The Fireweed Farm farm-stand was launched this week…..and we’re so proud of how our daughter, son-in-law, and grandchildren have worked together through the years to create this beautiful, working farm.
Fireweed Farm Est. 2008
“Prepare thy work without, And make it ready for thee in the field; And afterwards build thy house.” Proverbs 24:27
“As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” Joshua 24:15
“A land-centered way of life provides much more than a means to enter into relationship with natural creation. It is the context of close personal relationships. As we work together with our brothers and sisters – farming and gardening, preserving foods, working at crafts – we grow close to one another. As much as we love the land and cherish the intimacy we have found with it, we appreciate even more the way this land-centered life has enabled us to learn to share our lives with one another.” Blair Adams
Table of Contents
Product Descriptions….. 3
All About Herbs…………….4
Fireweed Family Farm History…………………………5
Our Family…………………6
Order Form…………………
Our Farm Products
Herbs:
Comfrey:
Leaves are used as a fresh poultice for rough skin, burns, cuts, sprains, broken bones. Reduces inflammation. Is called “bone-heal” for its ability to heal broken bones and sprains.
Mullein:
Absolutely fantastic for respiratory ailments, such as covid, croup, allergies, and the flu. Use fresh or dried as a strong infusion. See recipe section.
Mustard Greens and Flowers:
Promotes liver health and detoxification. Flash-steamed (see recipe), they are an incredibly delicious green. Excellent in all soups and stews. I dice them and use them in many sauces and dips. The flowers can be slightly spicy and make fantastic garnishes and salad toppings.
Oregano:
Best fresh; good dried. Antifungal, antibacterial. Helps stabilize mast cells to prevent allergic reactions. Amazing protectio from viral infections. Excellent in stews, soups, sauces, meats, and vinagrettes.
Parsley:
High in Vitamin C. One of the best natural sources of gluathione, a master antioxidant. Use fresh or preserve in viegar. Use in vinagrettes. Garnish soups, salads, omellettes, sauces.
Rosemary:
Medicinal and culinary. Excellent in stews, soups, meats, and in salad vinagrettes. Used dried or fresh. Stimulates circulation. Good for aching joints and hair growth.
Sage:
An ancient healing herb. Excellent for culinary uses as well. Use in stews, soups, on meats, in vinagrettes for salad dressing. Antibacterial, antifungal, aids digestion, nerve and blood tonic. Use dried or fresh.
Tarragon:
Best fresh. Rich in minerals and Vitamin C. Use as a savory herb in sauces, tartar souce, on eggs, fish, or in vinagrettes.
Plant Starts
Sugar Snap Peas
Calendula:These flowers are excellent in salads. Dried and infused in oil are healing for skin ailments. They blossom from spring until freezing weather.
Cosmos
Mullein:Biennial. It will self-sow in your garden. Produces a tall stalk adorned with beautiful yellow flowers, which are used in the same medicinal manner as the leaves.
Black Cherry Tomatoes
Pickling Cukes
Blonde Cukes
From the Sheep
Wool Batting:For use in quilts or for needle felting.
Wool Roving:To spin into yarn. Also used by needle felters.
Yarn:Undyed. Traditional British-style wool.
Unprocessed Wool: For those who wish to process their own wool. Also used as insulation.
From the Chickens
We buy grain from a farmer in Sequim. The grain is sprouted and mixed with seeds, legumes, and vitamins. Our chickens thrive on this, along with our garden trimmings and pasture.
Eggs
Hatching Eggs**coming January 2026**!
From the Kitchen
All our dairy products are made from Dungeness Valley Creamery milk. 100% grass-fed, 100% A2 dairy cows. We have ancient, raw milk yogurt and kefir starts from which we make our products.
Almond Yogurt Cheese Custard (Paleo/keto friendly)
Tastes almost like cheesecake. The smallest bit of raw honey added.
Celtic Cashew Crunch (Paleo/Keto):
Better than crackers and will ward off hunger for hours. Our nuts and seeds are soaked, sprouted, dried and baked. This is the traditional method of preparing nuts and seeds. It activates their enzymes and makes the nutrients available for digestion and absorbtion.
Fermented Whey Sparkling Drinks:
Mildly effervescent. Very high in minerals and probiotics. Is much like kombucha with far more nutrients and broader probiotic range.
