Fresh, Local, Organic Produce
Offering Shares in Community Supported Agriculture (CSA)

Lindencroft Farm is a small, family run, CCOF-certified organic farm located in Ben Lomond, California. We lovingly grow the highest quality vegetables, herbs, fruit, and flowers. When you buy a share in our CSA program, you get a weekly box of the finest seasonal produce picked at the peak of ripeness and delivered to a convenient location.

Find out more about our CSA and our schedule of crops, or see photos of Lindencroft Farm.

How We Operate the Farm

We currently have about one acre in production, growing entirely in special raised beds. Why are they special? We excavate a full 3 feet of our native very sandy soil for each bed, line the bed with steel hardware cloth, and refill with a mix of organic compost, aged and composted horse manure, and native soil. Then we surround the bed with a traditional redwood frame. From that point on, these beds will never be tilled, compacted, or otherwise disturbed by machines or feet. They are refreshed between seasons with cover crops and natural organic compost. We use drip irrigation exclusively, and have extensive native flowering hedgerows to provide healthy habitat for beneficial insects and birds. The entire farm site is surrounded by redwood forest and oak meadowland, teaming with wildlife. Our philosophy of farming is to gently coax the best produce from our beds by creating as natural an environment as we can. Each year, the farm is healthier, more robust, and more beautiful than the last.

We start nearly everything from seed. Since our goal is to serve only our local community, we wait to harvest until the food is fully ripe and ready to eat. We grow year-round, striving to make available a full range of delicious and healthy food, rather than specializing in a just a few crops at a time.

We believe modern agriculture in this county has moved its focus from flavor and nutrition to yields, transportability, and profits. But, in fact, yields in a well-run sustainable organic farm are excellent, resulting in a potential for a reasonable, if small, profit. Transportability is a non-issue by selling locally. Thus we feel we are doing our part to cut down on wasted energy and green house gases.

Speaking of greenhouse gases, in January 2007 we have installed a large photovotaic (PV) system to generate all the electricity we need on the farm. This system will produce some 18 million watts of electricity per year. This will eliminate some 3,000 pounds of greenhouse gas polution each year.

Another way we try to be gentle to the earth and energy wise is to use recaptured rainwater for irrigation rather than pumping everthing from our deep well. In 2006, we installed a rainwater collector to capture some 236,000 gallons of water. This should meet our annual irrigation \ needs.

We’ve mentioned that we are CCOF certified. What does that mean? The California Certified Organic Farmers Association is the largest certifying organization for organic food in the world. It also has the toughest standards. For details, please visit their website.

For us, being an organic, sustainable farm is something that we deeply believe in. The reason we decided to become certified by CCOF really comes down to a simple notion - a commitment. We, as farmers, are committed to follow the highest standards and practices of organic farming, and the CCOF certification allows our customers to know exactly what that commitment is.

Contacts

We always welcome your input and suggestions. You may visit the farm at any time provided you call first to ensure that we will be available. Our phone and e-mail contacts are listed at the bottom of every page on the Lindencroft Farm website.

Last updated: March 30, 2007

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