Join us Saturday, April 6th for an informative tour of our farming operations at Wild Hope Farm. During the walking tour you will get to see our produce wash and pack area, propagation greenhouse, high tunnels, field production, solar systems and more! We will discuss our organic approach to growing diverse vegetables and flowers. Farm managers will discuss techniques we have developed to saving time and money on the farm. 

Please wear close-toed shoes. Children are welcome!

After the tour, those interested can enjoy a self-guided trail walk around our pond and back woods. 

Pre-orders and in-person shopping!

Stop by the farm to purchase some organic transplants and delicious farm fresh eggs. Plants include kale, collards, broccoli, scallions, lettuce, tomatoes (heirloom and non-heirloom), peppers (bell), zucchini/squash, cucumbers, flowers, herbs and more! We will also have fertilizer and potting soil available for purchase if interested.

Please wear close-toed shoes. Children are welcome!

OPTION TO PICK UP ORDERS THIS FRIDAY 8 am - 4 pm OR Saturday 11 - 12 pm.

Learn to dye fabrics with locally grown fresh indigo leaf that produces an amazing range of turquoise tones!

Learn to dye silk in beautiful turquoise tones with locally grown indigo. Join us for a morning on the farm as we harvest fresh indigo leaves and process them for color! Participants will receive instruction on using indigo to dye silk scarves and any 100% silk garments that need a refresh. Fresh leaf indigo techniques are effective on animal fibers including silk, wool, alpaca, and angora- participants are welcome to bring these materials from home to play with.

Guest dyer, Emily Lacey of Remedy Studios will lead the workshop. Lacey is a natural dyer, adaptive design consultant, and graduate of the Fashion Design program at Parsons School of Design. She apprenticed under New York Textile Lab and Philip Huang, NYC based designer specializing in traditional Thai indigo dyeing techniques. She currently lives in Savannah, Georgia where she works for the Savannah College of Art and Design during the day, and creates textile art in her free time.

Fresh beverages will be provided during class.

This workshop will be held outdoors.

Wild Hope Farm is one of many farms opening their doors for the SC Ag & Art tour. The South Carolina Ag + Art Tour is a free, self-guided tour of farms and farmers markets featuring local artisans at every stop.  The tour will be rolling into 10 South Carolina counties over every weekend in June!

Activities Offered:

• We will host walking tours of the farm ops area every other hour (at 10 am, 12 pm, and 2 pm) between 10 am - 4 pm.

• Live music from 12 - 1:30 pm

• 9:30 am - 12 pm: U-pick FLOWERS for those interested in a harvest! Bring your own vessel AND clippers (scissors or any type of pruners are just fine)! We charge a fee of $75 per ~10L bucket amount of flowers, $35 for a vase amount, or $1.50/stem. This part is paid once you arrive - we accept cash, card, Venmo, etc. Remember, you must bring your own vessel. If you forget, the farm will sell ~10L buckets to the degree they are in stock and available to use. NO PETS PLEASE.

• Display by the Chester Beekeeper Association

• Blacksmith display by the Woodland Forge

Food Available for Purchase:

• BBQ plates with all the trimmings (Pulled pork BBQ, Baked beans, slaw, Mac & cheese, rolls) and a dessert sold by Buddy

• Fresh Ice Cream by Fru-ge-ley

• Vegan chocolate covered treats by Melanated Berries

• Farm fresh veggies, flowers, eggs and fruits

Otherwise, you are welcome to give yourself a tour around the farm with our self-guided tour PDF.

See website linked here for more information!

Join us Saturday, April 1st for an informative tour of our farming operations at Wild Hope Farm. During the walking tour you will get to see our produce wash and pack area, propagation greenhouse, high tunnels, field production, solar systems and more! We will discuss our organic approach to growing diverse vegetables and flowers. Farm managers will discuss techniques we have developed to saving time and money on the farm. 

Please wear close-toed shoes. Children are welcome!

After the tour, those interested can enjoy a self-guided trail walk around our pond and back woods. 

Pre-orders and in-person shopping!

Stop by the farm to purchase some organic transplants and delicious farm fresh eggs. Plants include kale, collards, broccoli, scallions, lettuce, tomatoes (heirloom and non-heirloom), peppers (bell, hot), zucchini/squash, cucumbers, flowers, herbs and more! We will also have fertilizer and potting soil available for purchase if interested.

