Whipstone Farm

Farming To Sustain Community

Paulden, Arizona · By Tim Swinehart

Having cleaned chimneys for much of his life, Cory Rade decided about ten years ago to mix things up a bit and try farming. He was unfazed by the fact that he and his family had very little farming experience. Today, as he talks about how he came to love being a farmer, Cory retains some of the archetypal chimney sweep’s good nature – a sparkle in his eye, excitement in his voice – as he describes how they learned to handle the soil on Whipstone Farm, north of Chino Valley, Arizona, and how he lives and works there today with his partner, Shanti Leinow.

“Everything we’ve learned has basically been from books and from experiments,” he says. “It’s one grand experiment, really; every year that’s what we do.” It took about seven years just to “get the soil right,” which has involved a long process of soil enrichment with manure inputs, as well as many unsuccessful experiments with different irrigation systems. “Since we didn’t have anybody in the area to teach us, we spent $1,500 to $2,000 just experimenting on different types of irrigation systems.” The result was a system of drip hoses that can be tailored to suit the needs of individual rows of crops, including peas, beans, lettuce, spinach, radishes, turnips, beets, herbs, cucumbers, squash, eggplant, tomatoes, onions, garlic, shallots, and more.

The crops at Whipstone are grown organically. That’s been a challenge too. “Our goal was always to go organic, but we didn’t realize how hard it is,” Cory says. “We didn’t realize how many bugs there are or how many weeds there are. Trying to find ways to combat those has been one of our issues.” Some of the bugs are eaten by the ladybugs and praying mantids he releases; others are distracted by “catch crops,” such as potatoes, planted upwind of the most desirable crops. That keeps pests, such as the blister bugs that have virtually destroyed the alfalfa-growing industry in the area, away from the higher-value plants. When Cory discovered that field bindweed, one of the most common weeds in the area, has a high protein content, he began feeding it to animals on the farm, figuring that it might as well be used for something.

Challenge and experimentation have also defined Whipstone’s marketing. Not everything that grows well in the Chino Valley area is a broadly popular food, which is a challenge for farmers who sell directly to consumers through a community-supported agriculture project and at regional farmers markets. Recently, Cory got into fava beans in a big way. “We had to experiment ourselves a bit in order to tell people how to eat them and how to prepare them. We were lucky because the chefs at the market used them in cooking demonstrations, and that got people interested.” Providing free tasting samples at markets, too, entices customers.

Cory likes selling directly to those who will eat his produce. “When people buy the food that I grow from me at the market, I have the feeling that they think of me when they eat it,” he says. “Say someone eats some really good spinach and then comes back to tell me about it or tell a friend about it – that’s a good feeling. At the grocery store you go get what you want and you bring it home, but you don’t know how much work it took to get it there, what country it comes from, or how it was grown. There’s no relationship to that food, it’s just fodder. As my kids were growing up, we found that most of their friends’ parents rarely cooked a meal. If it didn’t come frozen or in a can or in a box, they didn’t eat it.”

Cory is president of the Prescott Farmers Market, and he has made extending its circle of community a priority. Sellers there have begun accepting food stamps and vouchers from the federal Women with Infants and Children program, both of which allow low-income shoppers to buy at the market. “People are coming down and they’re experimenting with food,” he says. “They’ll look at stuff sometimes and say ‘What is this? I’ve never seen this before… okay, I’ll take some!’ because they get twenty dollars that they can use to try something new. They wouldn’t go to the grocery store and spend twenty dollars on anise or rhubarb or favas, but they come to the farmers market and somebody is there to talk to them about it. They make that connection and then try it out.

“The customers get a community feeling just by supporting local growers. I’m sure they’re thinking community when they’re buying something. The thing that’s amazing is that you’ve got these people that come out year after year. You get sixty-year-old people, forty-year-old people, and twenty-year-old people, and they’re out there conversing and shaking hands. It’s real community and real friendship, and everyone looks forward to that interaction each week.” It’s clear from the sparkle in Cory’s eye and the excitement in his voice that he does, too.

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This is one of many stories from the Four Corners region that were printed in A New Plateau: Sustaining the Lands and Peoples of Canyon Country, edited by Peter Friederici and Rose Houk. This book was a project of the Center for Sustainable Environments at Northern Arizona University and Renewing the Countryside, with assistance from the Museum of Northern Arizona. A New Plateau can be purchased at the Renewing the Countryside online bookstore or the Northern Arizona University bookstore, or request it at your local bookstore.

Shanti Leinow