Dancing Bear

Steve and Patricia Florin started Dancing Bear Farm in 1998. Originally an environmental engineer for the EPA, then a medical technologist for thirty years, Steve began farming professionally in his late forties. He had been an avid gardener all his life, so making the career transition allowed him to do something he really loved.

The farm was begun while the Florin children went through the Ashland school system, but now the youngest of the Florin children is off to college. Steve and Patricia primarily work Dancing Bear Farm themselves along with some help in the high summer season.

You may see Steve's beautiful orange heirloom tomatoes at the Co-op in summer and early fall. The story behind the orange heirlooms goes like this: Steve bought "Orange Delicious" tomato seeds from a seed company to start his plants, and within a year the seed company stopped selling that variety. Even though the plants were thriving on Dancing Bear Farm, no one could confirm the existence of the Orange Delicious variety. So Steve has affectionately re-dubbed this tomato, "Siskiyou Orange."