Root Digger Herb Farm, Tumwater, WA (2026)

01/26/2026

I've been taking space from the farm in this dark time. Given the way the month is going, it's been a good time to pause on initiating or pushing through projects. Seeing people murdered by fascist goons in the town I was born in is hard enough in a seasonal abundance of connection and introspection. I've been taken by the shock and awe in the recent past. Today, I'm feeling galvanized.

The dream of this farm was conjured in 2019 with "pessimism of the intellect, [and] optimism of the will." In other words, seeing that we are headed to a hard place with no brakes and believing that responding is worthwhile. I expect things will get harder, and I'm inspired by those who are showing up. I'm more confident than ever that farming is one of the best ways I can respond, so I'll be at again this year. Expect the usual, with a few changes. Until then

*Photo credits due mostly to my daughter

04/12/2025

🌿It's that time again🌿

Registration for the 2025 fresh herb CSA is open and looking better than ever

Herbalists of all levels are invited to experience what medicinal herbs look, feel, smell and taste like fresh from the farm. This year we are including a Tacoma pickup, and as always, we're planning to offer newly featured herbs. Check out the link in our bio for more info and sign up

05/23/2024

Blue Elder germination success!

Finding info on growing some herbs from seed can be challenging. At times the answers are inconsistent, even contradictory. Often, the advice includes waiting months to witness the results. I was grateful my friend pointed me to some info posted by ** on germinating Blue Elder from fresh berries and the results are in!

After preparing in the fall and waiting months germination began early in the spring with just a couple sprouts. Hooray for something, I thought, but they were just beginning! With each heat wave I'm seeing more baby plants and I've made observations that will help me be more successful with this technique in the future.

The above photos show the journey of fresh harvest berries into little settings. It begins with ripe berries from a happy tree that abundantly produces dark berries with dark juice. A cluster mashed in a bucket provides an ample amount of seed. These are sown on top of a flat of putting soil, the seeds mixed into some sort of media. I was trying to see if I could use inputs from my site so I tested sand and biochar along with potting soil as a carrier for the seeds. I left the flat out all winter under the rain in the cold.

-Sand didn't do great.
-Potting soil did will, biochar too
-Vermiculite or perlite should work as well
-I also fermented some fruit slightly. This didn't seem beneficial, so I'll skip it in the future.

I got some germ by bringing the flat inside briefly. I got even more when they were in an unheated tunnel with fluctuating spring temperatures. It seemed like right after each successive spell of warm weather I would see more sprouts.

These seedlings will be potted up for a year or two before being added to a hedgerow on the farm, or perhaps planted into vacant land around the neighborhood

03/18/2024

🌿It's that time again🌿

Registration for the 2024 Fresh Herb CSA is open looking better than ever 🏵️

Herbalists of all levels are invited to experience what medicinal herbs look, feel, smell and taste like fresh from the farm. This year will bring a few never before offered herbs, and we will be trialing a monthly group video call to generate connections within our little herbal community and share about how we're all working with the herbs in the shares!

Check out the link in our bio for more info and sign up

03/07/2024

Any friends have a seedling heat mat I could borrow for a month?

02/21/2024

Last spring I took on a couple experiments with various of our soil block recipe. I'm always wondering how different variables might influence the way plants grow and I love getting answers this way. This go around I even managed to record the results!

The original Elliot Coleman soil recipe:

4 Peat
2 Compost
2 Sand
1 Garden Soil

3C 4-4-4 Organic Fertilizer
1C Basalt Rock Flour
1/2C Lime

Each major part is measured in 2.5 gallon buckets.

I sourced beach sand while digging razor clams. At first I figured rinsing would be necessary because the salinity might inhibit plant growth. Then, I got thinking about how people add sea minerals and kelp as an amendment and I wondered if unwashed sand might provide just enough to be beneficial without harming the plants.

I also wanted to see what changed if I replaced half or all the peat in the recipe with coco coir. I reduced the lime in these recipes, which is meant to balance the acidity of peat. Here are the three variations:

-50/50 with unwashed sand harvested from the beach

-100% coco (no lime added)

-50/50 peat/coco (just 1/4C lime)

Unequivocally, the salty sand led to major germination failure on many crops, though as I predicted, some species that were unaffected, though I was completely wrong about which ones could tolerate salt.

The 50/50 mix showed higher germination rates as well as more rapid growth, though slow plants did seem to catch up by planting time.

The biggest lesson learned from this experiment was to always sow extra seeds if you're messing around and there's any chance low germ rates could be a thing. If you tried to buy Tulsi last year, this is why my supply was nearly non-existent. Oops!

