Meet Our Farmers: Wanderwood Farm

Farmers Colin and Jen in the wash station.

When visiting the Wanderwood Farm stand at market, you’ll find gorgeous produce piled high atop tables, complimented by buckets of fragrant flowers waiting to be made into bouquets. The abundant display is tended by Farmer Jen who, along with her partner Colin, also grows and harvests everything you see. In farming, the pair have found an outlet for their creativity, love of the outdoors, and getting their hands dirty.

Jen and Colin’s journey to farming unfolded organically. What began as an experiment in self sufficiency and regenerative subsistence gardening evolved into an ecologically focused organic farm. They realized the principles of their homestead lifestyle could serve as a basis for sustainable agriculture, and have been guided by that ethos since.

Wanderwood Farm continues to evolve naturally. Originally a produce-only farm, Jen and Colin expanded the operation to cut flowers after intercropping flowering plants with vegetables to attract beneficial insects. Jen is a self-professed plant nerd, and loves the challenge of growing unique flowering plants that have differing requirements for propagation. “With growing cut flowers, it was more of a strong intuitive feeling of something I needed and wanted to do rather than an informed business choice… The harder a plant is to start the more I seem drawn to want to grow it!”

Jen and Colin have big dreams for Wanderwood Farm. They draw inspiration from both traditional and contemporary farming practices, continually learning and experimenting with eco-agricultural methods. One day they hope to own and steward land where they can take what they’ve learned and push those ideas to their fullest potential.

”Our interdependence with both farming and farmers market communities has heightened our awareness of the importance of bioregional food sovereignty and all that a movement towards this may entail--as we continue to evolve we're curious to see what new roles the farm may take in helping to achieve these long-term, social goals.”