About Stagl Organics, a six-acre farm in Monroe, Utah

I started farming organically in Salt Lake City ten years ago, on rented ground. Those seasons taught me the thing this farm is still built on: healthy food starts with healthy soil, and a local farm can become the center of a community. I grew vegetables, fruit, herbs and flowers for families, chefs, market customers and small businesses, and learned the work by doing it.

When the land I had been farming sold, it became clear that Stagl Organics needed ground of its own. Today the farm has a permanent home on six acres in Monroe. Owning it changes what is possible: we can invest in soil, water and perennial plantings on a timeline leased ground never allowed, and every year we manage this place it should end up measurably better than the year before.

The longer plan is a whole farm where each piece feeds the others: an orchard and berry plantings coming into bearing, a nursery of native and drought-tolerant plants, a pair of Miniature Jersey cows whose compost goes back onto the fields, ground-mounted solar, and a working classroom for people who want to learn this trade. It gets built one season at a time.