Kelly Vallelunga, owner and operator of Long Valley Farms in Kalamazoo, Michigan got hooked on farming back in 2005. Vallelunga originally planned to use her biology degree in fish and wildlife, but life had other plans for her. She had just moved back to Michigan and started volunteering at a local farm; immediately she knew her future goals had changed!
Almost twenty years later, Vallelunga runs a small farm growing different fresh market vegetables like tomatoes, radishes, and carrots. With two large high tent greenhouses on her property, she is able to provide fresh produce all year around to her local community!
“I offer a CSA subscription and sell at the farmers markets here in Kalamazoo. About once a month I donate extra produce to our local food bank,” Vallelunga said.
Long Valley Farms is a very unique operation because it is almost all farmed by hand! They do use a tractor to prepare the garden beds, but they still harvest the acre of produce - which is equivalent to a football field - by hand! The farm’s goal is to create a healthier ecosystem for all.
Vallelunga and friends harvesting onions!
Vallelunga used the CultivateGrowth Grant to attend the 2023 Great Lakes Fruit, Vegetable and Farm Market Expo where she was able to sit in on a variety of seminars and further her knowledge in the fresh vegetable market. There was one seminar that caught her eye, and it was about tomatoes. “There was an instructor that talked about the tomatoes and had great suggestions on different spraying regimes that I had not been doing. He showed us when it is a good time to spray, what the plant needs and when,” Vallelunga says.
Learning about different spraying techniques for tomatoes was not the only thing that Vallelunga enjoyed about the conference. She also enjoyed just getting other people’s perspective on how they do things on their own farms.
Vallelunga mentions, “It is hard to get out in the warmer weather to see other people’s operations since that is our prime season. I just like going to these classes and getting to know their perspective. It gives me new ideas when I go back to my own farm and think I can do somethings that I may not have thought of before.”
Thanks to the help the CultivateGrowth Grant provided, Vallelunga is now able to use the different techniques and perspectives that she learned from the conference to help grow her farm! GreenStone understands the importance of advancing education for young, beginning, and small farmers. We work to provide the educational and financial resources needed to help establish a solid foundation. To apply today, visit CultivateGrowth Grant | GreenStone FCS.
