Grant
Gibbs, a founding member of Tilth Producers of
Washington,
started what he calls the Home Farm in Chumstick
Valley, Chelan County in 1975. He’s sold apples
and pears from his 500 tree orchard to the Co-op
for over 20 years, when Simon Henderson was the
produce buyer in our Co-op. He has four
generations on the Home Farm these days,
counting 86 year old adopted family member
Arthur Ball, a fruit tramp since 1939, who wants
no money, only veggies. Gibbs brings on two farm
apprentices each year and estimates that he’s
taught over 40 students by now.
He farms another 30 acres near Chelan, in Navaree Coulee, focusing on sweet corn, specialty potatoes, berries, hay, and grain. He farms land for Sage Mountain Natural Foods Store in Leavenworth, where they carry his organic eggs.
The Gibbses raise small scale organic chickens, turkeys, pork, and beef on the Home Farm, where his daughter-in-law Danielle has taken over the market garden operations, freeing Grant’s hands to focus on his new projects - which include growing organic grains and learning the intricacies of matching feed crops with livestock needs. He closed that loop a few years ago. New crops Gibbs plans for this year include: flax, garbanzo beans, buckwheat, VOP for seed’n’feed, and hay for his grass-fed cows when the snow comes. He’s working on a second try at lentils and vetch.
He’s talking with Fairhaven Flour Mill about milling up his next year’s harvest, and just needs seed cleaning and packaging equipment to get local organic oats, white and red wheat, triticale, rye, and bearded and beardless barley under way for small scale distribution.
Grant was also the first organic Christmas tree farmer in Washington, although he’s “done with that adventure now.” We’ll miss those Noble Firs!
He farms another 30 acres near Chelan, in Navaree Coulee, focusing on sweet corn, specialty potatoes, berries, hay, and grain. He farms land for Sage Mountain Natural Foods Store in Leavenworth, where they carry his organic eggs.
The Gibbses raise small scale organic chickens, turkeys, pork, and beef on the Home Farm, where his daughter-in-law Danielle has taken over the market garden operations, freeing Grant’s hands to focus on his new projects - which include growing organic grains and learning the intricacies of matching feed crops with livestock needs. He closed that loop a few years ago. New crops Gibbs plans for this year include: flax, garbanzo beans, buckwheat, VOP for seed’n’feed, and hay for his grass-fed cows when the snow comes. He’s working on a second try at lentils and vetch.
He’s talking with Fairhaven Flour Mill about milling up his next year’s harvest, and just needs seed cleaning and packaging equipment to get local organic oats, white and red wheat, triticale, rye, and bearded and beardless barley under way for small scale distribution.
Grant was also the first organic Christmas tree farmer in Washington, although he’s “done with that adventure now.” We’ll miss those Noble Firs!
Gibb's Family Farm, Chelan County, WA
