The Scanlons

Our journey as a family began eleven years ago, when by pure chance we met at Pickathon, as small music festival outside Portland, OR.  Hours later we were sharing our dreams of living on land surrounded by a community dedicated to growing healthy food, raising healthy kids, playing music, and learning skills needed to be good homesteaders.

My passion for growing and raising food and for traditional, homesteading skills had come from my ten years living in Northern Wisconsin in the rural community of Prairie Farm.  There I had worked for organic vegetable and dairy farms, owned my own oxen powered farm, and had been surrounded by friends who taught me the art of preserving food, carpentry, logging, making maple syrup, brain tanning and more!

Meanwhile, Derek was living an urban life and becomming a gifted special education teacher.  His ten years after college had been dedicated to working with children and adults with special needs.  He had managed group homes, worked as a PARA educator, and was now a lead teacher in a self-contained special education classroom.  His unbelievable patience and his steadfast belief that all children could and should learn was so evident in his teaching style and his ability to work with and enhance the life of any child.

Somehow while falling in love, I convinced Derek to leave the urban life for the farm, and both Colibri Gardens and our gorgeous son Nate were born!  We spend our days caring for animals and the gardens, hiking in the woods, preserving all the garden produce (often late at night!), and working towards creating the community we have always dreamed of.  

Our mission is to create a farm that feeds our family and the neighborhood, and to create a place for people to learn about gardening, farming, animal care, rural living, and traditional skills.  We are both dedicated to actively working towards a more sustainable planet, and we believe that one of the most important and concrete things we can all do to achieve this goal is to support small, organic farms.  Since we rarely leave the farm, we adore visitors- so check out our upcoming classes and events, give us a call, and please come on out to our 40 acres of heaven!  We look forward to meeting you!

-Lara, Derek, and Nate Scanlon-