Sustenance - Emergency Food Network

Next Generation Growth
at Mother Earth Farm
Maybe it’s true that the apple doesn’t fall
far from the tree. This is certainly the case
at Mother Earth Farm, where in January,
Canyon Little succeeded Carrie Little as
Farm Manager.
We are happy to welcome Canyon in his
new role, and even happier that Carrie
will stay involved with farm activities,
including caring for the 8 bee hives that
keep our produce bountiful.
Canyon spent the past two years learning the “ins and outs” of EFN’s lush,
eight-acre organic farm, which provides 150,000 pounds of produce annually to
roughly 27 food banks. These programs receive the food on the same day that
it is harvested, so hungry families and individuals in Pierce County often receive
better fruits and vegetables than the average person could purchase in the store.
Growing up, Canyon’s mom always had gardens, she was always opposed to
genetically modifi ed produce, and she taught Canyon from a young age the
importance of eating healthy and organically farmed food. The Littles settled
in Puyallup and Tacoma when Canyon was 9 years old. He attended Western
Washington University where he received a BA in Business with a concentration
in Marketing. After managing some retail stores, he went to UW-Tacoma for a
post-bach in environmental studies. When he fi nished school in 2009, he spent
time helping at Mother Earth Farm, where he had volunteered since 2001. Carrie
needed a farm assistant, and after a search, Helen McGovern, submitted Canyon’s
name to the Board.
He learned about things like soil structure, crop rotation, cover crops, drip tape
irrigation, harvesting seeds, seed germination, pruning fruit trees (thinning cuts
and leading cuts), bees, cross pollination, and more, all of which prepared him to
take over the farm when Carrie retired to work more on her family farm. Canyon
wakes early each morning to grab the 6:15 bus from Mercer Island to King Street
Station. The 6:50 Sounder Train gets him to Sumner, where he then bikes 25-35
minutes to the farm at 8am. At 4pm, he hops on his bike to return home.
Canyon says he is very optimistic about his new role at Mother Earth Farm
“because it has so much potential to have an impact on the lives of people in
need.” His goals are to increase production from 150,000 pounds of vegetables,
fruits, and honey to 200,000 pounds annually. To do this, the farm will harvest on
more days, use more volunteers, and work more closely with the Pierce County
Gleaning Project coordinator. As always, Mother Earth Farm will rely heavily on
a core of 8-10 women from the Washington Corrections Center for Women. For
years, this group has provided the core hours and skills needed to keep farm
operations going, receiving college credit for their efforts.
At EFN’s 30th Anniversary Breakfast on May 2, our community recognized Carrie
with the David P. Ottey Lifetime Achievement Award for her work at Mother Earth
Farm. She and David were a part of the farm from its roots.
Distribution Centers
don’t have farms.
That was the way it
had always been until a
meeting took place over
breakfast at a restaurant in
Bonney Lake in March of
1999. That meeting was
between Doreen Johnson
- the grandmother of an
EFN volunteer who owned
eight acres of farmland
located between Sumner
and Orting, and past EFN
Director, David Ottey.
The land in question was part of twenty acres that had been “in the family” for
more than 50 years, providing the owner’s family with vegetables during the time
Doreen grew up and also serving as a source of income from vegetables sold at
the Tacoma Market where her father dropped them off each morning on his way
to work at The News Tribune. After Doreen’s parents died, the land was split into
eight acres owned by Doreen, ten acres owned by her brother, and two acres that
were sold. For more than a decade, Doreen leased her acreage to a valley grower,
but decided that she wanted the land to do “something special” and offered to
lease it at minimal cost to provide food for those in need. Although a radical idea
in the larger emergency food community, EFN was well aware of the “seed to the
table” approach of providing low-income folks with food. A deal was cut allowing
for the project to be attempted, once two years of funding specifi c
continued on next page