Warm Valley Farm started its commercial life as a productive pear orchard in the late 1890’s. The original historic fruit barn was built in 1901 to house, and cool the pears before transportation by boat to the mainland. At the turn of the century, our pears were sold as far as New York City. We’ve also been told about George Gibbs who may have lived on this land and first brought bulbs here from the Netherlands
We are dedicated to the biodiversity of plant and animal life on Warm Valley Farm, its soil health, and providing an abundance of healthy food to our incredible local community. Our practices include carbon sequestration in our forests and pasture lands. We actively compost all livestock waste and return it to the soil in our Market Garden beds, and Orchards. We use organic practices in all our growing. We rely on broadforks and hand tools whenever possible. This fall we are investing in solar power for the farm. We are also striving to become a carbon-neutral farm.
We are Land Hosts and Site Managers for OCPA (Orcas Community Participatory Agriculture). We provide land and a deep education to teach participants how to grow their own food, and they are then able to harvest and take a share of a large variety of vegetables, herbs, and flowers.