Please wear close-toed shoes. Children are welcome!

Pre-order today to pick up plants on Friday, March 31st (8 am - 4 pm) OR Saturday, April 1st (8 am - 2 pm).

Wild Hope Farm is one of many farms opening their doors for the SC Ag & Art tour. The South Carolina Ag + Art Tour is a free, self-guided tour of farms and farmers markets featuring local artisans at every stop.  The tour will be rolling into 10 South Carolina counties over every weekend in June!

Activities Offered:

• We will host walking tours of the farm ops area every other hour (at 10 am, 12 pm, and 2 pm) between 10 am - 4 pm.

• 9:30 am - 12 pm: U-pick FLOWERS for those interested in a harvest! Bring your own vessel AND clippers (scissors or any type of pruners are just fine)! We charge a fee of $75 per ~10L bucket amount of flowers, $35 for a vase amount, or $1.50/stem. This part is paid once you arrive - we accept cash, card, Venmo, etc. Remember, you must bring your own vessel. If you forget, the farm will sell ~10L buckets to the degree they are in stock and available to use. NO PETS PLEASE.

Food Available for Purchase:

• Corrado Gelato

• Fruit drinks by Yazmin

• Farm fresh veggies, flowers, and fruits

Otherwise, you are welcome to give yourself a tour around the farm with our self-guided tour PDF.

See website linked here for more information!

Live Music + Local Eats to Celebrate Summer

Hi Farm Loving Friends!

Save the Date for Wild Hope Farm's annual Music Fest!

We invite you to join us at the farm for a afternoon/evening celebration of all things local! From farm-fresh food and drinks, to a great lineup of guitar pickin' musicians, and a special demonstration, this is an event you (and your friends/family/kids) do not want to miss! Picnic tables and bales will be set up by our hay-wagon stage overlooking our 10-acre pond. BYO picnic blanket. Blue Barn Bistro and King of Fire Pizza are our food vendors (among other dessert vendors) and we’ll have beverages for sale that highlight flavors from the farm. KIDS UNDER 10 ARE FREE!

3 - 4 pm Guided Nature Walk with Naturalist, Andy Kane former director of the Carolina Thread Trail (please wear walking shoes and bring sun protection)

3 - 4 pm Farm Tour of the pack shed, greenhouses, high tunnels!

4 - 8 pm Live music featuring Nashville-based BOY NAMED BANJO and Into the Fog

Best,
Farmer Peanut

SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES – We are inviting Corporate and Community partners to receive company promotion and recognition, event display space, complimentary tickets. Contact Farmer Peanut at katherine@wildhopefarm.com for more information!

Join us Saturday, April 2nd for an informative tour of our farming operations at Wild Hope Farm. During the walking tour you will get to see our produce wash and pack area, propagation greenhouse, high tunnels, compost heat extraction system, water retention pond, field production, solar systems and more! We will discuss our organic approach to growing diverse vegetables, flowers, and laying hens. Farm managers will discuss techniques we have developed to saving time and money on the farm. 

Please wear close-toed shoes. Children are welcome!

After the tour, those interested can enjoy a self-guided trail walk around our pond and back woods. 

Pre-orders and in-person shopping!

Stop by the farm to purchase some organic transplants and delicious farm fresh eggs. We will have kale, collards, broccoli, tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, cucumbers, yarrow, thyme and more for sale! All are available in 2" pots except for the tomatoes which are available in both 2" pots and quarts.

Stick around following the plant sale and join us for our farm tour (limited spaces available, purchase your tickets asap!). Please wear close-toed shoes. Children are welcome!

Friday is for plant pick ups, Pre-orders ONLY!

Stop by the farm to purchase some organic transplants and delicious farm fresh eggs. We will have kale, collards, broccoli, tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, cucumbers, yarrow, thyme and more for sale! All are available in 2" pots except for the tomatoes which are available in both 2" pots and quarts.

We’re excited to share that Wild Hope’s Rachel Klein and Katherine Belk will be speaking at the 2022 PASA Conference on Attracting and Retaining a 400 Member CSA.

Join us for a virtual presentation on the findings from our 2 year SARE research on Summer cover crops for roller-crimper no-till fall planted broccoli production. During this presentation you will learn about the strengths and weaknesses of each cover crop treatment, looking at weed suppression, labor hours, and broccoli yield.

