GROW RADICALLY.

SisterLand Farms was founded in 2018 with this two word mission. Here’s how we honor it:

  • PEOPLE ABOVE PROFIT

    SisterLand Farms works to provide affordable avenues to food and resources. If you are Black, Indigenous, or formerly incarcerated, our online educational programming is free to use. If you cannot afford our event or subscription prices, we’re happy to discuss scholarships and sponsorships. If you are eligible for SNAP benefits, we’ll work with you to ensure you have access to fresh, local food from our fields.

  • NO MORE BUSINESS AS USUAL

    While the nation was in turmoil long before 2013, it became evident during the international outcry following the murder of Trayvon Martin that America was stepping into a new (and overdue) era; an era of unlearning and recalibrating. SisterLand Farms believes that we all share a responsibility to elevate the disenfranchised and historically ignored, and we ask ourselves every day: How can a small farm share in the heavy lifting?

  • VOLUNTEERISM

    The SisterLand community is passionate about mutual aid and shared resources. Our staff currently volunteers with: Clallam Growers’ Collective, Port Angeles School Board Equity Team, Clallam County Gleaners, Port Angeles Farmers’ Market, Jamestown S’Klallam Gardens, Little Free Pantries, Compassion Clallam, Food Not Bombs, Solid Waste Advisory Committee, Lincoln High School, Sequim Food Bank, Port Angeles Food Bank, Gente Unida, Forks Human Rights Group, Farmer 2 Farmer, and the Port Angeles Pride Committee.

  • LAND STEWARDSHIP

    SisterLand is not only a no-till farm with its eye on regenerative practices—it’s the home of the first kitchen compost pick-up operation in the county, and a loud voice in the fight against man-made climate change. SisterLand has always been a tenant farm, and will strive to work towards the ultimate goal of the fair and equitable return of private land to first peoples.

  • DIGNITY FOR FARMERS

    SisterLand knows that food is undervalued in America—and that the burden of our imperfect economy falls on the farmer and crew. We therefore devote incalculable energy to creating supplemental income to better support our staff, and have shifted our business model towards a worker-owned future. Currently, crew and dedicated volunteers are shareholders with voting power, and all non-owner staff are paid for time spent unionizing.

  • ABOLITION

    Food is cheap and farmers are at risk because our economy is bolstered by plantation-era production—within prisons and without. If we ever hope to be a truly free nation, we’ll have to reckon with its racist, classist, and transphobic carceral system. SisterLand believes in fighting for the total end of slavery, and for the dignity of the incarcerated.

Who is growing at SisterLand Farms?

Jenson is a trans/non-binary farmer from Tennessee who studied agriculture at Kansas State University and at the University of Ghana. They’ve been farming professionally for over a decade, and teaching agriculture for almost as long. Their work has taken them to DC, Brooklyn, Nashville, LA, Baltimore, Juba, Kampala, Boulder, Wichita, Houston and beyond.

After founding SisterLand with five of their siblings, Jenson helped start the Port Angeles Food Not Bombs chapter, joined the public school’s equity team, developed the Clallam Growers’ Collective, joined the farmers’ market BOD, stirred things up in the Solid Waste Advisory Committee, and implemented the county’s first compost pick-up program.

Jenson also teaches Art History, and writes both poetry and fiction.

 

  • Benji Astrachan began volunteering at SisterLand shortly after relocating from Portland, ME—and just months after the farm officially launched. Having trained as a farmhand in crews all over the country, Benji has been an asset to our farm since the first time he scaled the barn walls to save our patched roof.

    He serves his community in countless ways, volunteering as a gleaner for the food bank, as secretary for the farmers’ market, as an organizer with Racial Justice Collective and Gente Unida, as a steward of Little Free Food Pantries across three cities, as a co-founder of our local Food Not Bombs chapter, and as a reliable, outspoken activist.

    Benji is in his fifth season at SisterLand, and also works with WSU Extension.

Meet the 2024 Crew

Our farmhands and sister volunteers are what make us mighty. Learn more about who powers SisterLand here.

 

  • Eli Smith is a Jamestown S’Klallam descendent who joined the SisterLand crew after completing a season-long internship with us.

    Interested in a wide array of the farm’s workings, Eli has been a huge support in phone banking, youth organizing, Summer Camp education, harvests, markets, and compost processing.

