We think of our growing operation, which is less than an acre, as a large vegetable garden that is refined and efficient.  We use natural sustainable methods to grow vegetables by hand with a passion for high quality produce on small garden plots, in high tunnels, hoop houses without the use of tractors.  Farming by hand means that we replace the large tractor with hand tools.  All of our planting, cultivation, and harvesting is accomplished manually.  We do use tools and techniques that are modern and efficient to help us remain competitive. We believe that natural practices are necessary to produce the most nutrient dense, sustainably grown products possible. So we are following strict growing practices for producing our vegetables.  Our goal is to build and maintain extremely fertile soil, as it is the soil which imparts flavor to the produce. Therefore, we are using tons of fine, compost, cover crops, and certain minerals to grow and maintain a soil rich in life and nutrient balanced.  Since we are working very hard to improve the structure and life of our soil, we want to protect it by not tilling or driving machinery over it.  Our permanent bed system and no-till practices keep our soil disturbance to a minimum.  Instead of tillage we use a broad fork to manually loosen our soil which: maintains soil structure and life, reduces weed pressure, and improves soil fertility.