Kefir Smoothies:
We use a mix of blackberries, cranberries, strawberries, blueberries, rhubarb, and banana. No sweeteners but these!
Traditional Rye Bread:
We soak, sprout, dry, and grind the rye. We then make a long-ferment sourdought for a traditional, easily degested 100% rye bread.
Balms
I learned to make balms when my first baby had horrible diaper rash that wouldn’t respond to anything, except a locally made (and very expensive), homemade balm. After this, I learned to mix different ingredients, from lanolin and castor oil, to comfrey and cottonwood buds to heal ourselves, our children, our friends, and our livestock (Sheep or goats have hoofrot? We can help.)
I make beeswax and olive oil (food grade) based balms and oils. Beeswax is frequently mixed with plastics, to prevent this, I buy unfiltered beeswax and we process it ourselves.
We infuse oils with the herbs and flowers we grow, and wild-harvested plants to use in our balms.
Our Daily Balm A.M.
This is my all-purpose balm. Great for diaper rash, farmer’s hands, rashes, wrinkles, wrinkle-prevention, smoothing run-away hair, acts as a mild sunscreen, protects wounds, etc.
Apply every morning to prevent and get rid of wrinkles.
Apply to baby’s bum to prevent and heal diaper rash.
Our Daily Balm P.M.
Very similar to ‘Our Daily Balm A.M.’, but far more medicinal ingredients. You want this balm to soak into the skin. Apply to face and body in the evening, when you won’t be washing or perspiring it off.
It includes an extremely high-qualitly lanonlin. It is anti-fungal, anti-viral, and anti-bacterial. It is extremely gentle on the skin. Treats acne and ALL skin types: from oily to dry. Excellent for exzema (for severe, unresponsive exzema, contact me).
This is the product you want if your baby has bad diaper rash. People who tried prescription diaper rash medicine, with no results, cured their baby’s diaper rash within days with this.
Antifungal Oil:
Based on the power of oregano! Treats athletes foot, toenail fungal, all types of foot fungus. Can be used around fingernails for infections and fungal based rashes on the skin (like ring-worm). Avoid all muscus membranes, eyes, etc.
Apply daily to feet. This works better than anything we’ve ever bought at the store. Works for people susceptible to chronic fungal infections. External use only.
Farm Kid Workshop
Made by Ida:
*Embroidered, 100% Cotton Kitchen Towels
*Handspun yarn
Made by Alden:
Model Boats
*Sailing
*Fishing Vessels
*Vintage Trucks and Cars
Will make specific boats (or trucks) at request, such as the King and Winge.
Made by Wilder:
Bird Décor and Cat Toys.
Will make specific birds species at request.
Chopped by both boys:
Kindling: Coming Soon!
Fireweed Family Farm: Our Story
Our farm was founded in 2008. We gave-up the modern lifestyle to buy a yurt and move onto rented pasture. We jumped right in, growing veggies, a flock of 20 layers, and 75 broilers.
We learned to use a plucking machine from a 13-year old southern boy in a youtube video. We processed our first batch of broilers with only me (Rachelle), Ryan, my mother, and our first child – only one month old.
By living without cell phones, many modern appliances and technology, TV, etc. we were able to save money slowly. We lived on rented land for many years. Our farm has been in two different locations off of Hastings Ave (Port Townsend and in Quilcene.
In 2017, we were able to purchase our land in the hills above Discovery Bay.
The journey to our land included living in a tent with three children under the age of six. While doing so, in a fall windstorm, an enormous Douglas Fir tree nearly crushed our tent. We lived in the tent from June through October that year while Ryan built a house on wheels.
This “simple” life included being unable to dry our socks, shoes, or wet clothing. Even the bedding molded. We used public showers and laundromats for five years. Nearly everyone told us we were fools, making our lives unnecessarily difficult. But we had a vision.
The fruit of enduring hardship has been beautiful. We now own 20 acres with a home built by Ryan’s own hands. Our children are capable of running our entire farm without adult supervision. The children cheerfully help run the homestead, gaining an embodied understanding that working for the common good of our family, our livestock, our land, and our neighbors brings joy, contentment, and blessings.
Fireweed Family Farm exists because our whole family remained lovingly loyal throughout our many trials.
We are further blessed by our neighbors, who’ve lived in this little valley for over a century. They have given to us generously and welcomed us with open arms.
