Summer is here! Come join us for this busy season. Contact us to reserve a place at the Hogstead table for 2026! Summer here is AMAZING and you will love your experience working with us this season!
GENERAL INFO:
This is a family farm producing organic vegetables and meat direct marketed to consumers and restaurants in the Seattle region. The 16 acre farm focuses on sustainability and integrating livestock and crop production.
On-hands experience includes:
Livestock: Humanely caring for pastured-raised laying hens, meat birds, hogs, and beef. This includes learning general animal husbandry, animal nutrition, feeding, watering, housing/feeder/waterer construction & maintenance, deep bedding methods and manure composting, nutrient management, parasite control methods, breedstock selection, breeding, farrowing baby pigs, rotational grazing, forage/cover cropping, fencing, USDA and WSDA processing, on-farm slaughter and butchery (folks sensitive to this step of taking the animal from the pasture to the table you may opt out).
Vegetables: Variety selection for regional climate, greenhouse growing and building, fertilization, soil building, planting, weed control methods, harvesting/washing/prep/packaging, nutrient management, cover cropping, compost utilization, vegetable rotation, tillage equipment selection and usage, tractor operation, irrigation and water use, beneficial planting for pollenators, and organic certification and auditing.
Direct Marketing: On and off farm sales, CSA, farm product group buys, farmer's markets, restaurant sales, and online media. Online sales, packing orders, and maintaining inventory.
Other learning opportunities include legal aspects of farming and selling food, rules and regulations, cold storage, construction projects (structural and timber framing/concrete/etc), logging/firewood, food preservation/fermentation, soap making, and an array of sustainable living concepts taking place at the farm. Solar energy production is now on at the farm and Hogstead is fully solar powered!
FUN: Our farm is located near many amenities and beaches. We go crabbing in summer on the Puget Sound. A park pass is available to woofers to use at the lakes and parks close to the farm. In summer we float tube rivers, go on boat outings, go to the beach and river to swim, and go hiking. It is a short drive to various hiking trails and National Forests. We do a weekly (working) brewery tour in Seattle at our breweries where we pick up spent brew grain and drop off farm products. We also have free beer from the breweries available if desired. The farm roasts hogs in summer for large brewery events in Seattle, as well as our own farm party. Work Hard - Play Hard is the Hogstead summertime motto.
Accommodation/Transportation/Amenities:
Drop off and pick up to/from Seattle and other areas occur 1 time per week. Public transit is available near the farm. Airport shuttle runs from SeaTac airport to a stop near the farm daily. Everett airport pick up/drop off available.
For accommodations, are two campers and a school bus camper. These accommodations are typically reserved in advance by a woofer that is fully committed to an arrival date. Plenty of tent camping areas are available, with tents provided as needed. We have parking for vehicles, camper, or RV. RV dump station less than ten minutes from farm (no dump on site).
The farm has power, potable water, propane, large outdoor kitchen, and forest/wetland area to explore. The kitchen is covered, with open air layout and has a wood burning cooking range, propane gas cooking range, two basin sink with hot water, refrigerator with freezer, food prep areas, and pots/pans, plates, and utensils. Kitchen camp area has picnic tables, chairs, and a fire ring. Washer and dryer available. Outdoor, hot water shower. Composting toilet and porta-potty for restrooms.
For food, woofers get access to available vegetables, dozen eggs per week, and meat. Woofers are encouraged to prepare their own meals, and cooking equipment and ware is available in the outdoor kitchen. The farm does prepare group meals on occasion, usually once per week. Grocery stores are available less than a 10 minute drive from the farm. A farm vehicle is available to trustworthy woofers with valid driver's license.
WWOOF required disclaimer here is that we utilize a rifle to dispatch our larger livestock at harvest time. We also sometimes partake in "Shooty Sunday." This is our occasional opportunity to hone our shooting skills at the Hogstead gun range. Firearms safety is a fundamental concept utilized in any shooting scenario. Whether you bring your own gun, or have never shot a firearm, you are welcome to participate in SAFE shooting activities. Over the years, I have found that this is an activity that folks thoroughly enjoy, learn from, and in almost all beginner cases find personally empowering.
Read more
Learning opportunities
Vegetable farming
Fruit or nut farming
Poultry farming
Pig farming
Cattle farming
Wild foraging
Seed saving or production
Meat processing
Vegetable or fruit preservation
Renewable energy production
Methods or systems
Biodynamic agriculture
Permaculture
Host type
Production farm
6.5
Hectares
|
16
Acres
