Hidden Penny Farm

Our Farm

Like any Nootka rose,
I know there are some
to whom a place is nothing. Like the wild rose,
like the tide and the day,
we come, go, or stay according to a whim.
It is enough, perhaps,
to say, We live here.
And let it go at that.

This wind lets go
of everything it touches.
I long to hold the wind.
I'd kiss a fish
and love a stone
and marry the winter's rain

if I could persuade this battered earth
to let me make it home.

A Lover's Quarrel
Sam Hamill

Contact Me!

Meet Your Farmer

I’m Melissa, your Hidden Penny Farmer! I love everything about farming. I love the physicality of the work and the feeling after a long day of labor. I love meeting people at the farmers market and seeing new and old customers. I love nurturing seeds into fruits and vegetables. I love the inspiration of fresh ingredients and cooking with them. I love the continued learning and the fascinating elements of soil biology. I love the sense of responsibility I feel to our land, our community, and our earth. And when it comes time for me to leave this world, I hope I still have my boots on.

Not only do I love the work of farming, I believe deeply in our human connection to food. As Alice Water’s says “…the power of food can change people’s lives… Food can enhance our communities, humanize our institutions, and help heal and replenish the besieged environment.” I believe that food has the power to unite communities and that the way we grow food has the power to heal ecosystems.

Ultimately, I believe in food as a living experience. Memories live on through recipes, bonds are created over shared meals, and we feel a deep sense of commitment and responsibility to the earth when we steward her soils.

Growing Practices

Hidden Penny Farm was born in 2020. Our farm grows a diverse range of produce that enriches the body, using methods that enrich the land. We strive to follow the natural patterns of nature in order to grow food that is nutritionally dense, vibrant, and delicious. We find great joy spending our days in the field, tending the soil, and learning the many lessons that the land has to teach.

Because of our deep reverence for the land that feeds us and gives us a home, we choose growing practices that are ecological and sustainable.

We use regenerative methods, such as cover cropping, diverse plant species, and responsible animal grazing, to grow abundant food that also enriches the land.

We do not till our soil in order to support a thriving soil food web; this allows the real heroes: the macro and microogranisms to live in a harmonious ecosystem with plant life, storing carbon and growing the most nutritious food.

We are also the first, and so far, the only farm on the Olympic Peninsula to be Certified Naturally Grown. Similar to organic, this means that we adhere to responsible growing practices free from pesticides and herbicides.