Natural Harvest Farm

You may contact the Site Manager, Sue Clark for more information.

To volunteer at Natural Harvest, contact OSALT's Volunteer Coordinator.

Click here for directions to Natural Harvest Farm, (For scheduled events only, no drop-ins, please).

It is 1975. Susan Clark is concluding the forced sale of her small farm in Philomath, Oregon and her Appaloosa horse, Patches, and finishing her Masters degree in Education.

Will Newman II is the Director of CISCO, the Chicano-Indian Study Center of Oregon, near Corvallis.

They meet and find they have much in common. As is sometimes the case, this leads to marriage.

Fast forward to 1988. After a 13 year, continent wide search, Sue and Will purchase an abandoned 20-acre farm near Canby, Oregon. They plan an organic operation, growing vegetables and fruits for local markets. At the suggestion of a friend, they name it Natural Harvest Farm. Because nothing has happened on the farm for the last 3 years except harvesting hay, they are able to qualify for organic certification their first year and start growing fruits and vegetables immediately, living in a trailer while they develop the farm and rebuild the dilapidated farm house.

Out of their 13 year odyssey in finding and buying Natural Harvest, in a civilization that no longer understands the basic link between healthy farms and healthy societies, Sue and Will found Oregon Sustainable Agriculture Land Trust (OSALT) in 1996.

By 2000 they are able to pay off the mortgage on the farm and donate it to the Trust, retaining the right to live on the farm for the remainder of their lives.

The year is 2001 and Sue and Will have been more and more in demand as teachers and mentors, and have little time for running the farm themselves. For the last half-dozen years they have been working with young growers at Natural Harvest, exposing them to the realities of small-scale agriculture and sustainability, so this next generation of growers can move on to their own farms with the knowledge and experience they need to farm successfully.

Sue takes on the job of Site Manager/Liaison between Natural Harvest Farm and OSALT. Will is Director of Research and Education for OSALT, both volunteer positions.

With an extensive, comprehensive long-term plan, the farm is currently being developed as a research, education and demonstration site for OSALT, with a number of research projects in place, and annual events such as Open Farm Day and Harvest Festival. Classroom space has been developed, and demonstration gardens, with a perimeter path for self-guided farm tours progressing.