Local gardener gets back to her roots

"I have raised a garden all my life," said Elizabeth Riffle, relating to what life was like growing up as the daughter of Allen and Karen Dykstra, founders of Fruitland Acres located along Highway 200 between Plains and Thompson Falls.

"We sold it (Fruitland Acres) around 1993 or 1994 due to my father having a logging accident and just couldn't do it anymore," commented Riffle, who currently resides on the family homestead. She "loves to grow things" and therefore it is fitting her next adventure follow an agricultural path - she is ready to get back to her roots.

After some prompting from a friend, Riffle decided to join Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) under her new business name, "Waterway CSA." The organization is geared toward connecting community with local farming operations giving the farm a mutual ownership.

Although Waterway CSA does all the field work, she said customers "buy shares in the garden," or pay up front for their services. Riffle claims that produce ends up being cheaper for her customers because "they pay up front so I can buy goods to provide the things I need to grow the garden."

Last year Waterway CSA sold five full shares, designed to provide enough produce for a family of four for one week, and six partial shares (two people per week). This next year Riffle is hoping to expand her client base to twenty full shares after receiving a grant from the National Resources Conservation Service to help establish her agricultural business.

"I had to prove one year of production, selling and forming a business" to receive the grant Riffle stated. With the funds, she is planning to invest in irrigation improvements and purchase a gothic-style, thirty-by-one hundred-foot, high tunnel to extend Waterway's growing season by two months.

With their new structure, Waterway should be able to plant at least 2 weeks earlier, Riffle reported, which means crops should be available earlier. As expected, cooler crops will be available early in the season. "Typical for the early weeks, a basket would have lettuce, herbs, green onions, sprouts, chard, kale, rhubarb, radish, and I even had broccoli early enough last year," Riffle said.

As the season continues, she said the baskets, laundry sized for full shares and smaller for partial shares, will become quite plentiful with items harvested no sooner than the night before delivery. Look for pumpkins, squash, tomatoes, peppers, corn, cabbage, beans, Brussel sprouts, cauliflower, and potatoes to fill the order. "The baskets get quite heavy by the end of the season, which more than makes up for some of the early season baskets."

"I am picky with what they get and fancy the baskets up with flowers," Riffle said about the quality and quantity of the produce she provides to her clients. She confirmed that Waterway CSA is not "certified organic," but is "all natural." "We do not spray with chemicals, we use plant or corn-based sprays. No Round-Up is used." Riffle choses to make use of physical weed and pest barriers rather than spraying and applies their own compost and manure for fertilizer.

"We have been kicking around the idea of becoming a dumpsite for compostables," Riffle said, after commenting that she sees a lot of material at the solid waste station that could be transferred into rich soil. "Our incentive would be free dirt or produce for dumping it."

Future endeavors for Waterway CSA do not end there. Riffle envisions herself digging in the dirt "full-time" while furnishing produce to local restaurants as well as fulfilling thirty-five full shares each year. She has planted new items in her orchard to prepare herself for that load and always tries new varieties of items to keep the selections interesting.

More information on Waterway CSA can be found at http://www.waterwaycsa.com or on their Facebook page at Waterway CSA. Questions can be emailed to [email protected].