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Date: 8/31/2022
WARE – Front Yard Farm sells a variety of organically grown fruits and vegetables from their honor system farmstand. Owner/Operator Kelly Wheeler and her husband Chris Allard believe that healthy food comes from healthy soil. They continually strive to improve their soils with the application of nutrient rich compost, mulch, cover crops, and crop rotation.
“The soil is so important to the health of the plant,” Wheeler pointed out. “We focus on adding a lot of organic amendments such as fish emulsion and kelp meal, so we have a robust living soil where the biological activity in the soil helps sustain the plant without the use of chemical fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides.” She continued, “Our focus is to build healthy soil relationships and healthy relationships with insects, worms and other things that keep a garden healthy rather than relying on chemical interventions.”
They currently have organic onions, garlic, a mix of cherry tomatoes, heirloom tomatoes, celery, scallions, jalapenos, shishito peppers, bell peppers, eggplant, summer squash and zucchini. In addition they have sunflowers, a make-your-own bouquet bar, pickling cucumbers, slicing cucumbers, cabbage, kale, carrots, radishes, beets and homemade pottery by Wheeler with cacti and succulents on display. There are also wooden cutting boards and spoons made by Wheeler’s brother Paul and soil conditioners her husband makes.
Wheeler and Allard started Front Yard Farm in 2015, a few years after Wheeler graduated from the University of Massachusetts with a degree in Plant, Soil and Insect Sciences. They were homesteading, growing their own food, and slowly building gardens. Little by little, the couple converted their entire front yard to food production and started putting up greenhouses. They also participated in farmer’s markets, community-supported agriculture (CSA) and farmstand.
“Our intention was to provide organically grown food for our community, “Wheeler explained. “We just wanted to make the food that we were enjoying as homesteaders available to our community.”
When the coronavirus pandemic occurred, Wheeler and Allard pulled back from all of their markets and put their focus into their honor system farmstand. Though they struggled with lack of rain that affected their crops, Wheeler said they’ve done really well this year despite the pitfalls of climate change and how that’s affecting farmers across the country. Front Yard Farm is working with the delivery service, Farmer at the Door, and the Tip Top Country Store in Brookfield.
They will also have a solid crop of ginger for the upcoming fall.
“I love providing a town like Ware with another option to get fresh food,” Wheeler said. “I’ve gotten a lot of heart-warming support from the community. It’s been awesome meeting and interacting with people that love fresh food and gardening.”
The Front Yard Farm is located at 16 Gilbertville Rd. They are open seven days a week from May to October, any time of day. For more information, follow them on Instagram @thefrontyardfarm or Facebook, or for questions, call 330-9915 or email frontyardfarmcsa@gmail.com.