INCUBATOR FARMER IS GAINING GROUND IN AGRICULTURE INDUSTRY

MARGARET FELTS WORKS ON HER SMALL FARM IN WOODINVILLE.

By Laura Guido

Losing a job almost always results in a significant life change, but for Margaret Felts, it was completely life-changing. She worked for years in marketing at a corporate engineering firm, until getting laid off.

“It was kind of a blessing in disguise when I got laid off there,” Felts said, standing on her quarter-acre piece of farmland in Woodinville.

Felts is now the owner of Gaining Ground, a small-scale growing operation that’s an incubator farm with the organization Viva Farms.

She’d been gardening at home most of her adult life and had a strong interest in eating healthfully and sustainably, but she didn’t know exactly how to get started. However, one of the first things she learned was that

farming land, especially in Western Washington, is quite expensive.

She started her journey by volunteering at local farms and at the 21 Acres Center Local Food & Sustainable Living, which is where she learned about Viva’s program.

The nonprofit organization Viva Farms hosts a training program and serves as a farm business incubator, aiming to “lower the barriers for beginning farmers and create the opportunity for success,” its website states. The Practicum in Sustainable Agriculture is an applied, three-quarter course in organic production and small farm management.

“It’s super beneficial learning about crops and pests, and pest management,” Felts said of the program.

She completed the course in 2019 and was given the option to become an incubator farmer on Viva’s King County property, located on 140th Place Northeast. With access to land, equipment and knowledge of nearby fellow farmers, it seemed like a perfect stepping stone.

In 2020, she started Gaining Ground. Now, her small plot is filled with produce that she likes to eat, she said. Her interest in healthy food is not only a main driver for her starting to grow it, but it’s also something she likes to pass on to her customers.

“I think there’s a lack of education about where our food comes from,” Felts said. “… I became really interested in, not only expanding my garden at home, but at my farm, educating my customers about eating locally and seasonally. I think that’s a good start.”

On a recent summer afternoon, the produce on her land included artichokes, onions, broccoli, pole beans, summer squash, lettuce, kale. Last year, she said, she tried including things her customers requested but that she didn’t necessarily enjoy eating, and she learned her lesson when she was stuck with far too much excess fennel for her liking.

“This year, I really stuck to my guns,” she said.

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She has also focused her operation on running as sustainably as possible, with little irrigation, no pesticides, and as few inputs to the soil as possible. Doing business so close to other farmers has helped her pick up new strategies too, she said.

She learned about interplanting, where different plants are put in the same bed to maximize the small space. She’s also figured out the different considerations that need to be made, such as digging small trenches alongside her beds to keep her plants from flooding. Water that drains into the trenches also has the added benefit of percolating into the soil around the roots, meaning she doesn’t have to water those plants as often, even if it has been a long time since it has rained.

During the recent heat wave, she found that her plants weathered well with some of her techniques, including using a plastic mulch that helped keep moisture in the ground.

With these practices, however, there are always going to be some unique challenges. For instance, she uses beneficial insects to keep pests away, so some of her produce may come with some nibbles taken out of it.

“They’re part of this ecosystem, and that’s just part of it,” she said.

The clientele around Woodinville seem to be aware of and understanding of this aspect of organic farming, she said.

“It’s easier being an organic farmer here,” she said. “I feel really lucky. I think that’s a benefit of being in this area.”

Learn more about the farm at GainingGround2020.com or about Viva Farms at VivaFarms.org

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