Farm Aid, Willie Nelson and Full Circle Farm

Over the course of the year, Andrew Stout and Wendy Munroe grow and sell more than 75 varieties of vegetables and herbs on Full Circle Farm, a 140-acre certified organic produce farm located in Carnation, Washington. Through retail stores and farmers markets, restaurants and subscribers in its Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program, chefs and consumers who want the very best and freshest produce have come to rely on Full Circle Farm’s consistent ability to provide.

Wendy and Andrew started farming on 3 acres in 1996 with a love of growing and the need to get involved with their community.Throughout the years, Full Circle Farm has steadily been able to grow more food as the community connections have grown stronger. By working with Harvest for Humanity and Hopelink, the farm has donated over 6,000 pounds of organic produce to those in need.They also work closely with the local school districts, providing fresh organic produce for school lunches through the WSDA sponsored Farm to Cafeteria Program.Full Circle Farm is connecting to the community in a family way.“We believe that wholesome food is the foundation necessary for a long healthy life,” an expecting Munroe states, “and you can never start eating healthy to soon.”

Full Circle has become not just a farm, but also a small-scale distributor of sorts, teaming up with some other local growers to provide companion crops. Full Circle supplements many of its cool season crops with warm season crops from Alvarez Farms in Eastern Washington. "The benefit is we can offer our customers fantastic produce that is better grown outside our region,” says Stout. “When you add the fact that we are helping to support other family farms, it clearly becomes a successful working relationship.”

Be sure to check out Dig It, Full Circle Farm's informative blog with news and videos...

Willie Nelson, Neil Young and John Mellencamp organized the first Farm Aid concert in 1985 to raise awareness about the loss of family farms and to raise funds to keep farm families on their land. Dave Matthews joined the Farm Aid Board of Directors in 2001. Farm Aid has raised more than $33 million to promote a strong and resilient family farm system of agriculture. Farm Aid is a nonprofit organization.


by Local Green Circle, June 27th, 2009. Photos by Farm Aid and Anna Dianich.'