1 – We’re moving! – The county and neighbors have made continuation at our Orem location impossible. We’re moving our entire operation to Fountain Green, about 60 miles south of Orem.

2 – Food will be coming in June. Monday we start planting at our new location. Because of the technology we’re able to leverage e.g. row covers, specially treated plastics, irrigation techniques etc., we will be able to quickly push the crops along.

3 – All members will be contacted as the time for deliveries draws near. We’re got some great things planned for pick up locations including longer time periods, reminder systems, and ways you can customize your box with just the food your family loves.

The Long Version

Jacob’s Cove has been in a state of flux over the past month. We tried to put the plastic on the greenhouse in March. Bad idea. We almost made it just as a cold front came in a few hours earlier than expected. Despite our best efforts to tie down what we had already completed it all blew apart in the wind storm.

Undaunted, as usual, Dale went ahead with planting under the portion of the greenhouse that remained protected but wind continued to be a challenge. It was on one of those windy, challenging days that we received yet another letter from the county. We thought we had dealt with all issues on zoning with the payment of a $600 zoning change fee and filing the month before. Evidently not. The county, because of more complaints from a neighbor, said we had to move our greenhouse. This is impossible without destroying the entire structure. That was the straw that broke the farmers back.

We’ve worked with the county to resolve issues that they blame on the neighbor for pushing. We’ve worked with the neighbor who is civil to our face and then pushes on to the county to find more to complain about. Then we’re caught between the landlord and their relatives who happen to be our neighbor.  Needless to say, it all came crashing down with us standing in the middle.

We’ve invested well over $100K of personal funds in our current greenhouse and were simply tapped out. There was no going forward. We laid off all our laborers and tried to see what we could possibly do to push forward. In the end we decided we simply couldn’t go on and would have to shut down the farm. But what to do with the CSA?

We had a few options:

1 – We could say “Sorry” and move on. The whole CSA concept is based on spreading the risk of growing local food to many people so that no one takes on the entire burden. Legally we could just dump the whole thing but we didn’t want to do that if it could be helped.

2 – We could contact other farmers and ask them to take our CSA clients. This option was actually moving forward with one farmer. The snag we hit was that he wanted to charge each member another $160 per share. We thought this would be problematic though he does put together a great box.

3 – Our last option was to find some way to relocated the farm and keep the CSA running ourselves. We had certain conditions we felt had to be met in order to do it including finding someone interested in financially backing the greenhouse so that it gets rebuilt this summer and planted in plenty of time for winter.

We hoped and worked for #3 but frankly it was a long shot. We are doing things at Jacob’s Cove that have never been done before anywhere in the world. Luckily we connected with a visionary local business man who has been a long time friend of local food. He owns a beautiful, but fallow, piece of ground in Fountain Green. Dale went with our soil scientist last weekend to check out the lay of the land and take soil samples. Everything looked great. In a couple of meetings this week we came to an agreement to move forward.

This means that anything planted at our Orem location will be destroyed when we take down the greenhouse. This is a bit of a loss but the long term benefit of moving to a more friendly environment coupled with financial backing to complete the greenhouse this summer far outweighs the present inconvenience.

Tomorrow ground is being prepared in Fountain Green so that planting can commence on Monday. We’ll initially be planting in an open air area (as opposed to under a greenhouse) which is also fenced from local wildlife. We will then lay out plastic and begin the solarization process on the ground as we build the greenhouse over the top. This will allow us to eliminate all weed seeds in the greenhouse area before we plant. As soon as the solarization and greenhouse are complete we’ll immediately begin planting inside. This should happen in the next 2 months.

Meanwhile we’ll begin deliveries for our CSA with the food being planted next week. Remember, as the CSA begins that you can defer your weeks if what we are harvesting is not what you want to eat. The initial weeks are heavy on greens, peas, and other cool weather foods.

We’re rethinking several aspects of the CSA so if you have suggestions as to how it can improve please leave a comment or shoot us an email.

Thanks for sticking with us. Together we are changing food in Utah and the world.

The title refers to the reality that we can treat and even cure our most deadly diseases with our food choices (forks) rather than surgery (knives) and pharmaceuticals.

If you or someone you know is dealing with heart disease, diabetes, obesity or cancer you owe it to yourself to watch this film.  If you don’t know anyone with those chronic and deadly diseases you are probably reading this in a country other than America.

I was shocked at my husband’s reaction to this film.  I’ll tell you about what he said in a few days.

I first heard of Dr. Lustig when a girlfriend told me that I just had to watch his lecture on sugar.  It is a bit technical and full of medical terminology but also an interesting and understandable lecture on the effects of sugar.  It was a YouTube sensation and has been viewed millions of times.  It certainly changed my family.    I don’t think we could have made the changes we did if I didn’t understand the reasons why it was so important from a well argued scientific point of view.

The first video is his lecture.  His portion begins around the 28th minute.  The second video is the Q & A discussion portion.

