The Growers Grange
Vendor
The Growers Grange is a small farm run by Bianca Nati and Ethan Riddle. We are dedicated to preserving cultural tradition through the growing of heirloom vegetables and fruit. Our focus is on protecting food that is culturally significant and providing these crops to our community. In 2022 we will be growing Italian heirloom vegetables for markets and a CSA on 1/2 acre. An additional 1/8 acre will be used for saving the seeds of select crops for True Love Seeds and The Italian Garden Project.
Figs
In 2022 we are planting and establishing fig trees that are a part of our collaboration with The Italian Garden Project's Legacy Fig Tree Collection. We hope to offer the fruit of these heirloom figs in a few years.
No Till Non Gmo Integrated Pest Management Crop Rotation Use Only Organic Materials
Some may say we use Organic practices, but we like to say we use the growing methods of Bianca’s Grandpa and Nona, with lots of love and no chemicals. Our long term goal is to be a certified Regenerative Organic operation. We are a small farm, focusing on permanent beds and man power for mostly all of our field work. We only use certified organic inputs and our focus is IPM and crop rotations.
Bianca began farming in 2014 for two reasons: to repair her relationship to food and to revive her family’s traditions. Through her journey with agriculture, she realized that she not only wanted to start a farm, but to portray the Italian Orto (vegetable garden) she grew up with. Bianca’s paternal great grandparents immigrated from Italy to Pennsylvania in the early 1900s. Growing up, her grandfather and great grandmother grew all her family's vegetables. Their gardens were the main source of nourishment through the heat of the summer and anything they didn't eat was preserved for the winter months.
Her upbringing has inspired her to continue these traditions and showcase them within her own work on the farm. Bianca has seven years of experience in Organic agriculture, including two seasons of Rodale Institute’s Farming Training Program, a B.S. degree in Horticulture, and a deep passion for regenerative agriculture and Slow Food.
Ethan Riddle was born and raised in Appalachia, near the banks of the Ohio River. His summers (and let's be honest... falls, and winter) were spent working for his aunt and uncle doing the labors required of a burgeoning family farm. The nuanced smells and tactile sensations of fermenting tobacco, dusty hay lofts, and breaks in the "crick" all hold a particularly strong place in his early memories of farming.
Ethan now holds a Bachelor's degree in Fine Art, a previous career as a custom fabricator, and is a graduate of Rodale Institute's Farmer Training Program. He has a deep rooted emotional connection to the natural world and its stewardship. With a propensity for fabrication and mechanics he hopes to find ways to make managing and working on small human scale farms more enjoyable, productive, and comfortable without compromising the principles of his Slow Food and environmental philosophies.
Around the web