Farm Tour at Elderberry Wisdom Farm

We partnered with Oregon Tilth, Rodale Institute and Dry Farm Institute to hold a Field Walk last week. About a dozen guests joined us for a discussion of Sambucus nigra ssp Cerulea (Blue Elderberry) followed by a walk through our small but growing blue elderberry patch which is transitioning to organic over the next three years. 

Aerial view "drone shot" of EWF

Amy Treasure (Siletz) also joined us to share updates on organic transitioning at her family farm in Brush Prairie, Washington and her work as Tribal Liaison for EWF’s TOPP partnership which promotes the Transitioning to Organic Program to Native producers and tribes in Oregon, Washington and Idaho. 

We discussed the importance of this species, which ranges from British Columbia to Mexico and east as far as Western Montana. Regarded as a sacred plant, we spoke of how Elderberry is used for food, medicine, music and other ceremonies, its lifecycle also marking the changing of our seasons. Nathanael Siemens and Sidney Fellows (Lemhi Shoshone and Shoshone Bannock) at Rodale Institute treated us to a tasty lunch of salads and sandwiches before everyone departed.  

Another tour is planned here in partnership with Rogue Farm in July and our community is welcome to join us. It is scheduled for Wednesday, July 9: 3:00-5:30 pm. Rogue Farm requested we host this tour to expand their goal of building on the Decolonizing Agriculture class their students will have taken the week prior, and to place traditional ecological knowledge in a local, active context specific to this region. We were happy to support their project. We welcome anyone interested in hearing more about TEK in practice on our land plus habitat restoration projects and native plant nursery development at our nursery to join us!