because, well, “it was good.” If you were to step back and take a look at the world, it would seem that man was created to destroy and to hate. His fellow man means nothing, war abounds.
If I were to believe the Bible, and I do, I can see that “God created mankind in his own image.” Oddly enough, in that sentence, he said that he created us, and thus, we are creators. This is the story of what brought about the creation of Valhalla Farms. Graham has been part of war. He has seen death and destruction and hatred to its core. After all of that, he found that his peace was in creating. He had farmed in Arizona in the past and knew that he enjoyed it, but not enough perhaps to calm a storm inside of him.
As with any good man, he is held up by a wonderful woman. In Grahams search for calm, His fiancé Bianca told him to do what he enjoyed. She wanted him to love what he did…and I truly believe that he does.
Be the change
Graham and Bianca both realized that something had to change. They wanted to be part of something productive on an emotional, physical, and communal level. In our interview, one of the things that Graham said was “what do you want your legacy to be?” This word legacy gets thrown around a lot, rarely for reasons of any merit. Legacy can generally mean money, houses, cars, property… but is that really what you want to leave? Wouldn’t the world be better served by knowing how to grow food and eat a balanced healthy diet than by your kids having a 5200 square foot house? Unless they turn it into a homeless shelter or have 40 kids, it doesn’t really serve much real purpose other than taking up space. I guess the real question is, will you be remembered as a producer or a consumer? Did you add any value to the world or were you a parasite to it?
They decided that they wanted to leave something real behind. They wanted to turn Grahams passion for creating into something that people could benefit from. Graham and Bianca are striving toward interpersonal relationships between farmers and the communities they serve to promote not only health, but community, and friendship.
Too much like work
When I asked Graham what advice he had for people who wanted to start a CSA from scratch, he and Bianca looked at each other and said “Don’t.” with a chuckle.
This wasn’t from a competitive standpoint, but a matter of hard work. For a CSA starting out, they have no money to hire help and no money for things like crop insurance. They can’t even take advantage of farming tax breaks until they hit a certain sales number. They had to make a rule that they only work six days a week at the farm because “There is ALWAYS something to do.”
Graham and Bianca are always looking for ways to save time (all while staying organic), and increase efficiency. Every move they make and every plan they plan has to be very well thought out, because if they miss something, they don’t have the means to start over. From the placement of the greenhouse, to how to position their crop rows, to the hand equipment they use to work their land. It all takes time, and as we all know, that is a very limited resource.
Paradigm Shift
When I asked Graham and Bianca why they thought there has been such a shift in the way people think about their food, they had some good insight.
They believe that what once started as a fad turned into a real lifestyle change for a lot of people. People are becoming more health conscious because they are starting to find out the truth about where their food is coming from, what’s in it, and what the effects are on their bodies.
It seems to them that large communities like vegans and the like are a good point of reference for this kind of research. Although we don’t share all of their ideals, they lead a generally “clean” lifestyle in the food they choose and they have blogs and resources everywhere.
It is also the opinion of the writer and of Valhalla Farms that people are getting sick of big government lying to them. It takes very little common sense to know that there is no way something can naturally last as long as it has to to make it to our kitchen table the way it comes from the stores…that and we HATE buying bananas. If I want to eat a banana, I have to go to the store and buy them just to wait a week before they’re ripe. It makes me crazy. I digress. You are finally wising up the the fact that an FDA or USDA stamp really only means that it won’t kill you…that day. As more and more research is done on pesticides, hormones, preservatives, and the like, the news about our “fresh” produce from Meijer gets more and more dire.
Last but not least is your wallet. You’re sick of paying high prices for low quality, low favor, low nutritional food! You work too *$&%^#* hard to throw your money away on things that are of no value to your life. You spend 40 hours or more away from your family to provide for them, but the choices you have at the big stores isn’t cutting it anymore. Enough is enough!
I hope that I have given you a little insight on Valhalla Farms. They, like I assume most CSA farmers, are very passionate and knowledgable about what they do. It’s time to say enough is enough with big farming and big government food and to start saying yes to taking care of your body and your families body. You’re the only one who will.
As always, start small, think big, and stay healthy!
For more information from Valhalla Farms or to sign up for fresh produce, email them at valhallafarm2018@gmail.com