CLEAR BROOK, Va. — Some growing seasons are longer than others. For Dan and Ali Haney, you could say their fall harvest is actually 11 years in the making.
"We had to sacrifice a lot. We had to put a lot of hours into it. And thankfully we got established," Dan said.
The Haneys own Shenandoah Seasonal Farm in the northern Shenandoah Valley, a five-acre operation that sells more than 100 varieties of produce to Community Supported Agriculture members, Freshfarm Market customers, and some of the area's top restaurants.
They keep at it year-round, growing fresh vegetables even in the coldest parts of winter.
"That's something we love to share with our customers. You thought you've had a good salad before?" said Ali. "Well, you really haven't until you've had it in the winter."
Here’s part of our conversation with Ali and Dan Haney about what inspired them to start a farm, why they believe what they're doing could change the world (really!), why it's important to farm year-round, and how they plan to catch your attention at the farmers markets. (Conversation edited for length and clarity.)
How did you decide to start farming?
ALI: Dan and I met at James Madison University when we were 22 years old, and we traveled to Cambodia, where we worked with impoverished children, and we ran a children's home there. What we realized is there's no change of seasons there, and that was something we really missed from being home in Virginia. We also loved the farmers markets there. Well, there are farmer's markets there, open air markets where everybody shops, sometimes twice a day. And that made us think a bit about what we wanted to do when we came back to the United States. Dan really wanted to start a farm.
DAN: And we originally thought that we would start some kind of a nonprofit in the U.S. that was based around agriculture. But when we got here, we decided we needed to learn to do the thing that we set out to do, which was the farming aspect. We had no experience with that and it was very challenging to start our farm, but we definitely had the will to do it.
ALI: We didn't have land, that was probably the first barrier to starting a farm, and over the years we've moved our farm to four different locations, which, especially with all these tunnels that you're seeing, is hard to do. Purchasing land was not an option for us. Land is expensive and it took us a long time to get here, but we purchased these five acres in Clear Brook, Virginia, three years ago, and we are building from here. It's nice to finally be in a place where we can grow strawberries and vegetables that will grow year to year, where in the past we've been nervous about not being able to to stay on the land we were leasing. So this is very meaningful and a dream come true to have our own land.
Tell me a little bit about just that time in your life before this dream came true.
DAN: Yeah, it was difficult, very difficult.
ALI: Blood sweat and tears.
DAN: Yeah, we had to sacrifice a lot. We had to put a lot of hours into it. And thankfully we got established. We have met the right connections and I think that this, uh, this endeavor we've undertaken is something that a lot of people have been supportive of through the years. And a lot of people have reached out to us to say, 'Hey, if you ever need anything, you know, in a minute's notice, I'll be over there to help you.' And down to our customer base. Everybody really wants to shop with us, to support us. And we've seen it from our local community here to our local community in the D.C. area.
ALI: I think that's been a motivating factor for us going to farmers markets, having conversations with our customers, the appreciation of what we're doing. And they've seen us grow. I've seen their children grow, and that's a very special connection that we have, and a huge part of why we were able to get through that really difficult time of getting our farm established and moving to new farms and starting from scratch here nine years into our our farming career. So it's just one of the reasons I love farmers markets so much.
When you're driving down the road here, your farm stands apart a little bit, and you notice something when you're driving by.
ALI: The first thing you're going to notice is a lot of high tunnels. High tunnels are unheated greenhouses. And right now we're putting up our seventeenth.
DAN: Yeah, it's a lot of greenhouses.
How do they work?
DAN: The high tunnels allow us to do season extension on our vegetables. So right now in Virginia, in this region, we experienced our first frost last night, which is exciting, but it would be kind of a damper on things if we didn't have these unheated tunnels to extend the season, where growing with these, we could expect to extend the season perhaps to go year round with some crops that can withstand some really cold temperatures. And in the summertime it allows us to grow crops that you wouldn't typically be able to grow outside because it gives a little bit of shade. And it can regulate the humidity and temperatures a bit more than outside in Virginia during the summertime.
The tunnels seem like a pretty big endeavor. Why did those become part of your operation?
DAN: So I think it was in our second year of growing vegetables that we took a hard look at our finances and realized in the wintertime that we were forced to get off-farm jobs. And that was something that we had to do because we didn't make enough money during the regular season to supplement our income. And so we decided that we don't want to get an outside job for that time and that if we did decide to take a break, that would be us taking a time out from our career to not learn more and not advance our skills. So we have, each year for, I would say, 11 years now, purchased at least one greenhouse. We've expanded our greenhouse operation from one greenhouse a season to maybe two a season now. Now today I'm putting up three greenhouses. It's something that was not practiced here, is not very culturally practiced around here, greenhouse growing. There's apples, there's soybeans, there's corn, there's cattle, but not greenhouses, not high tunnels. And so we have really found a niche market to where now we have no problem staying employed in the off season. And we actually have gotten to the point to where we have two other employees year round, full time in the wintertime.
ALI: We use passive solar heat. So basically the sunlight is what's keeping the temperature warm enough for the vegetables to grow in the winter. Adding in propane would not be profitable for us. We've bootstrapped our operation and it is our livelihood as well as our two employees. So adding supplemental heat, it's just not our philosophy. We want to grow what is in season because we believe in seasonal eating.
Tell me more about that idea of seasonal eating.
