About US

​Ever  wonder where your food comes from? Not just the country whose name is printed on the label but really where and how? What was sprayed on the soil or the plant that produced the strawberry that looks plastic? Where did the animal whose body nourishes yours grow up and what did it eat? How fairly are the people who grow and harvest your food treated and paid at the prices you pay? What are the climate implications of acquiring the food the way you do? We asked ourselves these questions over 25 years ago and the answers convinced us that growing and consuming clean food is imperative to our family’s moral integrity not to mention Earth’s ecological stability.

This commitment crystallized our motivation to not only grow our own food and sell excess but adhere to the Permaculture ethics: people care, Earth care and limit growth/return the surplus. Examples include the green renovation of our historic circa 1890’s home, on-farm biodynamic and organic practices, native conservation landscaping to manage storm water and practical/educational outreach.

On our 5 suburban acres bordering Seneca Creek State Park in Darnestown, MD, Nature never ceases to amaze our family and friends. Whether we are picking berries, swinging from vines, practicing bush skills, observing plants and animals or just learning from and coexisting in the world beyond our built structure, we feel community and oneness with this ‘natural order of things’.

We knew foraging could only sustain a small percentage of humans but are always inspired by Nature’s bounty and the diversity of foods and medicines that have co-evolved with us to nourish, cleanse and heal our minds, bodies and spirits. Thus, we chose the difficult to cultivate, wild, edible mushroom, Chicken of the Woods, Laetiporus sulphureus, as our farm’s name. We found it the first summer we arrived in 2014 and have since harvested annual batches. Our own flock of chickens thrive in their natural habitat, the woods. Descendants of the great Tyrannosaurus rex, they avidly hunt through the understory playing essential roles in recycling bugs to fertilizer and tilling the top layer of detritus into fine humus. These wonders along with so many farm happenings occur with minimal human intervention.

​We simply with much gratitude, reap the rewards.