This is a 5 part series lasting a little over an hour.  Enjoy!

Here’s a short video from NutritionFacts.org to tell us what current scientific literature has concluded.  You are going to be surprised!

If you haven’t been able to find it in your heart to love this most powerful of plants, here are a couple of videos that may help give you a reason to at least try some new recipes with it in the coming season. I promise to share my plethora of new family favorite recipes including Sour Cream & Onion Kale Chips, Kale Waldorf Salad and African Peanut Stew (with kale).

Both videos below are from a fabulous website called NutritionFacts.org.  They review current research, quote directly from it, and give you the low down in short daily videos.  It’s worth subscribing if you are looking for ways to improve your health with nutrition.

You can read more about the movie and sign up to see the premier for FREE by clicking HERE.

(I apologize for making you look at a big fat guy when you probably would rather look at  . . . almost anything else.)

This post was originally published a couple years ago.  I revised it a bit to reflect our current operations. 

This morning I met with a man who was very excited about our farm. He works in the medical field and thought that our food would be valuable for his clients. BUT he thought we had it right now. He said, “I didn’t know you had to grow it.”

For most people a farm is just a factory. If you want strawberries for Christmas dinner, no problem. Tomatoes all winter? You’re covered. Need an extra 10# of potatoes for a big dinner party? Just go pick some up.

In the industrial model we ship our food in from incredible distances so our concept of what is really available and seasonal is way off.

This gentleman explained to me that his clients want food now – not 3 months from now. Why should they pay us in February for food in May or June? That’s a good question. Here’s the answer:

A farm is not a factory. We can’t instantly increase production. We can’t work overtime one day and harvest more food the next. A family farm doesn’t fit the industrial model.

Food needs to grow – especially real food.  It can’t be rushed.  We can give it an optimal environment and optimal nutrition but we can’t make it grow any faster. Unless, of course, we use chemicals which will compromise the soil and the plant’s ability to take up the nutrition it needs. The fact is it takes time to create great food.

We’ve chosen to grow food for families in Utah Valley, Park City and Salt Lake this year in addition to supplying some restaurants. When those shares are gone they’re gone. If someone begs us for food in June we can’t just plant another row of vegetables and have food for them next week.

The whole point of the community supported agriculture model is to offer you an opportunity to be a part of creating a community around Jacob’s Cove. We become your family’s farmer.  Is there a variety of tomato you haven’t eaten since you were a child?  Ask us to grow it.  Is there a vegetable you’ve never eaten fresh from the garden but would like to try it?  Ask us to grow it.  Do you need some advice on how to prepare a vegetable?  Ask my mother.

As a part of this community you are welcome to visit your food as often as you like. Or you are free to ignore your food until it is safely and deliciously on your plate.

Please remember the following:

• We will grow food for a few hundred families. That’s it for now. I’m not sure how many shares are left but people are signing up every day.
• We have started 12,000 seeds in the past month. They are almost ready to go in the ground.
• Our greenhouse structure should have the plastic on next week.  We’ll prep the soil and the plants will go into the warm ground (no matter how cold it is outside the greenhouse).
• We believe you’ll be receiving your first food delivery in May.

We are excited to grow for you. We love doing this. We’ve got some big plans for this farm and our CSA members will always get first pick. Together we can change our food culture for the better and enjoy every bite!

We have been missing Jacob’s Cove food and I know that you have also. I had hoped to be back with produce by now, but it will still be several weeks as we continue working to that end.

We have found that implementing technologies that will make year round Local Natural Food a viable alternative to “shipped in food” is not an easy process. In addition to high investment costs we have also had plenty of opposition.

I keep going and keep on investing time and resources, because it is important. I have been called crazy more than once and frankly take it as a compliment. For some people it seems crazy to put such investment on leased land. I wish I owned the ground, but if I waited for that, there would be nothing. I keep pep talking myself by saying that somebody has got to step up and give us an alternative to the status quo. Seasonal, even extended season is not enough. We must have local production year round. We have the technology and the will to prevail and so we shall.

A year ago last fall we completed our second greenhouse to increase the farm’s controlled environment capacity to 1 acre. These were beautiful gutter connected structures as you can see here in this photo (I apologize that it’s so small.  It’s the best I could find). About the time the structures were completed, when we went to get the permit to hook up the gas and electrical, the Utah County Attorney’s office sent me a message from the county community development department to cease and desist on our project, that the structures were illegal. It took the county community development department forever to understand that our greenhouses are strictly for agricultural use and as per state statute (15A-1 204 (7)(a)(b))cannot be required to have a building permit though “a plumbing, electrical, and mechanical permit may be required when that work is included.”

Everything was in place for heating except the gas meter. The county would not allow Questar Gas to install our gas meter. They finally did but not until after all the crops had frozen followed by a very wet snow. We got over 20 inches with no heat inside. There was no way to mitigate the load and about 1/3 of the growing space was rendered useless and most of the remaining portions were heavily damaged.

