Ethan DeLorenzo, Permaculture Farmer at Farmstad
Well Grounded
Ethan DeLorenzo is a great resource in farming and in life. From a successful career as a producer and engineer in the music industry to settling down on a community farm on Vashon Island, his experiences are varied, yet harmonistic. As he continues his work as a multidisciplinary artist, Ethan dedicates much of his time to the land – as both a farmer and a forager – supplying restaurants around the island and running his latest project, the farm stand.
Ethan is not just a farmer though, but a dear friend of mine. From Venice to New York (but never in-between) and usually over food, we make room in our schedules. While conversations tend to revolve around life (and some business), this time we took a different approach, focusing solely on his work, the farm, and future demand for sustainable produce.
SS: Briefly, tell us how lockdown affected the farm?
The lockdown has been a positive experience as far as the farm is concerned. Nature flourished, more free time to be with and tend to the land. Our community involvement grew. More CSA type orders from customers. More free time to be on the farm. Also this time was used to build our own farm stand and put energy into having a website and email subscription list. Sadly, I didn’t get to participate much in the farming at this time due to being a health risk to some of the older more prevalent members of our ecovillage community. I spent this time primarily building my foraging skills.
SS: How did you become committed to permaculture and foraging?
Having my son Ode is what influenced me to become more serious about permaculture and foraging. It’s crucial to me to be able to care for him in even the most extreme circumstances. Teaching him the cycling perspective of regeneration that comes along with permaculture, that I see very vividly in most natural systems, seemed like a really important lesson to instill in him, to see how vast systems can work and benefit one another. I wanted to be fully prepared to raise him and pass down important skills, that he may not otherwise have learned in the modern world or from a school education. Being in nature has always been a large part of my being, so to attain the skills to forage and learn from the forests delicate functioning system comes quite natural to me.
SS: What types of restaurants do you serve? Are you seeing a spike in orders now?
I have in the past created relationships with the local restaurants here on Vashon Island, where we are located. For a few years I would supply friends restaurants with things I’ve personally grown or foraged. Last year we began supplying restaurants more heavily when our farm operation grew. The three main restaurants are Earthen, The Ruby Brink and Gravy. We now mainly focus on our farm stand and CSA orders. We have a service called Vashon Fresh here on island that really supports the community. It has helped deliver food to elders thru the pandemic. It also reallocates excess produce and supplies our local food bank. It really meets the demand of our small community on island and we love to work with them. Demand has gone up during the lockdown and has stayed fairly consistent. We personally seem to be staying steady in demand, even with the large change of reopening.
SS: How is the long-term health of the soil managed?
This land has always been organically farmed. We have our composting system in which we amend our soil with. Last year we implemented a soil management system with the addition of fish compost. It has been incredible for our yields and soil health. Each year our organic matter increases and the soil excels in nutrient content.
SS: What kind of diversity do you have on the farm?
It’s lush. We currently do not do any animal or poultry services, although we do have some chickens for own egg consumption. We primarily focus on vegetables, fruits and a small cut flower operation.
We have a century old apple orchard, 8 different varieties. Pear, cherry, peach, plum and black walnut trees. Blueberries, blackberries and 3 varieties of raspberries. An organic vegetable farm and cut flower garden… kale, chard, arugula, spinach, lettuce, cabbage, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, broccoli, kohlrabi, pole and bush beans. You name it, we most likely grow it.
SS: What do you think is the role of the farmer in influencing everyday food culture?
To grow what they are connected to. To be in alignment with the land in which they cultivate. Keep it simple when you can.
SS: Sustainably farmed produce can come with a higher price tag. What are ways we can educate price conscious operators?
To grow regeneratively can come at a higher cost. It tends to be more expensive. Growing varieties of rare or challenging produce on smaller plots of regeneratively farmed land has its benefits and downfalls. One, there is less competition when you grow things others may not be, in a way that is nourishing the land. Restaurants and chefs take a lot of interest in these type of farms but it doesn’t always mean the business from a few restaurants can sustain the livelihood of the farm. When you only have so much land and resources for use, most farmers tend to choose to grow safer crops that are more so guaranteed to produce well. Small farmers simply operate with a different work flow than larger incentivized mono crop farms, with large plots of land. Setting up a successful business model while working outside of the norm of a larger farm operation can be difficult. In time can lead to a thriving business, the key is to you get your products to the end consumer and successfully create interest in the passion and process of regenerative farming.
SS: Labels aside, what are things restaurants could ask farmers to better inform themselves and their customers?
I think an enjoyable connection with restaurant and farmers happens when the conversation of what’s available seasonally happens. It seems to be a fun way to enter into a relationship. For example, berries or something like squash blossoms will only be freshly available for the summer season. Things will not be available year round, which has been kind of expected in a restaurant experience to the common man for a while now. It seems more and more these days, smaller farm to table restaurants value cultivating relationships with their farmer, learning how they manage their land and sharing that information with their patrons.
SS: Lastly, what is your national outlook on restaurant demand for sustainable produce moving forward?
I hope it continues to grow as it seems to be. So more people can continue to grow sustainably and supply their local communities. I hope it then leads to customers finding an interest to grow their own food or even go as far as growing less conventional produce. The more people growing their own food, the better.