Meet Matt of Foothills Farm

If you’ve ever thought to yourself, “gee, I should really learn more about polycultural farming?” well here’s your chance. It’s just as cool as cool as it sounds.

Hi Matt! Can you introduce us to your farm?

I run Foothills Farm up in northwest Washington. We’ve got a couple hundred acres of diversified vegetables and we polyculturally run chickens which means we use chickens as part of our rotation. We try to feed the soil as naturally as possible because if I can create high quality soil, it's going to create high quality vegetables that are going to be delicious and nutrient dense. 

For the uninitiated, can you tell us what it means to polyculturally run chickens?

Polycultural farming means using animals and crops in the same rotation. They're all integral and part of the larger system. It's almost simulating what was happening in the Great Plains with the herds of buffalo naturally occurring.

If we think of the farm like a pie, we plant the heavy feeders, crops that need a lot of nutrition from the soil, like broccoli, cauliflower or cabbage, and then the light feeds, like carrots or lettuces, second. When I say rotate I mean that the zone that had heavy feeders last year will have light feeders this year. And then the third and fourth year, that zone will have a cover crop, like clover. 

We’ll run chickens, which means we let them roam, on the zones with clover. The chickens will eat the clover, which will then stimulate the clover roots to push even further and deeper into the soil so the clover can regrow itself. The magical thing about clover is that it’s a nitrogen fixer, which means it pulls nitrogen out of the air during photosynthesis and it leaves it at the roots, feeding the soil. 

Basically, different crops have different needs of minerals in the soil. So for an organic farm, you have to have a really strong rotation of crops.

This is AMAZING! The nerd in me is having a blast. I’d love to know, how’d you get into farming?

I've always been a service to others type of a person. That's why I was a ski patroller and really loved doing that for so long. But then I tore my ACL. It ended my professional skiing career and I suddenly had this real urge to get my hands in the dirt again and grow food.

So during that recovery phase, I started growing a little garden at the house we were living in at the time. And that just completely overwhelmed my roommates, and the garden, and my landlord. 

So I realized I should be back on the land where my grandparents lived on. They weren’t professional farmers, they were more homesteaders. My farm started as a little tiny quarter acre using no till regenerative practice. And that grew and grew and grew and grew and now 10 years later, we have 200 acres of land under cultivation of either cover crop or crop. And probably about 1,500 chickens.

Tell us a bit more about the chickens!

I feel like chickens are a slice of the demographics of human populations. Now, I'm not sure if this is because I'm projecting human tendencies on chickens because I'm around chickens so much or if it’s actually true. But if you pay attention, you’ll see it. 

The analogy I always like to use is that some people like to go climb a mountain. I know I was one of those people. And I have chickens that are just like that too. They get up in the morning, they go eat, they lay their morning egg, and then, just like a lot of us, they’re off for the day doing their thing. They'll go a half mile away, they'll go the farthest side of the farm, and they'll be off in the blackberry bushes, just like on a little adventure.

And then there's other ones that spend the day lounging, hanging out. They basically stay right next to the feeder all day. It’s like they’re sitting on their couch watching TV all day long. 

I want the eggs from those other ladies that go climb a mountain. Because they’re the best. Chickens are omnivores and the ones who explore eat a high variety of different kinds of proteins. That's one of the biggest reasons that we pasture our birds. We want to move them on a daily basis so they can help us feed our fields, but it’s also because those ladies that go on a walk about every day, they have the best eggs.

I want to be an adventure chicken too. Seeing this whole system, it seems like you have a real connection with the land you’re farming. 

I look at this as like I'm just a shepherd on this large piece of land for a very short period of time and so I do whatever I can do to leave it in a better in way than it was.

And it seems like your customers feel connected to it too?

There’s definitely a huge psychological need that people have to know where their food came from, know who produced it, and feel good about that aspect. But, especially in the cities, it’s hard for people to get out and have that experience of where their food came from and connect to that deeper peace that we all have within us. Through the market, a lot of people can share in that connection. They feel good about what they’re eating. And you know, for some of them, it’s like their church, it’s where they come every Sunday to commune and meet with their people. 

I know Mill helps a lot of people feel that way as well, part of the cycle, part of the process. Can you share your thoughts on Mill?

I think the idea and the philosophy is fantastic. Any place that we can change the waste stream and divert it away from going to the landfill, any time we can be more regenerative to our approach as a society, that’s really important. 

Mill been able to create a system that's going full circle and has gone out to identify and fix regulations that are actually hindering us as a society. We need everybody on board with these things because we can all do our part.

If people can see, “hey, I could be rediverting and creating a high quality protein,” I mean, it's a win win.