We are also blessed by our sister farm, Little Nicklebush (Quilcene). They have been our long-time mentors.
Above all, we are grateful that God has blessed us with the courage, persistence, and vision to pursue this lifestyle.
About Our Family:
Ryan, Husband and Father
Ryan’s parents grew up in farm country in central Ohio and Upstate New York. Ryan grew up on the East Hill of Kent (WA)as it transitioned from rural to suburban. He is the son of a Boeing engineer and dedicated stay-at-home mother. His favorite activities have always included being outdoors, hiking, camping, and running. He also loves music and studied piano and singing.
He graduated with a B.S. from Caltech. Then, seeking a life that focused on building healthier people, he attended UC Santa Cruz for a Masters in Education. Here, he met and began dating his future wife (Rachelle). He and Rachelle then moved back home to Washington to start a family and homestead.
Ryan has done the incredible hard work (that few stick with) of learning all the skills of a homesteader, husbander, and naturalist – as an adult! He is the backbone of Fireweed Family Farm, working a day-job full-time and working full-time on the farm. His dedication to his family, livestock, and land is on display daily. Our farm uses movable electric fencing – Ryan moves this daily to fence in the next section of pasture for the sheep. This allows us to raise 100% grass-fed sheep (sheep are designed to eat grass, not grain) and to never over-graze or compact our soil.
Rachelle, Wife and Mother
Rachelle’s paternal line has lived in the Islands (Lopez and Whidbey) and the Olympic Peninsula since the 1800s. Her father was the first generation to grow-up with running water and electricity. She frequently, and only half-jokingly, states, “And I was the last!”
She grew up on a ten-acre farm on Whidbey. She was blessed by parents who abstained from TV and movies. Her family rode and trained horses (Arabs) and raised sheep, chickens, and rabbits. Her summers were spent boating and kayaking in the San Juans and Inside Passage.
Her grandfather (b. 1913-d. 2013) taught her wild plant and animal identification, how to make jam, the primacy of love and loyalty to family, and the importance of observing and interpreting the unspoken language of plants, animals, and people.
Her parents lovingly sacrificed much of their lives commuting to jobs in the city (“The Other Side,” as we call it.) They commuted 2-5 hours daily, for years, allowing their children to be raised in the traditional, rural lifestyle.
With the cost of land today, farming, as in her parents and grandparents time, does not provide an income. It is a labor of love; for our family, our community, and the land, waters, and living creatures God entrusted us with.
“We raise livestock and homestead because it is the only way I know to raise healthy, honorable, and God-fearing children. A child who can catch a loose chicken, soothe a scared lamb, and nurse a dying animal, is a child who can intuitively understand and compassionately relate to other people, to all of creation, and who can uphold the family name.
All of what we do at our farm is only possible because of my husband, Ryan. His highest priority is raising a healthy family. He works long hours to allow me to stay home and raise our children and manage much of the farmwork. I’m incredibly blessed to have married so well!”
Ida, age 16
My name is Ida, and I am 16 years old. My favorite farm chores are caring for the baby lambs and planting seeds and watching them grow. In my free time, I like to embroider, read, and draw. I would like to learn to make baskets, to weave, and to improve at drawing. I would trade my projects to learn these skills.
Alden, age 14
Favorite farm chore: Watering
What I like to do with my free time: Biking
What I want to learn: Boating, building, boxing, engine repair
What I am interested in trading for: Antiques; lessons in the things I want to learn
Wilder, age 11
In my free time, I love to shoot my slingshot.
I want to learn sword fighting, boxing, how to do small engine repair, and how to ride horses. I want to learn small engine repair so that I can drive around on my lawn tractor.
I am open to trading my products to learn any of those things. I will also trade for old tools or antiques.
“Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord: and the fruit of the womb is his reward.” Psalm 127:3
“Children's children are the crown of old men; and the glory of children are their fathers.” Proverbs 17:6
Price List
Balms: |
|
4 oz. jar | $12 |
2 oz. jar | $8 |
1 oz. jar | $5 |
Lip balm | $3 |
Smoothies: |
|
12 oz. | $8 |
2 oz. | $2 |
Whey: |
|
12 oz. | $10 |
2 oz. | $3 |
Farm Kid Worshop Items: |
|
Embroidered, 100% Cotton Kitchen Towels | $16 |
Model Boats | $16 |
Bird Décor and Cat Toy |
