The Lum Farm on Orcas Island is a family operation! Owners Eric and Amy and their daughters Martha (19) and Rachel (17) are involved in all aspects of running the farm. They primarily raise livestock for meat, dairy and fiber. You can find their foods in their farm store, both on-site and online through their website. Lum Farm products are featured at more than a dozen local island restaurants and businesses, and they also sell products at Island Market and Orcas Village Store. They also give back by supplying meat, eggs and produce to the Food Bank.
Get to know the Lum Farm and their family in their own words…
“Amy’s focus is animal health, cheese and generally running the business. Eric is our soil/compost specialist, maintenance and equipment pro, and farmer of everything. Eric grew up on Orcas with a big garden and a handful of farm animals. Amy had big farm dreams while holding down a job at the vet clinic. We started with a puppy, a batch of chicks and two sheep over 20 years ago….. And now have about 185 sheep, 90 Nubian and Boer goats, 18 cattle, 13 pigs, and just under a million chickens. 4H projects with our children led us to adding new species over the years. We have grown our farm business slowly and steadily, learning and studying animal health management along the way. Eric likes to say he is an overeducated, underslept farmer.
Martha is just finishing her freshman year at WSU, studying Agricultural Economics. She helps out in the farm store, with technology and bookkeeping, as well as being an all-around farmhand. Her specialty is cattle and her horses. Rachel also works on the farm, focusing on the goats, chickens, lambing/kidding and milking.
We are operating our farm on the Coffelt Farm Preserve through a lease agreement with the San Juan County Land Bank. We submitted a proposal and were accepted to take on the Coffelt lease. This lease is short-term, with the intention of keeping the land in farming while the Land Bank sorts out a longer term vision for the farm. We love farming here and appreciate our working relationship with the Land Bank Stewards. It is a unique challenge and very rewarding.
We also lease other farm land for grazing, which has worked well for many years. We appreciate the relationships we are able to build with landowners, and always strive to improve the pastures and infrastructures of the land we are using.
We hope that the Land Bank will offer a long-term lease proposal, and intend to apply for that when they do. We are excited for a future in which this land and our farm and community continue to thrive. If we aren’t accepted for that proposal, we will have a huge task in moving our farm operation to another location. But we are committed – we know that farming is what we are meant to do!
We love where we are at right now, and plan on maintaining this level of farming/dairy no matter what happens regarding the Coffelt Farm Preserve lease. One of the most fulfilling aspects of our farm is engaging with our community to educate people about agriculture and food production. We also work with the Food Bank, local schools, 4H and other groups to teach and engage the community in the wonders of growing food.
We love our crew of employees, who make the farm such an awesome place to be. They are a part of our farm family, and we have been fortunate to offer job security to our local crew all through the pandemic. Mandy Troxel is farm store manager, marketing manager, milking parlor magician and all around farm hand. Kyle Jepsen is our farm carpenter, fixing and building just about everything…. and he also mows, hays and operates a lot of equipment. Crystal Mossman is our cheesemaker, and also is digging into the garden with her partner Tessa this spring. Orcas teens Nisha Woolworth and Margot Van Gelder are amazing farm hands with a knack for animal health, egg handling and are milking parlor magicians as well.
Amy is our resident sheep-shearer. We process some of the wool on-site, but most is sent off to be turned into roving, yarn, rugs, socks and hats for our farm store. We also supply the wool for Bossy’s Feltworks, a needle-felting business shared by Amy with her two business partners, Mandy Troxel and Kari Van Gelder. Sheepskins and goatskins are very popular too!
Beef, lamb, goat and pork are always for sale, with broiler chickens available for purchase about once a month in the summer and fall. We also sell ducks and turkeys seasonally. Eggs are abundant and are for sale at the farm store and through weekly subscriptions. The goat dairy was just added last year, and Amy has found a new passion for making cheese! We sell our Chevre, Feta, Tomme and Cajeta (goats milk caramel) in the farm store and also to many local restaurants.”
How has the pandemic affected your business and farming this past year?
“The pandemic threw everything into uncertainty last year. We were just starting up the dairy, and also caught COVID in April 2020. We ended up changing the whole way we do business. While we weren’t sure how it would work out then, with hindsight we see the changes as very positive and intend to keep them in place even post-COVID.
People realized that the food chain is precarious, as we saw the shelves in the grocery stores empty and non-essential travel prohibited. We suddenly became a food hub, but with the pandemic we couldn’t just open the doors. Our daughter Martha put the shop online and set up contactless ordering and pickups. This was transformative and we will now always have this option available! We truly engaged with the Food Bank, prioritizing feeding our friends and neighbors and creating a secure food system closer to home. This is also something that we will absolutely continue to build on. It became very clear that our greatest asset is the people we serve.”
In April of 2020 Lum Farm was awarded a grant of $30,394 from the FARM Fund and Orcas Island Community Foundation (OICF) to increase the production of livestock with a portion of designated product being donated to the Orcas Food Bank. As a result, they donated over 400 pounds of beef, over 250 pounds of pork, 100+ pounds of lamb, plus lots of bones for soup and about 40 dozen eggs!
“And we have more food headed their way soon! The grant helped to begin an amazing food support system on Orcas between local farms and the food bank.”
“We are a farming family that has grown our business from the ground up through working relationships with our family, neighbors and our community. We exist because of the incredible place we live in and because everyone needs to eat! Our greatest joy is raising happy, healthy animals using regenerative and sustainable farming practices, and being able to share our farm with the public. While farming is not an easy calling, it is one that fills us with satisfaction and joy, and we wouldn’t trade it for anything.”