Slice of Heaven Farm

About

We want to be part of the change that is happening against the industrial food system that is currently in place. We want to be part of the movement to help slow down climate change and set good examples for future generations. We started farming because we wanted to embrace a simpler and more meaningful lifestyle and set a precedent for our children that we are raising. We want to encourage the next generation to be connected to the planet that nurtures them, to be conscious about the resources that sustain them and to respect all living beings. We have a passion for food in all of its forms: growing it, cooking it, eating it. Farming is the lifestyle for us!

We started Slice of Heaven Farm in Louisiana in 2010 after we moved from a tiny condo in New Orleans to 17 acres in Folsom. Neither of us had ever farmed before and we didn’t even have much gardening experience. But we wanted to pursue a wholesome lifestyle for our family and contribute positively to our community, while doing something in connection with nature. We read a lot of books and just started putting our hands in the soil. A year of practicing how to grow vegetables led us to our first market (and our first child!). Each new season taught us how to be better farmers, along with much reading and attending farming conferences. By 2014 and three children later, we were selling vegetables at the best farmers market in Louisiana and working closely with a handful of restaurants in New Orleans.

In the summer of 2014, we relocated our farm to beautiful Sandy, Oregon. 2019 will be our 5th season of farming in Sandy and we love it! Our goal is to serve our immediate community and we do so by running a large CSA program and selling our vegetables at our two closest markets (the Mt. Hood Farmers Market and the Gresham Farmers Market). We strive to grow the most beautiful, delicious, nutritious and healthy produce for our community. We are a true small family farm with Mother Nature friendly methods.

Products

Arugula, Chinese Greens, Collards, Kale, Lettuce, Mustard Greens, Radishes, Salad Greens, Salad Mix, Spinach, Eggs, Pickles, Beets, Broccoli, Cabbage, Carrots, Daikon, Green Onions, Kohlrabi, Onions, Peas, Swiss Chard, Turnips, Brussels Sprouts, Cucumber, Eggplant, Garlic, Green Beans, Hot Peppers, Okra, Potatoes, Summer Squash, Sweet Peppers, Tomatoes, Winter Squash, Zucchini, Cauliflower

Farming Practices

Growing food for people is a privilege and to grow it responsibly is an art. We aim to provide our community with a wholesome and quality alternative to industrial food. At Slice of Heaven Farm, we grow food from living soil, which means we add more than we take away. We do this by amending with compost and using minimal tillage on our permanent bed systems.

Biodiversity is the secret to nature’s success on this planet. We intend to mimic nature as closely as possible in our farming practices. This means growing things other than just vegetables. Flowers, trees, and herbs are just a few elements of our farm landscape that give refuge to birds and insects. We also purposefully leave portions of our farm wild to leave habitat for wild companions. With the encouragement of as many life forms as possible, we may lose some crops but we enter a sustainable balance that is healthy and naturally occurring.

Our gardens are sacred places where we begin the healing that will help end the age of human irresponsibility. We use no pesticides. Instead of pesticides, we use insectary planting, companion planting, and hedgerows to attract beneficials and increase predation of inevitable “pests”. We believe in balances. Everyone frowns to see an aphid but ladybugs bring us joy. The truth is we need both. We also use physical barriers such as electric fencing, netting and screens. Lastly, we remove “pests” by hand picking.

Instead of herbicides, we cultivate the soils in a timely manner. We also plant furrows or integrate cover crops into vegetable beds such as tomatoes and clover or potatoes and wheat. We generally believe that there is no such thing as a weed. Instead of synthetic fertilizers, we use cover crops, crop rotation, compost, naturally found or occurring rock powders, fish emulsion, seaweed extract. We believe in building healthy soil to grow healthy food. We use practices that only encourage healthy microbial life in our soil. “Feed the soil, not the plant” is a common phrase heard on our farm. We purchase all of our seed from companies that have signed the Safe Seed Pledge. The Safe Seed Pledge assures that the seeds are non-GMO. We raise chickens for eggs and we do not use any hormones or antibiotics in our flock ever. We refrain from using the plastic mulches that are very common in organic operations. We are trying to mimic nature and don’t believe using large amounts of disposable materials aligns with our efforts.

We harvest our vegetables in the day or two before our farmers markets and CSA pickups to ensure the freshest, best tasting and most nutrient dense vegetables. Most of our vegetables get washed in our pure artesian well water (snow melt from Mt. Hood in the aquifer 400 feet below our farm) and then stored in our walk-in cooler. We keep all of the greens on our vegetables to demonstrate their freshness. (TIP: if you want your root vegetables to last longer in the fridge, remove the greens before storing). Of course, certain vegetables like potatoes, onions, garlic and winter squash have a long shelf life and are harvested all at once and then stored properly to distribute for CSA and markets. Our goal is for our customers to experience the joy of vegetables straight fresh out of the soil!

Contact

Social Media