Our organic seed and vegetable farm wants a walk-behind tiller to both increase our productivity and the availability of local produce!
Mano Farm is a 1.3 acre certified organic farm located in Ojai, California. We – Justin Huhn and Quin Shakra – started growing food in August 2009 with hand tools: digging forks, spades, and one wheelbarrow. We began with one hundred square feet and over the past three years have worked the farm up to the size it is today. Our land is now planted with hundreds of species of vegetables, trees, and perennial plants. We started a Community Supported Agriculture program (in 2009), a seed company (in 2011) and became a certified organic farm last year. We’ve given away dozens of vegetable shares to low-income individuals and families through our Community Supported Agriculture program, and regularly host interns on our the farm to share the knowledge we’ve gained about small-scale organic farming.
We initially chose to rely on hand tools to work the land because we are first generation farmers and didn’t want to go into debt to buy heavy machinery. However there is now too much space for the two of us to maintain with our bodies alone, and we’re looking for supporters to help us fund a BCS walk-behind tractor. The BCS tractor allows us to successfully incorporate cover crops into the soil (an important element of ecological farming), increase our annual vegetable and seed production, and save our lower backs. This will result in a higher quality product coming from our field, and a better quality of life for the farmers!
We’re reaching out through Kickstarter both because of our past success with this platform and because we believe that our community – both locally and outside our bioregion – wants small farmers to succeed. We believe in the power of farm-supported communities, and thank you for contributing to our endeavor!
–Justin Huhn and Quin Shakra
Risks and challenges Learn about accountability on Kickstarter
We're undertaking this fundraising to help increase our productivity on the farm and our time off of it. Shifting from tool-based to machine-based agriculture will be a challenge while we learn the idiosyncrasies of the BCS tiller all the new skills it entails. We are confident that the machine can be integrated into our farm work gracefully and help increase the overall ecological vitality of the land.
FAQ
Have a question? If the info above doesn't help, you can ask the project creator directly.
58
Backers
$3,394
pledged of $3,000 goal
0
seconds to go
Funding period
Sep 21, 2012 -
Nov 5, 2012
(45 days)
.medium.jpg?1347656812){kind=avatar}
- 2 created · 0 backed
- Quin Shakra 240 friends
- Website: manofarm.org
Pledge $3 or more
7 backers
A Mano Farm button with our redesigned 2012 logo!
Estimated delivery: Dec 2012Pledge $5 or more
5 backers Limited (20 of 25 left)
A "Support Local Agriculture" reminder band. Available sizes: child, medium and large.
Estimated delivery: Nov 2012Pledge $25 or more
16 backers
A nine-packet seasonal seed collection from our company's seed catalog: three vegetables, three herbs, and 3 flowers. All certified organic!
Estimated delivery: Nov 2012Pledge $50 or more
8 backers
Store credit to our All Good Things Organic Seeds online seed catalog. All our seeds are certified organic, and at present, every variety we offer in our catalog is being sourced from the Mano Farm land. We'll also be expanding our offerings in late autumn!
Estimated delivery: Nov 2012Pledge $75 or more
2 backers
Store credit to our All Good Things Organic Seeds online seed catalog. All our seeds are certified organic, and at present, every variety we offer in our catalog is being sourced from the Mano Farm land. We'll also be expanding our offerings in late autumn!
Estimated delivery: Nov 2012Pledge $150 or more
1 backer
Store credit to our All Good Things Organic Seeds online seed catalog. All our seeds are certified organic, and at present, every variety we offer in our catalog is being sourced from the Mano Farm land. We'll also be expanding our offerings in late autumn!
Estimated delivery: Nov 2012Pledge $300 or more
1 backer
Store credit to our All Good Things Organic Seeds online seed catalog. All our seeds are certified organic, and at present, every variety we offer in our catalog is being sourced from the Mano Farm land. We'll also be expanding our offerings in late autumn!
Estimated delivery: Nov 2012Pledge $300 or more
0 backers Limited (3 of 3 left)
An eight week subscription to Mano Farm's certified organic Community Supported Agriculture program: on-farm vegetable pickups running every Sunday from November 4th to December 23rd.
Estimated delivery: Nov 2012Pledge $1,150 or more
1 backer Limited (4 of 5 left)
A yearlong subscription to the Mano Farm CSA program: on-farm vegetable pickups running every Sunday from February 3rd 2013 to December 22nd, 2013. Our farm is certified organic!
Estimated delivery: Feb 2013Pledge $1,200 or more
0 backers
Store credit to our All Good Things Organic Seeds online seed catalog. This is the perfect gift for an organic farmer who sources a lot of seeds! All our seeds are certified organic, and at present, every variety we offer in our catalog is being sourced from the Mano Farm land. We'll also be expanding our offerings in late autumn!
Estimated delivery: Nov 2012