DAN: So a lot of Americans don't really understand or appreciate the seasonal produce that's available to them, especially in this region with the seasonal extension from the high tunnels. So in the wintertime, most Americans are typically shopping in the grocery store. They're buying things that are not from this region. They're not even in season. For example, when you're, you know, eating avocados and bananas in the middle of winter, those aren't coming from anywhere around here. But there are a lot of varieties that come from a small farm that you will never find in the grocery store. That really expands your cooking experience. It allows you to really be in touch with nature with eating seasonally. So you are really going to eat a lot of leafy greens. You're going to store your pumpkins and survive off them in the winter time, just like we did 150 years ago.
ALI: One of the benefits of eating seasonally is you are getting the best flavor. So if you're eating a tomato peak summer, that's the best tomato you ever going to eat. If you're eating a tomato that's been grown in a greenhouse in January, it's not going to have the same flavor. If you're eating a carrot that's been out, that has had winters' frost, it's going to be the sweetest carrot you've ever had. The greens are sweeter. It's like a natural antifreeze that the plants create that actually makes the leaves sweeter. So the best collard greens, the best kale, the best carrots: you're going to find in the winter. And that's something we love to share with our customers. You thought you've had a good salad before? Well, you really haven't until you've had it in the winter.
It's like the season itself is an ingredient in the cooking! This seems to be something that you see people caring about more, too.
DAN: I think it really starts with the farmers, getting creative and thinking outside the box of, hey, I cannot compete against these grocery stores growing these conventional types of food. I need to find a specific crop that I don't have any competition against. So we like to grow a lot of, I'd say international vegetables that are not typical for this area or region. So we grow a lot of cooking greens from around the world that include bok choy, these things that typically a grower around here would not grow.
ALI: We are highly diversified. Throughout the year we grow about 100 varieties, so we're not just growing one type of beet. We're growing gold beets, red beets, candy beets, and 18 types of tomatoes. We found that that's what keeps us interested. We like to eat different types of food. We like to grow different types of beautiful greens. And we've also met the demand of the farmers market. We like to make really big displays and have them be colorful and try to get as many purple vegetables. We grow as many purple vegetables to catch people's eye as possible.
DAN: And we like to grow the types of vegetables that people aren't familiar with. It's always very fun and engaging for the customer to learn that recipe from us to say, 'Hey, I've never seen this. What is this?' It looks like a very unusual vegetable. And so they they'll take it home, they'll be creative, they'll learn how to cook with it, and they feel like they've gained some value in that.
ALI: I do a lot of the seed purchasing and I'm always looking for new and interesting varieties that are going to catch the eye of our customers and also the chefs that we sell to in DC.
Do you feel like you're able to maybe have a better consumer base for these products because of where you are?
DAN: Exactly. When we go into D.C., there's so much variety and culture there, and demand, that there's always an outlet for it. People are seeking it out. And the restaurants really do highlight these items for us, too. They really create this scene where they are highlighting seasonal farms and ingredients and that inspires their customers to follow up. 'Hey, where did you get this from?' 'Oh, you can actually get that at your local farmers market.'
ALI: People will say, Oh, I love kohlrabi, or people will try kohlrabi for the first time and come back and say they love it. And that's just a vegetable that you're not going to find in the grocery store.
Having a background in an interest in nonprofit and then choosing to go this route, you clearly believe that what you're doing here is important.
DAN: I firmly believe that if more people were doing this, then we wouldn't have as many issues with climate change, global warming. And I think that it's one of the few things left that you can do where you actually don't feel too bad about what you're doing. You don't think, oh, this is damaging the environment. It's growing healthy vegetables, providing for my local community. I this specific practice should be applied around the world as a way to combat climate change. It's something that doesn't really require a lot of inputs, such driving a tractor where your emissions are insane.
ALI: There's an environmental factor. There is a food systems factor. If you are getting your food from us, they're not coming from California. That's really important to us to provide that to our community.
What does it mean for you to be rooted in your community, and what you’re doing here?
ALI: To me, the first thing I think about is my children. [Our daughter] is four years old and we moved to this farm when she was one, so she's been able to see us grow in this place. She'll have memories of being here. And [our son] is ten months old. So he was born here on the farm, and they will grow up knowing their neighbors, and we hope one day growing food for them, too.
You think this could be a next generation thing?
DAN: I hope so.
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LOVE WHERE YOU LIVE: HOMEGROWN EDITION
This fall, “Love Where You Live” is paying special attention to our neighbors who keep us fed. Wednesday mornings on Get Up DC, from Oct. 18-Nov. 22, we’ll highlight the region’s makers, growers, and purveyors who share their harvest with the DMV at weekly farmers markets. From a mother-daughter kimchi company putting a new spin on a cultural staple, to a first-generation organic farmer cultivating in all seasons, to a culinary-artist turned pickler—we’ll ask about their process, what keeps them going (and growing), and why the DMV is where they’re rooted. It’s a celebration of what it means to be homegrown in this diverse community, and a closer look at the economic and environmental importance of supporting local.
Each of the businesses profiled in “Love Where You Live: Homegrown” is a vendor at a local FRESHFARM market — a year-round, producers-only community of markets across the DMV featuring farmers and makers from around the Mid-Atlantic.
At nearly 30 markets, shoppers have the opportunity to support local businesses based within 200 miles of Washington, DC. FRESHFARM also supports the local good system through educational programs and food distribution and access programs.
To find a market near you, click here.