Talent Natural Farm
Principals:
Feridoun and Maria Kurth
Location:
Talent, OR
Miles to Market:
5
Farm Size:
14.7 acres: 2.0 acres under production; majority of remaining acreage produces green manure. Orchard is 0.5 acres - 150 trees.
Supplies to Co-op:
berries: strawberries, raspberries, marionberries, jostaberries (a cross between black currant and gooseberry); black and red currants; grapes; apples; pears; Asian pears; plums; shallots; garlic; Jerusalem artichokes; potatoes: Fingerling, Russet, Yukon Gold; rhubarb; tomatoes: red and yellow cherry, red and yellow slicers, Costoluto Genovese heirlooms Thinking Globally, Acting Locally
Husband and wife team Feridoun and Maria Kurth have high ideals. Like many farmers in the Rogue Valley, they are committed to raising environmental awareness through grass-roots efforts. Working with the land is not about fortune or fame for ideal-driven growers like Feridoun and Maria. It's about cultivating healthy people; it's about the health of the earth; and it's about service.
The couple met in Berlin, Germany, where Maria was a landscape architect, and Feridoun worked as an environmental scientist and professor of ecology at the University of Berlin. Feridoun wanted to get out of environmental theory and get more into practice, and the couple saw farming together as the way to achieve that. They feel that growing healthy food is a tangible way to create positive change in the environment.
Feridoun and Maria bought Talent Natural Farm in 2003. They became organically certified with Oregon Tilth in 2007 and began selling to markets in that same year. Feridoun and Maria do most of the work on their two acres themselves with help from their daughters Ariana and Parsina, and an occasional hired hand in their busiest season. Their dog Miko also does his part by not trouncing through the beds - he knows to take the long way around.
The specialty of Talent Natural Farm is specialty produce. The orchard includes nut as well as fruit trees, and has several uncommon fruit varieties such as mulberry, medlar, pawpaw, and pomegranate. Maria is also committed to growing the less common jostaberry, a sort of cross between black currant and gooseberry. So if you have a hankering for something hard-to-find, your best bet is to check in with Talent Natural Farm. Not only will it taste good, you'll have a guarantee that it's good for you, and good for the environment too.