Swallowtail Forest Farm
Farmer/Dealer
About
Swallowtail Forest Farm is a small, diversified, and ecologically inspired farm located just outside of Mercersburg, Pennsylvania and operated by Ethan Strickler. The farm specializes in a diversified orchard where we predominantly grow Hybrid Chestnuts and Pawpaws, which are North America's largest native fruit. We grow named cultivars of Pawpaws and select seedlings we have acquired over the years. 2022 was our first year for a commercial harvest and sale of culinary chestnuts. In addition, we grow and sell log-grown Shiitake Mushrooms, American Persimmons, Garlic, Sweet Potatoes, and other specialty vegetable crops. In the vendor type, we indicated "Farmer/Dealer" as opposed to "Farmer" because we also sell products produced by our partner business, Swallowtail Flowers. Swallowtail Flowers, owned and operated by Anna Strickler, is a specialty cut flower operation that specializes in growing and providing fresh cut flowers for florists, designers, weddings, and markets. More information on the flower side of our farm can be found at http://flowers.swallowtailforestfarm.com/. The forest farm and flower farm are integrated together on the same farm. The goals of our farm businesses and land management strategy include, but are not limited to, promoting perennial crops, facilitating ecological health, creating habitat for pollinators and wildlife, and allowing us to build sustainable livelihoods.
Programs and Partners
Production Practices
Permaculture Design Perennial Crops
The primary crops our farm produces are perennial tree crops. The three tree crops we focus on in our diversified orchard are Pawpaws, Chestnuts, and Persimmons. The design and layout of our orchards across the farm landscape is inspired by keyline water management and permaculture design. As of 2023, our Pawpaw trees are in full production, our Chestnut orchard trees are beginning to produce a marketable crop, and our Persimmon orchard is a year or two away from our first commercial harvest. Our farm is passionate about advancing Agroforestry and Agroforestry systems, and has collaborated with the Pennsylvania Association of Sustainable Agriculture on promoting Agroforestry in the Mid-Atlantic. Our farm incorporates the agroforestry practices of alley cropping and forest farming in the integration of tree crops with annual production of specialty cut flowers and vegetables. Our cut flowers, garlic, and sweet potato crops are all grown within an alley cropping system. The forest farming we practice on the farm focuses on the production of shiitake mushrooms grown on logs under the shade of the forest canopy. We produce shiitakes from the forest from June through October.
Location
Mercersburg, PA
Manager
My wife Anna and I own and operate Swallowtail Forest Farm and Swallowtail Flowers on land we own and on family land we have access to near Mercersburg, Pennsylvania. We are advocates of Agroforestry Systems and ecological farming practices. We have a passion for unique tree crops, such as Pawpaws, Chestnuts, and Persimmons. More than anything, we love trees, and have planted several thousand over the years on our farm as we have slowly built our farm businesses and expanded our ecological management of the farm. After attending our local farmers market in Chambersburg, PA for the past three years, we felt it was time that our Pawpaw and Chestnut crops have access to a larger, more urban market. We are familiar with the Bethesda Central Farm Market from Ethan's time working for Bending Bridge Farm (an organic vegetable farm) several years ago in 2013. In addition to farmers markets, our products are sold through a local CSA (Deep Roots Farm (PA)), to florists, and at events.
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