Hay has always been a fundamental part of Kristoferson Farm. The farm’s hay fields have supported sheep, dairy cows, beef cattle, and alpaca. Cutting hay is essential to provide feed in winter. On Kristoferson Farm, mixed meadow and tall fescue grass hay is grown on 70 acres without irrigation producing over 70 tons of baled organic hay. This perennial crop requires no annual tillage conserving organic matter, nutrients and water in the soil.
In summer 2010, we harvested our first cutting of lavender. We grow Lavandula x intermedia Grosso, used for its essential oil to fragrance soaps and its larger flower spikes for crafting and sachets. We harvested our first cutting of culinary lavender varieties, Lavandula angustifolia Royal Velvet and Melissa in summer 2016. These varieties are disease resistant cultivars well suited to the drier climate of north Camano. Lavender jelly, sugar, and salt are among products made in our farm kitchen and are available in our farm stand. They make great gifts.
We planted our first dahlia tubers in 2020 and have been enjoying these amazing flowers ever since. Bouquets are available in the Farm Stand August – October.
Gravenstein apple trees over 70 years old produce the main ingredient for our apple butter and apple ginger jam sold in our farm stand and tour shop. A wonderful baking apple, you may find them for sale by the pound in late summer. A young orchard of various apples, pears, and cherries is beginning to produce wonderful fruit as well.
The fall on the farm would not be complete without the trebuchet competition, hurling pumpkins through the air as far as possible. Our pumpkin patch supplies this competition and produces some handsome pumpkins for carving and tasty ones for eating too. Some of the varieties we grow are hubbard, dickinson, sugar, and ghost.
Growing timber is a long standing tradition on the farm. We grow Douglas Fir, Western Red Cedar, Hemlock and Red Alder, harvest every 20 years, and manage the forest for wildlife diversity.
