Three Sisters Farm

Bioshelter Farmers

Sandy Lake, Pennsylvania

Their 2,500 square foot bioshelter -- a structure containing a mini-ecosystem that supports the growth of a plethora of ingredients that go into their popular salad blends -- makes more money than a comparable field of hay or corn ever could. Located on the five acre Three Sisters Farm inSandy Lake, Pennsylvania, the bioshelter also costs little to operate, relying primarily on solar energy for heat. It's the foundation on which its owners, Darrell and Linda Frey, have built an enviable position in the niche crop marketplace, selling certified organic salad mixes, edible flowers, vegetables and herbs primarily to high-end restaurants and CSA subscribers from Pittsburgh, just 60 miles to the south.

"Our five acres of good silt loam with rolling topography gave us a pond site as well as leveled and contoured gardens and a number of microclimate possibilities," says Darrell. These are important considerations when designing your farm using permaculture design principles. According to Three Sisters Farm, which increasingly consults with clients and offers courses on permaculture, permaculture is a system of land use planning which incorporates concepts of ecosystem dynamics, ecologically appropriate technologies, and an ethic of care of the earth into a comprehensive design system.

Since starting their operations in 1989, one year after they put up their innovative bioshelter, they've turned a cornfield into a cornucopia of natural -- and diverse -- abundance which includes extensive market gardens, perennial gardens, 1,000 square foot spiral herb and flower garden, 1,000 square foot medicinal garden, and their innovative bioshelter, all integrated into the landscape through permaculture design.

"We grow a variety of crops, supplying eight to ten restaurant or catering company accounts, two grocers and fourteen CSA subscribers," comments Darrell, noting both the diversification of what they grow and to whom they end up selling their vegetables, herbs and flowers that provides the $40,000 per year gross income. "Direct sales to Pittsburgh restaurants and catering companies are the main focus of our business along with serving CSA shareholders and half a dozen customers arriving to the farm each week to pick up our vegetables. Our customers look to us as food artists, viewing our diversity of ingredients as the creative palate from which we concoct our salad mixes." In addition to their three grown children, an intern often assists on the farm during the busy summer season.

"Having diverse crops that include herbs, vegetables, flowers and salad, has allowed for crop failures and irregular weather problems to be less a factor on overall solvency of the enterprise," says Darrell, who considers his operation a small scale agricultural enterprise incubator. "We have school groups, teachers, and individuals regularly visiting the farm. Some, like Christine McHenry-Glenn, strike up a limited partnership with us. Christine now sells native plants on a seasonal basis. The plants are propagated in our bioshelter."

Managed as an ecosystem, it's the bioshelter that stands out as one of Three Sisters Farm's innovations. Explains Darrell, "Our bioshelter allows us to start seeds in the early spring, provides heated space for us to maintain other plants needed for herb cuttings as well as for making compost, serves as our office space, potting shed, chicken house, and storage barn, and encompasses just about anything else we might need on a small scale farm." Built in 1988 with $60,000 in funding support from the Pennsylvania Energy Office and the Frey's own investment of $30,000, the bioshelter allows Three Sisters Farm to grow and sell their products year-round. It also helps the operation reduce its carbon dioxide emissions -- the leading contributor to global warming -- curb pollution, and reduce demand for electricity. They also employ other market-extending growing strategies outside, including the use of polytunnels and cold frames.

"We are trying to promote small scale, intensive market gardening and apply permaculture design in order to be ecological and energy efficient," says Darrell. "Due to its design, our bioshelter only uses about $300 worth of wood for supplemental heat each year, a fraction of what traditional greenhouses might cost to be heated." The design of the greenhouse uses both an active and passive solar heating system. Each bed in the greenhouse is made from cinder blocks and contains a gravel bottom which is heated by a fan-assisted labyrinth of ductwork; heat radiates upward into the soil and plants. A 600-gallon indoor concrete pool filled with water helps regulate temperatures.

Working through the Pennsylvania Association of Sustainable Agriculture (PASA), Three Sisters Farm also pulled in a $4,300 grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection's Office of Energy and Technological Development to add a 125 Watt photovoltaic system to convert sunlight to electricity in order to power a 12 Volt pump for their irrigation system.

Three Sisters Farm is getting back to farming with, rather than against, nature. "A lot of our emphasis is on ecology. We're always learning more about nature. Most surprising is how quick various species filled ecological niches, like when toads nestled themselves in crevices near a water tank in the bioshelter or more numerous birds, insects and wasps started congregating on the grounds." Darrell reaffirms, in a humble awe: "This was just a cornfield when we started."

When asked where Three Sisters Farm is headed, Darrell replies, "teaching and tours are a growing part of our business." So besides being farmers and bioshelter designers, they're becoming educators -- helping others better understand the ecology that sustains agriculture.