When I bought the property that would become Happy Medium Farm, it had two things in abundance: blackberries and hay. Both are a mixed blessing. Blackberries are delicious, and a lot of farms grow them on purpose for fresh and frozen berries, jam, etc. But here in the Pacific Northwest, Himalayan blackberries are incredibly invasive. They take over entire landscapes, choking out other plants and reducing biodiversity. Ditto with hay grass. It can be useful for feeding animals, as well as other farm purposes like mulch and compost material, but it can also be difficult to control once it’s established.
Every year, we have a little less of each of these, as intentional plantings start to replace them, but HMF will always grow some of each. This is what we’re growing in the 2025 season.
Blackberries
Himalayan blackberries may be invasive, but they’re delicious and freeze well, and so we continue to harvest them for a year-round bounty of fruit, as we work to control them and limit their spread.
Garlic
We grow Duganski hardneck garlic, and are actively experimenting with other varieties. This year, the farm produced a healthy crop of garlic scapes as well as bulbs for storage.
– 2025 garlic crop summary
Potatoes
2025 is our first year growing Pontiac red potatoes on the farm, and we hope to greatly expand the bed space dedicated to them next year.
– 2025 potato crop summary
Onions
We experimented this season with growing Ailsa Craig onions, and like experiments sometimes do, it has mostly failed. But we’ll keep testing other varieties to find and adapt one or more to fit our conditions.
Grains
The long-term plan for HMF is to grow a number of staple grains, and we’re starting this summer with buckwheat, which acts as both a great summer cover crop between other harvests and a short-season grain crop in itself. So far, so good, and we hope to expand into other grains like wheat and corn soon.
Greens
We don’t grow a lot of salad greens at the moment, preferring less labor-intensive and more storage-friendly crops. However, we are experimenting with an heirloom variety of swiss chard. We’ll let you know how it goes!
Herbs
Lavender and dill are the herbs currently growing in our beds, but more are coming soon.
Flowers
This season, the farm is producing loads of wild and cultivated flowers, including grand collomia, nasturtium, echinacea and more.