Producer
Flight Path Farmstead
Contact: Corey Epperson
City: Langley, WA, 98260
About Us
Far from their careers of military/special agent work and nursing, flower farming sort of fell into Dana and Corey Epperson’s laps when they moved to Whidbey Island. Initially they were just looking for a couple of acres to move to with their three teenagers, but as they got into a bit of a time crunch, the previous named Sonshine Farm was the only property that fit the bill. Despite being concerned that the property was “a lot”, they purchased it and set to learning all about what it had to offer. What resulted was a crash course over a year and a half in pruning, harvest windows, conditioning, irrigation, beneficial insects, and plant identification. After going through never-ending pairs of work gloves punctured by blackberry and rose thorns, along with gentle guidance from other farmers, they are finally starting to learn how to be actual farmers.
Flight Path Farmstead consists mostly of evergreens, woodies and perennials, though they also experiment with fruits, nuts, veggies and a small amount of annuals.
Practices
Flight Path Farmstead doesn’t use herbicides or insecticides and adds only compost, mulch from nearby trees and an occasional application of organic fertilizer. All of the irrigation is via drip, weeding is by hand and those crops that can be are rotated. They look forward to using cover crops, beneficial insects and experimenting with different kinds of compost in years ahead.