Tuiskula Farm, Finland

Products from Tuiskula Farm can be bought at the farm, selected farmers’ markets, reko rings (Helsinki, Espoo, Kirkkonummi, Inkoo), or as a weekly box delivered to the neighbourhood.

Tuiskula Farm is a small-scale, bio-intensive, and highly efficient farm. On their 1-hectare home plot, they grow all their vegetables, herbs, berries, fruits, and nuts, as well as grazing sheep over the summer (home use). They utilise every square metre of it, often for multiple uses at the same time. When practical, several vegetables are intercropped in the same bed. The greenhouse grows vegetables through the summer and houses their egg-laying flock through the winter.

They only operate along regenerative growing methods that build soil. Any activity that degrades their soil is not an option on the farm. In practice, this means they never plow or till the soil, never use chemical fertilizers or biocides, and carefully plan the impact of their grazing animals in order to sequester the largest amount of carbon, build soil, and soil fertility.

Currently, their two main operations are ‘no dig’ vegetables and pastured eggs. In the years to come, they plan to start producing more microgreens, berries, fruit, nuts, honey, and other pastured animals.

Their 600m² of beds are never dug or tilled, which increases their organic matter content and with it, the soil health and water retention. The beds are increasingly resilient to harsh weather conditions and highly productive. ‘No dig’ vegetable gardening is recognized to be the most productive per square metre, as well as to produce the best quality vegetables. The beds receive a yearly application of compost on top, which is worked in by the microbiome that lives in the soil. The compost is produced on the farm, from the winter bedding of their flock of hens and vegetable production waste.

They test the soil to make sure biology and nutrients are both represented in adequate amounts. They also test the nutrients in the leaves (with refractometer) and can thereby guarantee their nutritional quality as well as shelf life. Vegetables are picked the same day or at most the day before delivery. They are stored only short-term in their walk-in chiller at appropriate temperature and humidity levels. Root vegetables for fall and winter are stored in sandboxes in their root cellar.

Their entire vegetable production follows organic standards, and they are in the process of organic certification.

Besides these, they are waiting patiently for their berry bushes and fruit and nut trees to grow. They also produce microgreens and are looking into honey and other pastured animals. They intend on remaining a small but very intensive farm, making the most of little and leaving space for the wild things around them.