This was devastating to say the least. In addition to all the capital investment we also lost all of last winter’s production.

We realized that most of the damaged sections remained standing and miraculously the plastic glazing was still attached to the mangled steel infrastructure. A special CSA family stepped up and helped by loaning me the funds to get the crop in during January and carry the cost until harvest.

The crop was protected but we couldn’t maintain the optimal temperatures due to so many holes in the plastic covering. We still managed to get food out starting in April and had great production all season.

The biggest problem that we had was that because of the structural damage the plastic sheeting was not taut. We placed sandbags all over the roof of the structure to hold the plastic in place as we knew that as soon as the winds came they would destroy the covering if it were not taut. With every wind storm we lost more and more of the roof but we were able to pretty much hold it together until the middle of May when we were out of danger of losing the crops.

I knew that we had to get the greenhouses repaired or rebuilt to take the production through the next winter. It appeared that the best alternate was probably going to be to rebuild as the damage was so extensive. I immediately began designing and analyzing replacement strategies as an alternative to repairing the damage and settled on a unique and exciting design.

I realized that either way I would have to find the financing or take on a financial partner to accomplish so great a task. Coincidentally, my mother passed away just after her 85th birthday in June. My parents sold our farm in Uintah County a few years ago just before my father passed away. Now that my dear mother would have no further needs, the proceeds from the farm were divided between my siblings and I.

In spite of all the challenges, it was not a difficult decision to commit my entire portion of those funds to Jacob’s Cove. I believe in the importance of my efforts in pioneering the future of local natural food and I know that my father would be very pleased with my doing so.

I am never one to dwell on past mistakes or successes other than to learn from them. I know more now than ever that the heavy loss of that acre of structures will end up being a huge blessing for the farm. It caused me to really think outside the box and the result is a structure that will revolutionize local food production. The unit cost and efficacy of the building that is finally nearing completion at the farm is without parallel anywhere in the world.

The footprint of this building is over 50,000 sq ft with over an acre of growing space on the ground and an addition 2/3 of an acre in a second level at 14 ft above the ground. The 45 ft roof height sloping all the way to the ground is supported by 400 ground anchors rated between 6,000 to 10,000 lbs of tensile (pull) strength.  The roof is supported by specially designed wire trusses that can support over 15 tons each.  The height turns the structure into a huge light collector which will be diffused throughout to meet all the plants light requirements.  The height also allows for broad latitudes of environmental management within the structure to produce multiple crops of differing environmental needs.

The building is designed for the snow to slide off and for the maximum wind ever seen in Utah County other than a tornado.  My intention is to never lose another week of food.

I believed that construction would take 4 maybe 5 months but it is going to end up being closer to 8 months. The columns are recycled pipe that I acquired from a friend in the Uintah Basin and much of the tear down materials will be utilized for the second level suspended soil mix growing structures. Here are some pictures of the project.

There have been complications in the construction and also problems again with the county. The construction is so unusual that we have had to develop new building techniques. Also we had to work around the existing structure from where we continued to harvest produce into November. It really slowed things down.  We had hoped to get the building covered over the old greenhouses to keep the production and deliveries going through the construction process and then tear down the old from the inside.  Everything just took too long and as you can observe we have now completely removed the old structures from under the new.  The tear down of the old structures took a lot of time and expense, but we are glad it is done and that the ground is ready to prepare and plant.

We are just finishing the last items necessary to cover the structure. We have been blessed with no snow until this week. Hopefully, it will melt and dry out in the next few days so that we can finish up.

I apologize to those who have signed up with a promise of winter deliveries, especially a few of you who lived through no food for a second winter. I appreciate your support, without which we neither would nor could continue. Some have asked for their money back. I am sorry, but it is just not possible at this time. Every cent that has come in goes into the farm. The food was better last year than it was the year before and it will be even better in the future.

Issues with the county have, unfortunately, continued to suck up time and resources from the farm.  It turns out that the latest problems with the county are a result of complaints from some longtime residents of Geneva Road who own land around the area of the farm. They have been growing pasture, a little bit of hay and quite a few weeds for many years. Face to face they won’t say much to me and even drop by to see how we’re progressing but it appears to be quite disturbing to them, based on their complaints to the county, that some outsider showed up changing the status quo.  After haggling with the county since early December, I believe that issue is mostly resolved, though we had to spend many hundreds of dollars and hours of precious time to make a zoning change to the property. Thank goodness the owner was amenable to do so, but the farm had to pay the fee.  We also still have the neighbors who would rather we grow food for cattle instead of people.  God bless them.

We will notify everyone via email and also by phone when we have food to make those first deliveries. Obviously everyone is deferred on their weeks until we start again. As always you can also defer weeks after we get started again. Also, when we are about ready to start again, I will hire another person to help with communications. Since cessation of deliveries nearly all of our attention has been focused on getting our production facility on line.

Sincerely, Dale Allred