    They’ve worked with their tribe’s enormous garden; growing and harvesting food for S’Klallam elders and contributing to youth education and outreach efforts. Eli currently works at the Jamestown S’Klallam Library.

 

The Dignity Project: A Radical Paid Position for Growers

2023’s Dignity Project Apprentice was Sarah Tsistinas, a queer femme florist launching her business in Sequim and Port Angeles: La Vie en Fleurs.

Apprentices receive equal pay as the farm crew, a flexible work schedule, one-on-one trainings and mentorship, partnership with SisterLand Farms for two years, and a hefty stipend to help launch their business. To learn more about this opportunity, reach out!

  • The youngest of the founding siblings of SisterLand Farms, Katy was critical to our 2021 success—driving from Seattle and Castle Rock to work intensive weeks on the farm.

    Katy dances, models, and brings a chihuahua with her wherever she goes… so it surprises many to learn that her favorite tasks around the business are the least glamorous: the breaking down of burn piles, the turning of compost, the digging of potatoes. But where she truly shines is in outreach—making visitors to SisterLand feel like part of the family.

  • The oldest of the SisterLand siblings is, perhaps, our hardest working.

    Sam is a paramedic serving Minneapolis and Saint Paul—having moved from New Haven during the COVID-19 pandemic.

    Guardian to a teenage niece, Sam has little time for anything but public health and the care of family. But what remains is just enough time and energy to support the farm’s growing tea and medicinal herb projects. Sam’s insights into healing and the human body are invaluable to us (and we never would have made it this far without their constant reminders to hydrate or die.)

  • Since helping us found SisterLand in 2018, Cassie has traveled to the farm to assist with some of our most powerful work—including working 24/7 as a Summer Camp Aid.

    Her dreams for SisterLand are to develop an arm of operations that focuses specifically on eating disorders; on the folks living with them, the food professionals that can alleviate them, and the culture that can be built to accommodate and destigmatize the beautiful array of bodies within it.

  • At over 100 years old, Sounder is the most senior of the SisterLand crew.

    Sounder has a vested interest in IPM (integrated pest management), and has developed non-violent methods of deer and raptor population control—including the application of repeated audio-sensory stimuli.

    He is bigger than he looks in photos.

    He is not a beagle.

FAQs

  • We devote a ton of time to volunteerism; from gleaning for the food bank, to organizing farmer-support networks as an effort to reduce the American farmer suicide rates and beyond. We try to donate 15% of our produce to Little Free Pantries and local non-profits. We intentionally partner with women and lgbtq+ owned businesses. And we defer to the knowledge and experiences of our Indigenous community. (And that’s just the easy stuff.)

  • We used to be! As of 2022, we’re a trans-person-owned farm. But what’s even cooler: Going forward, we hope to become a worker-owned farm.

  • Reach out via our contact form and ask! Our capacity for new membership ebbs and flows every season. We’d love to connect and tell you all about it!

  • Yes! SisterLand Farms is open to the public, your kiddos, and even your [leashed] pups. Come to a scheduled event or contact us to arrange for a visit by appointment. (We usually have to schedule about 3-4 weeks ahead.)

    Note: We don’t have a lot of time for chit-chat and long strolls about the garden, but we sure do appreciate folks who show up to lend a hand. So, while we’re on the subject… the best way to visit a farm is to offer to volunteer!

  • Yes! Starting in 2022, we’ve established the Wagon Wheel Fund in partnership with Creative Visions. This fund supports educational outreach and compost pick-up operations. Click here to make a donation (and be our hero) today.

  • SisterLand is a radical business in a conservative town. Every little task is an uphill struggle, and every friend we meet along the way has the power to keep us growing into another year of operation. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram to get alerts when we have specific asks. Volunteer to help us in the field or at events. And (this cannot be understated) invest in us!

  • Jenson and their five sisters founded the business in 2018. Sam Cox, Christy Cox, Cassondra Stanfield, Kat Cox, and Katy Stanfield set out to grow on shared land and provide a much needed community space to the Port Angeles community. While ownership, crew, land, scale, and scope have all changed since then, the mission remains untouched.

Want to know more about our community work?

While the farm is registered as “for profit” our aim is to give back what we get after making a decent hourly rate. Rather than take dividends, our owners and staff pour what we can into a few really cool not-for-profit projects.

Click here to learn more!

 
 

Visiting:

1430 W Lauridsen Blvd

Port Angeles, WA 98363

Hours
By Appointment

Phone
(360) 207 - 4627