Vern's Veggies and More

For our latest products, click here.

Vern's great-grandpa Peter Skow moved to Northern Idaho in 1910, the year much of north Idaho's forests burned in a 3,000,000 acre fire complex. (Yes, that was "million.") He and his family homesteaded in (now)beautiful Cocolalla (12 miles south of Sandpoint--about 30 miles north of Coeur d' Alene) in 1911. His grandma Alice was born there in 1920.

She and Vern's grandpa Forest Spencer bought the land we farm in Cocolalla in 1961 and lived out their lives here with their family. Forest built a greenhouse on the side of the house, and Alice raised bulbs and vegetable starts to sell at the Co-op farm store when it was downtown Sandpoint at Church and 5th. She also had u-pick raspberries and strawberries. (We don't do that now.)

Vern's parents (Ray and Joan) own the place now, and continue raising (with Vern and Amy) the herd of cattle Forest started here in the 60's.

We grow and sell our naturally-grown vegetables to Winter Ridge Natural Foods Market, Ivano's Ristorante, and Spuds Rotisserie and Grill in Sandpoint and Pilgrims Market and Angelo's Ristorante in Coeur d' Alene. We also sell vegetables, homemade bread, and vegetable plants at the Sandpoint Farmer's Market. We also sell grass-fed beef and eggs from uncaged chickens from the farm--please call or email us to arrange pickup.

Last year Dad (Ray) dug the old horse-drawn potato digger out of the weeds and got the stuck wheels and gears moving again so we could use it. It sure beats digging them all by hand! This spring Ray fixed up the horse-drawn potato planter, which made planting a lot easier, too. Dad did better keeping up with the speed of operating the planter, so we let him operate the planter while Vern pulled it with the tractor. The children helped Vern plant the fingerlings by hand. We had to dig the last 200 pounds by hand, too, because the digger kept getting clogged.

We hope you enjoy our story and especially our meat and potatoes! Here is one of our favorite things:

Amy takes different colored spuds (red-, gold-, white-, and blue- fleshed potatoes) and dices them without peeling. Then she drizzles them with olive oil and tosses them with salt, pepper, freshly squeezed garlic (or garlic powder), and maybe some Italian herbs. She roasts them in a 350 degree oven, turning them occasionally until tender and lightly browned. Different fleshed potatoes also make neat mashed potatoes, potato chips, and chowder.



Browse through our Products for Sale

Practices (our standards for raising or making our products)
Though we have chosen not to join an organic program and be "organic", we raise all our vegetables to meet the same standards, minus the detailed record-keeping of daily activities. Therefore, legally we are not "organic". Though "naturally grown" does not have a legal definition, we believe this accurately labels the way we grow them.

We go out of our way to buy certified organic seed when we can find it or we save it ourselves--no GMO's. We like to focus on heirloom and open-pollinated varieties. We mix our own seed starting mix with organic materials including compost and rock powders. The garden gets rock powders, fish emulsion, manure, and compost--no chemical fertilizers, herbicides, or pesticides. We have not even used any of those that are approved by organic programs except a little insecticidal soap in the greenhouse for aphids. We use miles of drip irrigation on the garden, reducing water usage and the need for cultivation. We also use some plastic mulch to gain heat for a few crops we could not otherwise grow well and to conserve water and reduce weeds.

Our chickens get fresh greens to eat most of the time, whether they pick it themselves when we move them to a fresh plot or we bring it to them ourselves. This produces eggs with brighter yellow yolks that "stand up" on a plate, not lay flat like supermarket eggs. In the winter, the chickens get to run around happily in the greenhouse with lots of light and dry dirt to fluff in.

Our cattle herd was started by Vern's grandpa Forest in the 1960's, and has been closed for many years, limiting the introduction of diseases and pests. They eat only grass and hay (and whatever weeds are there). They get no grain or animal byproducts which helps them stay lean and healthy. Their meat doesn't have a lot of extra fat, which makes them taste better in the opinion of some, though it also makes it easier to over-cook. Fat from grain is less expensive weight in an animal, so with a lean animal you get more expensive protein for the weight you buy. We believe the balance of omega-3 and omega-6 acids in fat that is produced by grass is more healthy to consume than that produced from grain.