Last week I visited Howard Allen at Faithfull Farms in Chapel Hill, NC, an operation he started in 2015. Faithfull Farms is a year-round production farm, producing all of its food on just about an acre. My first impression of the farm was that it’s one of the most pristine, peaceful, and impressive farms I’ve ever visited. The rows were neat and brimming with healthy green vegetables. Howard even had me stick my hand in the soil, and it like sticking my hand into fluffy chocolate cake!

Howard grew up in an agrarian town in Jamaica, with livestock, yams, plantains, and other tropical fruits growing in his yard. In 2005 after having his children in North Carolina, he wanted to create a similar environment for his family that he had in his home country. Together, they started planting fruit crops including peaches, figs, blackberries, blueberries and raspberries and eventually had such an abundant garden that they started a 12 share CSA program that had about 9 different products in each box. After successfully growing food for his friends and community, he had a vision of starting a farm on his church’s property just a half mile down the road from his house. His vision became reality.

We walked through his many high tunnels that are filled with collards, kale, arugula, lettuces, chard, and parsley. In the warmer months, he has blackberries, strawberries, peppers, tomatoes, cilantro, squash and more. Howard describes his farm as “beyond organic”, using local compost, certified organic amendments, green-manure style cover crops and no-till cultivation as his main tools to build soil. He uses landscape fabric and wood chips to smother weeds, which is a much less intensive route than herbicides or tillage. Land stewardship is a driving force in Howard’s farming philosophy. He wants to sustain his community while having a positive impact on the land and wildlife around him.

Moving forward, he aims to build a stronger, tighter knit farming community by creating a farm model that can be replicated anywhere. With a teaching background, he wants to share his knowledge of farming systems to anyone who has access to land, whether it be in a food apartheid area or someone’s backyard. He believes that agriculture is the heart of society, and that farms are retreats and are meant to be shared with the community. Faithfull Farms currently runs a few educational programs. In the Spring/Summer, they have a paid internship program for young students interested in agriculture. He currently rents out a hoop house to a local farmer that didn’t have access to land and has created an incubator program for them to experiment with growing food and flowers. Additionally, he has a horticulture therapy program, where a local therapist does sessions with clients where they can work outside in a peaceful environment and have an interactive session planting and harvesting herbs.

Just five years into starting a farm, Howard has the impressive ability to grow beautiful produce, be connected with his community, and uplift fellow agriculturalists through education. The main challenge he has come across is meeting the demands for local produce year round with the limitations of the size of his farm. His solution: a farm collective to capture more of the market share to be able to meet the demand. Some retailers want a certain local product for ¾ of the year. Without dedicating his entire farm to that one crop, it’s hard to meet that demand so his idea is to partner with other farms to be able to meet the demand together by staggering their crops.

In the meantime, you can find Faithfull Farms produce at the Carrboro Farmers Market Wednesdays and Saturdays, at Weaver St. Market, and in the Tall Grass Food Box CSA.

A Visit to Howard Allen at Faithfull Farms