Research Background:

In sustainable, organic vegetable systems, cover crops provide several benefits to the producer - they prevent erosion, reduce water usage, increase fertility, and improve the biological and physical properties of the soil. 

In addition to these benefits, cover crops that are terminated with the roller-crimper to produce mulch for the following cash crop can also provide a significant labor reduction for the farmer. Most research in this area has focused on fall-planted cover crops, leaving little information about summer cover and prompting us to investigate further. With a longer growing season in the southeast, we have more of an opportunity to utilize summer cover crops. Having summer cover or mulch in place during the hurricane season (June-Dec) can significantly reduce damage and erosion to the field.  

In order to investigate which summer covers worked best, we evaluated 1) weed suppression 2) total yields and 3) total labor hours for each treatment including bed preparation, transplanting and weeding.

Our experiment consisted of 5 treatments: 

1) Tilled after Sunn Hemp (100lbs/acre)

2) Crimped Sunn Hemp (100lbs/acre)

3) Crimped Sunn Hemp (100lbs/acre) & Millet (50lbs/acre)

4) Crimped Sunn Hemp (75lbs/acre), Millet (50lbs/acre) & Buckwheat (50lbs/acre)

5) Crimped Sunn Hemp (75lbs/acre), Soybeans (50lbs/acre) & Buckwheat (50lbs/acre)

This event is FREE! Please RSVP and receive the attendance information through the link below.

Join us for a farmer-focused field day where we will tour the 3 fields that make up our 12 acres under production. During the walking tour you will also see our propagation greenhouses, shade house, high tunnels, compost heat extraction system, water retention pond, field production, solar systems and more! We will discuss our organic approach to growing diverse vegetables and flowers. Farm managers will talk through the successes/challenges of using low-till techniques (roller crimping cover crops, tarping) at scale.

You will get to see the plot where we are in the second year of a SARE research project, exploring roller crimped cover crops for a fall broccoli production.

Children are welcome!

For those interested, after the tour we will have a picnic by the pond. Bring your own food, plates, drinks, etc.  Please be mindful of Covid, bring a mask and maintain 6 ft distance from other attendees. This gathering will take place outside and is rain dependent!

This event is FREE but we have limited spaces available so please sign up through the link below!

Learn to dye fabrics with fermented Japanese indigo grown on the farm that produces an amazing range of turquoise tones!

Join us for a morning on the farm where we will learn how to create a fermented indigo vat and use that to create deep blue tones.

We will be dyeing silk scarves (provided for you) and any piece of cotton, silk or wool textile you choose to bring from home. Guest Dyer, Emily Morabito will lead the workshop. Morabito is a fashion designer and graduate from the Parsons School of Design in 2020. She has assisted in indigo dye workshops with New York Textile Lab and Phillip Huang who works with traditional Thai indigo and dyeing techniques. You will also get a tour of the flower garden and a walk through of our organic process to growing beautiful blooms!

Fresh beverages and light snacks will be provided during class.

This workshop will be held outdoors. Please be respectful and maintain Covid precautions for those unvaccinated.

Learn to make fresh dyes with a variety of flowers (and pigments) harvested straight from the flower garden!

Join us for a morning on the farm where we will harvest and use the natural extracts, ice, and fresh flowers from our fields to dye a wide range of colors.

We will be dyeing silk scarves (provided for you) and any piece of silk or wool textile you choose to bring from home. Guest Dyer, Emily Morabito will lead the workshop. Morabito is a fashion designer and graduate from the Parsons School of Design in 2020. She has assisted in indigo dye workshops with New York Textile Lab and Phillip Huang who works with traditional Thai indigo and dyeing techniques. You will also get a tour of the flower garden and a walk through of our organic process to growing beautiful blooms!

Fresh beverages and light snacks will be provided during class.

This workshop will be held outdoors. Please be respectful and maintain Covid precautions for those unvaccinated.

Learn to dye fabrics with locally grown fresh indigo leaf that produces an amazing range of turquoise tones!

Join us for a morning on the farm where we will harvest fresh indigo leaf and process it for a dye bath.

