The Van Loo's farm, Shared Roots Orchard, is becoming known as an ethical business that is focused on ecological stewardship and challenging colonialism. With a small footprint, Tara and Brennan seek to establish powerful life-giving connections in Skagit Valley. We are grateful for their unique leadership in our Valley!
For Earth Day, 2024, Burlington Lutheran did a volunteer work party at Shared Roots Orchard, installing protection for the young chesnut trees so that the sheep can freely roam in the orchard.
Their farm has been featured in the following Skagit Valley Herald article:
New farm brings lamb, chestnuts to locals
RACQUEL MUNCY @Racquel_SVH Jul 13, 2023
BOW — Tara and Brennan Van Loo bought their 15-acre farm in Bow in 2013 and have been working to slowly transform it into Shared Roots Orchard ever since. In 2015, the couple began their chestnut orchard and tending sheep. Last June was their first public offering of butchered lamb shares, and Tara Van Loo said they expect to have a small harvest of chestnuts for sale this fall. “It just seemed like the lifestyle we wanted,” Brennan Van Loo said.
Sheep and chestnuts may seem like an odd pairing for a farm, but through a lens of regenerative agriculture, both help to make the entire farm ecosystem healthier. “For us, it’s all about the entire ecosystem’s health,” Tara Van Loo said. “We’re actually trying to improve things.”
A core value for the farm is health — health of the soil, ecosystem and everything within, she added. While the farm is not certified organic, Brennan Van Loo said their values align with regenerative farming. “We’re following the organic ethos even beyond what the certification calls for,” Brennan Van Loo said, pointing out that while they’re small and growing they didn’t see the added value in getting certified. He added that they chose this model of farming because it’s not dependent on fossil fuels, fertilizers or even water.
In addition to the sheep and chestnuts, the husband and wife duo have also planted what they call a “future forest” filled with hardwood trees. When the couple bought the property, Brennan Van Loo said there were almost no trees. While improving the land, the new trees also provide shade, habitat, landscape diversity and space for their children to play, and it could also be in firewood rotation in the future.
Sheep
The farm started with sheep and a couple of goats, and Tara Van Loo said they quickly fell in love with the sheep. The sheep are shorter and require less equipment than cows would. They are able to help keep the soil — and therefore, the chestnut trees — healthy, while having minimal negative impact to the trees, unlike cows.
The sheep graze between chestnut trees from March to November, acting as both lawnmowers and compost producers. Brennan Van Loo said they typically allow the sheep to graze for three to four days before moving the herd to a new location. “The more frequently you can move them, the better,” Brennan Van Loo said.
Last June was the first time the public could reserve a half or whole lamb. The couple said they also accepted trades for the lamb and include recipes and spice packets for customers. In June, customers received recipe cards for lamb patty melts and chimichurri sauce for grilled lamb. “We want our well-raised lamb to be accessible to everyone,” Tara Van Loo said, adding that a personal touch helps build a connection with customers.
When it comes to sheep, Brennan Van Loo said they’re still trying to figure out what the right number to raise would be without overtaxing themselves. “How can we make the most of this?” is one of the many questions they ask themselves, he said. He added that butcher dates are often a year out, so planning ahead is a must. It also makes determining the right number of sheep for their herd difficult.
Chestnuts
There were many reasons for choosing chestnuts. Brennan Van Loo said he wanted an orchard, and it made more sense to grow nuts because of their longer lifespan and larger harvest potential compared to fruit.
As a science teacher, he knows early fall is busy, and having a wider date range for picking the nuts is helpful. The chestnuts should be ready for harvest around October. Another reason for selecting to grow chestnuts came from his reading about place-based perennial agriculture. He read about Garry oak savannas managed by Indigenous people throughout the Pacific Northwest Salish Sea region and inter-ecosystem gardening, Brennan Van Loo said.
While Garry oak trees and its acorns wouldn’t work well for a profitable farm, he said he took the same concept and turned toward chestnut trees. He said they knew there was a market for chestnuts, and don’t require much extra infrastructure. “The more I’ve learned and read, the more I thought it’s a really good idea,” Brennan Van Loo said.
While he knows there’s a market, he said they haven’t come up with a precise plan for selling the nuts. “It’s probably one of the bigger unknowns, but also less of a concern,” Brennan Van Loo said.
The plan is to use more land to grow chestnut trees. As the trees grow, Brennan Van Loo said he expects the farm business capabilities to grow. "The production will speed up really quick,” he said.
Land
Knowing the history of the land was also very important to the Van Loos, so they hired Western Washington University professor and historian Dan Chard around January 2022 to research the history of the land and how it came into the hands of European settlers. Around the same time, the couple started working with Sam Barr, a member of the Samish Indian Nation and director for the Coast Salish Youth Stewardship Corps, on a land acknowledgment.
Acknowledging that the original stewards of the land were the local Indigenous tribes was an important piece of the puzzle for Shared Roots Orchard, Tara Van Loo said.
“We acknowledge with humility that we are tending land that was forcibly taken from its original stewards,” part of the land acknowledgment states. “Although our names are on the title and deed, this land is not ‘ours’ — we are its caretakers for this moment in time. We acknowledge the deep history of the land we are on, grateful for the millennia of Indigenous caretakers who shaped the beauty of this place, including humans, animals, and plants.”
Tara Van Loo said this land acknowledgment is the first step to correcting a history of erasure.
As a part of their reparations process, Shared Roots Orchard offers a 20% discount on all products to Indigenous customers and 10% of proceeds are donated to support local tribal programs, including the Coast Salish Youth Stewardship Corps.
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