01/17/2024

We've been in deep winter this month, as deep as it gets when you have the Salish Sea as a neighbor. Snow. Below freezing temps. Frozen pipes. Wind storms. Power outages. There's a deadly ice rink on the patio today.

Two parts of me have been sensing their way through the darkness:

The farmer has been wandering, languishing in Neptunian workflows, restless, swimming in dreamy ideas, woken at 3 am by the first yawn of lengthening days.

The father has been permeated by the awe and exhaustion, burping, getting pi**ed on, waiting patiently for one of those first sweet-breathed smiles.

The wheel of the year turns. Here is the time of death and rebirth. At this polar extreme of the cycle the farmer/father sleeps on a pyre held aloft by potent milestones. My flesh and grease and bone are purified by particularly hot grief-rage flames. The new form taking shape under the ashes is yet to be seen but it will be informed by new challenges, connection and evermore diligently seeking opportunities to disrupt a system hell bent on reaping suffering.
❄️🍉🧑🏻‍🌾💀🧑🏻‍🍼🍉🔥

12/19/2023

What is it? What does it mean?

It's a spreadsheet compiling prices that similar producers are selling their herbs for. It's one of a few indications that Root Digger hasn't been keeping up with the cost of production. Winter is not a glamorous time of year for farmers but it can be one of necessary introspection, dreaming, and reckonings. One such realization is that most of our herbs are priced 20-40% lower than the average. This isn't good for us, and it's not customary for small growers to undercut other farms. Unlike the commodity market where sellers compete in a race to the bottom, small farms tend to focus on providing quality and practicing awareness of our place in the ecosystem.

Farmers don't farm to get rich and most of us are working on overcoming the internal discord felt in taking money for providing something so fundamentally human as food or medicine. That said, we believe in the work, and you all have supported this farm until this point so we'll be asking higher prices for our herbs to reflect four years of inflation, and more developed skill and knowledge. We ask this of our patrons so that we can keep doing the work, keep investing attention and care into the land, and keep dreaming this farm into an interconnected future.

11/30/2023

Something pretty exciting is happening!

We've been quiet about this project but now that the build is underway, it feels real enough to share here. Since this spring we've been working on a grant contract with NRCS to get funding to install this high tunnel. Thanks to the help of family and .farm it's finally happening! This will provide the perfect environment to grow some fun and exciting heat loving species in.

Can you say, Butterfly Pea? Lemon Verbena?

The dreaming phase is in full swing - send your suggestions before the seed catalogues start arriving!

11/23/2023

How grateful I am that we are collectively learning how fraught the history of this day is with misrepresentation, mistruths, white washing... I'm giving pause to reflect upon how under our current economic system, consumerism is so frequently tied to bloodshed and disenfranchisement, my complicity, my privilege, ways in which I might disrupt that dynamic by working with others to build alternatives and subvert the status quo through discussion, community building, and direct action.

As we expose the dominant narrative, it's important that we continue to celebrate each other - celebration, gratitude in action, is a need that's impoverished. I'm taking inventory of those who support this project, this tiny farm and I'm floored by the support I've received from family, friends, and other creators.

Here are the few that have helped build this farm's passion project, the Fresh Herb CSA by providing plant profiles.

river.apothecary.somatics alive
awakenings

11/21/2023

This is a little bulletin to encourage you to do your winter shopping with this or one of many other small local producers (herb farmers, artists, artisans, whoever). If you do put an order in (link in bio), please do it soon or with much patience. This is the last week to expect prompt deliveries. We are expecting the blessing of a new child, so all orders placed after the 27th will be processed on baby time with plenty of space to tend this wood stove, celebrate community, and dream magic during the little sleep that is to be found.

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11/12/2023

We're pleased to announce that the inaugural fall work party was a straw-filled success! About a dozen of us conspired to prep the farm for winter.

🌱 The land received garlic, oats, and barley along with a heap of mulch

🦠 Browns and greens were hacked by machete and skillfully mixed together for the beginning of a rich compost pile

🛠️ Order was brought to a disarrayed shop

🎃 Pumpkin seeds were gathered and corn processed to feed future gatherings (and pigs!)

🌿 Blackberries escaped notice.... this time

Beyond the material tasks completed there was laughter, deepened bonds, new connections, skill exchange... We all flexed our organizing muscles and built webs of connection

We're brimming with gratitude for the energetic input of the friends and volunteers that showed up and we know this will not be the last gather of this sort. Thank you for dancing this dance with us

Root Digger Herb Farm

01/26/2026

04/12/2025

05/23/2024

03/18/2024

03/07/2024

02/21/2024

01/17/2024

12/19/2023

11/30/2023

11/23/2023

11/21/2023

11/12/2023

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