Dave Hedlin’s grandfather moved from Denmark to the fertile Skagit Valley about 100 years ago and settled close to where the North Fork of the Skagit River lets out into Skagit Bay. His grandfather helped build the dikes next to the town of La Conner and bought land from the Conner family as he could afford it. Dave explains, “There are actually 17 tax statements on the 65-acre farm. Each time my granddad would make money on a seed crop or something, he would buy some land.”

The dikes built by men like Dave’s grandfather have kept this naturally moist land in production. Dave explains, “This is all subtidal agriculture. If this dike wasn’t here, at high tide we would have about six feet of water.” The wetness of the valley attracts all sorts of wildlife. Dave remarks, “Virtually everything on the Washington Department of Ecology wetland poster swims or flies across here every day.” The area offers prime chinook salmon rearing habitat. It’s fresh river water, but has a bit of salt water that comes up under the fresh. “With the shading over the water,” Dave says, “it’s a nice place for salmon to equilibrate – spend a little time in that interface between fresh and salt water – it truly is a magic spot.”

The Hedlin family now owns 150 acres, and farms a total of 400 acres of prime delta farmland. They have produced vegetable seed there for over 100 years — primarily cabbage seed, beet seed, and spinach seed. “If you have sauerkraut in Germany or kim chee in Korea,” Dave explains, “there is a really good chance that the seed that grew that cabbage came from within 10 miles of here.” Pickling cucumbers, peas, wheat, bees, greenhouse tomatoes, and a farm stand are other key pieces of the operation.

Many years ago, the Heldins set out to diversify their operation for two reasons: to help with cash flow, because cash flow on a Northwestern vegetable operation is very seasonal, and to provide more year-round employment for their people. To diversify, Dave drew on the past. He explains, “We had third generation connections with a seed company. My mother was a field rep for Lilly Seed Company when women were not field reps. She was a remarkable woman.” Hedlin Family Farms built on this link and began growing conventional and organic cauliflower and cabbage plants and providing transplanting services for the seed industry. Dave explains, “We’re differentiated in the marketplace by providing these services; the seed companies don’t have to own their own transplanters and they don’t have to hire crews to run that equipment.”

The Hedlin family also added greenhouses to expand their growing season, and to insulate themselves from the risks inherent in farming in a less controlled environment. “We set out 13 years ago to figure out how to grow a good tasting greenhouse tomato,” Dave says.  “We worked really hard at it and I think we are about there. We grow traditional beefsteaks and about 40 different heirloom varieties.” In the greenhouse operation, the only thing keeping them from organic certification is that they still use a bit of conventional fertilizer in the mix. “Organic is an emerging part of our business,” explains Dave. “It makes up about 10 to15 percent of our total acreage. We are Food Alliance certified. On virtually all of our fresh market operation we just don’t use any pesticides, we use some beneficial insects and that’s about it.”

A small whitewashed on-farm fresh market stand offers “you pick, we pick” berries, peppers, fresh bundles of flowers, tomatoes, and basil, all grown on the surrounding 25 acres. Dave remarks, “We started about 25 years ago growing strawberries here and evolved to this. We try to diversify our operation: I characterize it as trying to be profitable without losing track of who you are.” They hit a couple farmers’ markets a week and sell the rest on the farm. It has not been incredibly profitable, but Dave thinks that this sort of  diversification is really important for them as a farm. He adds, “The nice thing about the fruit stand and the fresh market operation is that you build a clientele of a couple hundred customers, and you have a business. If you have one customer, they own you.”

Dave is downright cheerful when talking about the challenging economics of farming: “There are lots of different crops, like winter wheat, that are not particularly profitable, but they are important in our rotation to help us build up this heavy clay soil, get more organic matter, and break up disease cycles.” Other pieces of Hedlin Farms’ business have emerged in what Dave calls “natural fits and progressions.” “We run about 250 bee hives for our own use because both the pickling cucumbers and the cabbage seed need bee pollination,” he explains.

Then there is the issue of encroaching residential development. “Any place this nice, people see it and want to live here,” Dave says. “We need lots of help to keep land in production and open space; it’s an incredibly difficult job.” At the Hedlins’ greenhouse next to La Conner, land is worth $4000 an acre; if you walk ten more feet into La Conner, it’s worth $5 to $10 a square foot. “Those are huge differentials,” Dave explains, “and that puts on lots of pressure. It begs the fundamental question of why land for commercial use is worth so much more than land that produces food, open space and wildlife habitat.”

Farmers in the Skagit Valley have joined together to address the preservation of farmland, and they cooperate on more immediate farming needs as well. The Hedlins swap land with their neighbors to maintain a five-year rotation on their fields. “As the valley has tended to specialize, we have not sacrificed our rotation, but we have started trading ground more,” comments Dave. “I grow a lot of pickling cucumbers, my neighbor grows a lot of potatoes. In a given year I might give him 30 acres for potatoes and take 30 acres of his for cucumbers. So you basically achieve rotation by trading ground.”

Farming the same land as his ancestors has provided Dave with a unique long-term perspective. “When somebody tells me they are going to run for political office, I say, ‘Try and be a hero in 30 years – not tomorrow – because you’re not going to make it on tomorrow. There will always be somebody upset, but if you do the right thing with a good vision, you can be a hero in 30 years.’ That’s the kind of thing we need to encourage,” he says, “that long-range vision."

Contact
Hedlin Farms
Dave Hedlin
12275 Valley Road
Mt. Vernon, WA 98273
Tel: 360-466-3977
hedlin@hedlinfarms.com