We recently visited Cascade Valley Farm to see where farmer Matt Motley grows the ingredients for his homemade pickles, salsas, and hummus. Matt has been farming on his ½ acre for about three years and has been pleasantly surprised by how much yield he’s gotten from such a small parcel of land.

In addition to pickled vegetables, salsas, and hummus, Matt also sells tortilla chips and pita breads that he makes himself in a local commercial bakery. Cascade Valley has many different products made by Matt in various facilities. He has a place where he pickles, a place where he bakes the pita bread, a commercial kitchen where he does the rest, in addition to the farm, where he grows the produce, plus another plot of land in Eastern Washington where he grows the chickpeas for his hummus. With so much variety, he is constantly running around and can be incredibly busy all summer long.

What started as a side project for him to work on after putting the kids to bed as a stay-at-home Dad has transformed into a more-than-full-time gig. “It’s not rare to have a week where I work 110 hours,” he says. When Matt started his business, he was purely a processor, not a farmer, making pickles and other shelf-stable goods. But he grew curious about the possibility of growing his own ingredients. He wanted to know exactly where his produce was coming from before it went into his pickles, salsas, and hummuses, and the best way to do that was to grow it himself.

With guidance and support from other farmers, Matt started growing the vegetables for his products in 2019. Much of his support came from Erik Goheen of Sammamish Farms, who leases neighboring farmland on the same property. Matt volunteers on Erik’s farm in exchange for access to his farm tools and greenhouses for propagating seeds. Matt is incredibly grateful for Erik’s support and talks fondly of the ways they have helped each other out over the years.

Cascade Valley Farm is also a family affair. Matt’s four kids are all involved in some way, some more than others. His youngest son, Ethan, has fallen in love with farming, just like his father, and even started his own plot where he grew an award-winning pumpkin, among other produce like corn and squash.

Through the support from Erik, and Matt’s wife and kids, Matt has grown Cascade Valley Farms into a successful business with a strong presence in farmers markets across the state. Matt is grateful for the opportunity that farmers markets provided for him to grow his business from nothing. He sees farmers markets as one of the best ways to start a business with a lower barrier to entry than many other business ventures.  

Between his business savvy and his passion for farming and good food, Matt has built a business out of what he loves. He puts care and hard work into every product he makes, from baking the pita bread from scratch to hand-picking the jalapenos for his salsa. You can try his products for yourself at the Columbia City Farmers Market, University District Farmers Market, and West Seattle Farmers Market, as well as other seasonal markets in the summers.