It’s a rather unexpected path, but we started our return to a more self-reliant, rural life back in 2008 when growing vegetables organically in our suburban yard and flower beds. A love of the outdoors, good clean food, music, building stuff and a desire to grow and share the best it of all culminated in the journey to the farmstead.
Our vision was to reintroduce the skills and knowledge of natural farming practices to our families and neighbors offering the opportunity for all to share in the tremendous return. Our goals included achieving long-term sustainability, supporting our local communities, and simply; leaving the campsite better than we found it.
In the spring of 2010 we set out in earnest to find the ideal location looking at seemingly everything available from 10 to a hundred acres (raw land, existing homesteads, and operating farms) anything that could support and become the foundation for our vision. This turned out to be far more difficult than expected… (residual effect of the Three Bears – or something akin)
After literally hundreds of property visits, in the early summer of 2011, we finally found the new home for our yet unnamed farm. Just north of 50 acres with the perfect balance of pasture, timber, natural habitats, water and modest infrastructure.
Having a complete organic system plan in place and a continually growing infrastructure, 2012 was RedCrate’s first true market year – and it was awesome! As the seasons changed we worked continuously to ensure that the quality of our produce was unsurpassed, while learning to extend our growing seasons, and further expanded our acreage under cultivation.
We also launched our community supported agriculture program (CSA) in the Autumn of 2012 which we ran for the next several years. Modestly at first with just a dozen members in fall but, we grew as we re-learned some basics, learned anew how to better manage our particular soil chemistry and biology and, experimented with lots of growing methods in our one acre experimental garden. Ultimately for three seasons each year, we delivered freshly harvested produce to 80 families, and to a few very select local grocers, each week – direct from the farm and at five community pick-up locations around the Dallas area.
As the kids began embarking on their own journeys and demand from our day jobs increased significantly we made the difficult decision to end our CSA program in 2016. We narrowed our focus from growing roughly 120 varietals a year to just a few which we could co-op with a few other local, organic farmers leveraging some (then) new and innovative distribution networks to markets and CSA participants.
In the past couple of years while focused a lot on ‘day job’ work we’ve been adding trees to our little orchard with a food forest design in mind, staying close to our small community, doing maintenance on everything we’ve built to date, being helpful where we can, and have stacked up a long list of new, exciting, and (hopefully) fun projects.
We still believe that there’s nothing better than a good meal with family and friends. Better still is when that meal is prepared with care using the very best ingredients and the air is filled with laughter and music. Vibrant colors, rich textures, depth of flavors, expansive aromas, and dense nutrients… Which is why we’ve always grown long-line, heirloom varieties.
And as the seasons change on the farm, and in our lives, we’re going to enjoy that while we tackle and share that growing list of new projects with all y’all.
Oh, and the name? Well, let’s just say that the boss really, really likes red.