We will be dyeing cotton bandanas (provided for you) and any piece of cotton, silk or wool textile you choose to bring from home. Guest Dyer, Emily Morabito will lead the workshop. Morabito is a fashion designer and graduate from the Parsons School of Design in 2020. She has assisted in indigo dye workshops with New York Textile Lab and Phillip Huang who works with traditional Thai indigo and dyeing techniques. You will also get a tour of the flower garden and a walk through of our organic process to growing beautiful blooms!

Fresh beverages and light snacks will be provided during class.

This workshop will be held outdoors. Please be respectful and maintain Covid precautions, wear a mask and maintain 6 ft distance from other participants.

Wild Hope Farm is one of many farms opening their doors for the SC Ag & Art tour. The South Carolina Ag + Art Tour is a free, self-guided tour of farms and farmers markets featuring local artisans at every stop.  The tour will be rolling into 10 South Carolina counties over every weekend in June!

We will host walking tours of the farm ops area every hour from 10 am - 4 pm. AND we will have U-pick blueberries for those interested in a harvest! Otherwise, you are welcome to give yourself a tour around the farm with our self-guided tour PDF. Vegetables and flower bouquets will be available for purchase on site!

See website linked here for more information!

Join us for a hands-on workshop where you learn how to harvest and arrange flowers to create the perfect farm-style bouquet! In this class, flower farmer, Farmer Peanut will provide you with tips for creating show stopping arrangements you can't find in the grocery store. Come dressed in farm-appropriate clothing, bring a hat, sunglasses, clippers and water bottle. We will provide buckets and other bouquet essentials.

Join us Saturday, April 3rd for an informative tour of our farming operations at Wild Hope Farm. During the walking tour you will get to see our produce wash and pack area, propagation greenhouse, high tunnels, compost heat extraction system, water retention pond, field production, solar systems and more! We will discuss our organic approach to growing diverse vegetables, flowers, and laying hens. Farm managers will discuss techniques we have developed to saving time and money on the farm. 

Please wear close-toed shoes. Children are welcome!

After the tour, those interested can enjoy a self-guided trail walk around our pond and back woods. 

Wild Hope Farm is one of many farms opening their doors for the SC Ag & Art tour. The South Carolina Ag + Art Tour is a free, self-guided tour of farms and farmers markets featuring local artisans at every stop.  The tour will be rolling into 10 South Carolina counties over every weekend in June!

See website linked here for more information!

At Wild Hope Farm we are farming as stewards of the land, working with natural cycles to create a healthy ecosystem of healthy soils, animals, community and nutritious food. In addition to our production fields we have over 200 acres of woodland trails, open pastures, ponds, and wetlands that serve as a home to over 200 different types of species. Join us for a guided bird walk with Bob Olson* around the farm to get to know some of the many bird species that make their home at Wild Hope Farm.

All levels of birders are welcome - please bring your own binoculars and a camera if interested!

*Bob Olson is a semi-retired engineer that likes to spend more time outdoors than in.  His birdwatching started with a cheap pair of binoculars, a bird book, and a backyard sunflower feeder.  After identifying the frequent backyard birds, he branched out to other areas, attended bird walks, joined clubs, and just started paying closer attention to all of the different types of birds and the habitats where they live.  Bob’s love of bird watching also coincides with his love of backpacking.  Over a 14 year period, he section hiked the entire Appalachian Trail and observed 123 bird species along the way. Check out his book on Amazon, “Hiking the Appalachian Trail – One Section at a Time”.  Over the years, Bob has gone on many bird watching adventures and tallied over 450 bird species in North America. He notes that bird watching is not for everyone, but it sure is a good excuse to get outside and appreciate nature.

Join Farmers Peanut and Shawn at the 2020 Food and Beverage Symposium!

We will both speak from 8-9 am, Peanut covering Organic Farming through Community Supported Agriculture, and Shawn talking all things On-Farm Composting!

The 2020 PCG Symposium is a collection of informative classes – including whole animal butchery, fermentation, food costing, farm productivity, staffing, financial stability, dealing with stress, plus a number of other attractive topics. Four focus tracts – Culinary, Agriculture, Business, and Wellness – have been specifically developed to offer you a holistic package of sessions to inform, create, inspire, and revive. 

This year’s theme for the PCG Food & Beverage Symposium is The Future of Food: an exploration of our changing food landscape — how we can best prepare for it and take advantage of it.