• Principals: Chi & Michelle Scherer • Farm Name: Hi Hoe Produce, Bluebird Farm • Location: Williams, Oregon • Miles to Market: 56 • Size: 25 acres • Supplies to Co-op: Asian pears, Bartlett pears, Bosc pears, apples, table grapes, carrots, beets, onions, tomatoes (especially cherry tomatoes), cucumbers, sweet corn, cabbage, Chinese cabbage, cilantro, basil, garlic, dill, burdock, squash, peppers, eggplants, Fava beans, Jerusalem artichokes

Bluebird Farm Tilth

The crops at Bluebird Farm aren't just a feast for the table - they're also a feast for the eyes!

Listening to Chi Scherer talk at an Ashland Food Co-op sponsored farm tour of his farm can be a mystical experience. "Plants are the skin of the earth," he observes, explaining further that when you turn soil, "you've created a wound." To heal that wound, you plant either a cover crop or a production crop. On his farm harvest isn't over until the ground has been seeded with a cover crop. It's a cycle of giving, and receiving, and giving back.

Since organic standards restrict what compost and manure can be added to soil to enhance soil fertility, organic farmers must use other means of building up their soil. Chi and his wife Michelle build their soil structure, or "tilth," in a sustainable way through rigorous annual and perennial cover cropping. Cover crops introduce crucial organic matter into the soil in a natural way, as well as displace weeds, counteract erosion, and create habitats for beneficial insects. Bluebird Farm's cover crops also add an aesthetic symmetry, harmony and balance to their landscape.

Chi and Michelle have been farming in southern Oregon since the mid '80s. They raised two daughters in the Rogue Valley, Serena and Naio, who grew up delivering produce to us at the Co-op and both eventually ended up working here. Now that's true partnership with your grower!