The fan blades hummed from the ceiling of the greenhouse. The hanging sulfur pots did their work to balance the PH of every surface as droplets fell from the see-through sky. A smell of deep earth mixed with ancestral memory- the repetitious seasonal rhythm of a farming tradition spanning generations. Nathan and Jason Weston watch over the vulnerable seedlings at Joe’s Gardens with great care and attention to the wisdom they’ve inherited- from the plants and those who’ve sown the seeds before them.
For growth in farming, and in a family run business, it helps to have strong roots and a trusted partner. And although working with family can be a delicate dance, brothers Nathan and Jason Weston have figured out the steps. They know about truck farm style farming and how to make a small-scale row crop yield to full potential. And yet they’re still learning and evolving. Their combined success comes from a lineage handed down by their parents, Carl and Karol Weston, who are still involved with the garden’s daily operations.
Nathan and Jason Westons’ mutual respect stems from what each brother brings to the table. In 2008 Nathan returned from Seattle to join the family business. Since then, his marketing savvy has complimented Jason’s vast farming knowledge and inventive reengineering of the forgotten farm machinery of America’s agricultural past. “I would not be able to do this business without him”, Jason said. I am a great farmer, but I am not a businessman.”
Nathan adds, “It’s equal respect, because the last thing I’ll ever do is walk out into the field and tell Jason, ‘You’re harvesting the broccoli wrong, let me show you how it’s done.’”
The work begins in the dark of winter. The rows of LED grow lights are on 18 hours a day to prevent the young plants from stretching too hard as they seek the sun. The plants get six hours to rest and sleep. Then it’s back to growing. December 15 marked the first greenhouse to go from hibernation into high gear, and as Nathan described it, “It’s the earthquake before the tsunami.” From March to harvest the movement of the farm never stops. Their loyal customers will be waiting.
That loyalty has a history. “We are generational in this community,” says Nathan. Jason adds, “Joe Bertero bought the farm from the Robertson family who started it in the late 1800’s. Joe took it over in 1933 because the fifteen-acre farm he used to have on Iowa Street flooded every year back when he used to release the water from the dam up there on Lake Whatcom. For a long time he farmed both places with horses.” The brother’s father, Carl Weston, began working with Bertero in 1958, when he was only fifteen. In 1983 when he was finally ready to sell, Weston traded boat building for one of his first loves – farming- and saw a dream come to fruition when he purchased the business from Bertero outright.
Since then some farming practices at Joe’s Gardens have been retired and some rediscovered. In the last five years, Jason’s refurbished walk behind tractors seem to be the key to solving the biggest dilemma the garden has faced- how to maximize production with only five acres of plantable land. “Joe’s Gardens is constantly evolving,” said Nathan. “In the past, every row was weeded by finger, hoed by hand, and pushed by hand cultivators.” The inherent problem concerned the amount of time consuming manual labor and the fact that most of today’s manufactures no longer make equipment for small tractors.
This is when an old relic, a Planet Junior tractor that had gathered dust since the brothers were boys, went from being something you tripped over to a resurrected treasure. Jason began to tinker with the tractor, got it up and running, and in Nathan’s words, “Took off.” He began to research and build, adapt and restore all kinds of other antique farming devices until a small farming revolution was born. A tractor that was no longer made as of the late 1950’s was salvaged to become Joe’s workhorse once again.
Through Internet groups, Jason has gained a network of like-minded collectors and joined forces with other folks focused on recovering the art of small-scale agriculture. Jason points out, “20% of the population used to farm up until the 1950’s.” That percentage has plummeted to 1% today.
“Any new tool you see made for agriculture, unless it’s for the massive machines, was all invented a hundred years ago,” Jason said. “All this equipment is still out there, it’s just a matter of finding it, rebuilding it and putting it back to work.” Even though new devices like automatic transplanters are still made in countries in Europe and Asia, EPA emission guidelines prevent these machines from being imported into the USA. Here in lies the impetus for Jason’s ingenious adaptations.
Innovation combined with heritage continually feeds a community. Jason recalled, “I’ve seen grandparents and parents come into Joe’s together with their kids. I’ve watched those grandkids grow up and have kids and seen their kids grow up and get married and have their babies, so I’ve watched families from up to four generations come into Joe’s in the short thirty years I’ve been here. People come in and say, ‘My grandmother used to work here in the 30’s. And it’s still the same barn, same store, same fields, and in some cases, the same tractors we’re still using.’” And they still have Joe’s tractor from the 1950’s. Some relics are worth holding onto and there’s comfort in the things that evolve yet somehow manage to retain the core values from which they grew.
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