Microfarm Sustainable Research and Education Promoting profitable, sustainable small farming and local food systems for a more secure future. Home Page About Us Events Farming Info Agricultural Links Weather Contact Us 19940 SE Webfoot Rd Dayton, Oregon 97114-8828 (503) 868-7679

| | Our Mission: Our mission is to enrich lives through establishing and maintaining a hands-on, learn-by-example Small Farm Center, teaching ecologically friendly and economically profitable farming and forestry practices. Our Vision: A balanced, rural/urban society where farmers and consumers come together to ensure the profitable production of food and other crops while maintaining ecological balance and ensuring a safe, abundant, healthy food supply for themselves and future generations. Our Core Values: We believe that rural landowners have the right to make a profit on their land, but they also have the obligation to do so in a sustainable manner that will preserve the land and its food-producing capabilities for the future. We believe that small family farms promote unity in and a better quality of life for the farm family. We believe that small family farms are an integral and important part of a whole community, necessary to support our business and agricultural economies. We believe that small family farms are a necessary link between rural and urban residents, providing food, other necessary commodities, and a wider view of the world. We believe on-farm experiences develop a sense of responsibility in children and teach them to respect themselves, other people, animals, and the environment. The Small Farm Center: The Small Farm Center will be a full-time working farm, operating in the present and giving glimpses of the past and the future, combining profitable farming and forestry with caring for the environment and wildlife. It will offer managed forest areas, wetlands, streams, fields, livestock, orchards, greenhouses, ponds, herb gardens for people to see, enjoy and learn from. It will provide on-farm experiences and hands-on practical training in life skills necessary for a profitable, ecologically friendly small farm. There will be several programs at the Center. The first will involve the whole farm as a hands-on laboratory for adding practical experience to what is learned in the on site classrooms. A youth program will allow young people without room of their own to have projects that involve livestock and the farm. Payback will be through volunteer hours on the farm and in their community. There will be an apprenticeship program covering On-Farm Sales, Farmers' Markets, and Community Supported Agriculture. This will teach crop decisions, growing methods, marketing, and sharing of their surplus. Another program will teach living skills like gardening, butter and cheese making, meat processing, honey processing, equipment maintenance and repair, etc..     Some photographs courtesy of Oregon Dept of Agriculture. Home | AboutUs | Events | Farming Info | Agricultural Links | Weather | Contact Us