2023 Synergy's 10th Year Anniversary!!!

2023 marks the 10 th ANNIVERSARY for Synergy Gardens as a Market Garden. To recap 2022, briefly: Synergy Gardens celebrated LOVE in the air. Our farmer Kelli announced her engagement and our interns fell in love with harvesting carrots and garlic to name a few. Amidst a very wet chilly summer we finished the season with happy CSA customers, we sold out of produce on Saturdays at the Homer Farmers Market even thought our cold and damp weather led to some crop quantity challenges, but we successfully expanded our fall root share. We feel ready to bring the best on for 2023. We are extremely grateful to the local Homer community for being into local produce.

During the dark winter months, Wayne and Lori consulted at Quercus Farms and had some agricultural Adventures south of Atlanta sharing season extension techniques, harvest practices, and organic pest control methods. Obadiah worked and wintered in Homer caring for the farm, poultry flock, and the farm pups- Lilu and Panda. This years Garlic roots are eagerly pushing through cold soils as you read this. With careful attention to our soil health on the farm and good agricultural practices we look forward to another season growing the most healthy and nutritious food possible. That is the gardeners focus every spring. No matter how many years we have produced our gardens, each spring season and each sunny day holds the energy of life.

Synergy Spring Update 2022

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By March 2020, as Covid 19 gripped communities everywhere, we could see the writing on the wall; though dimly, which led to questions. Could local restaurants open? How about the Homer Farmers Market? Our CSA in 2019 had 15 shareholders, hardly enough. We considered three scenarios. Close down and be “safe”, guess at what production we could sell and take a middle path or, go big and grow as much as possible and trust we could sell it all. Considering Lori’s sales acumen, the impressive past support of our farm from the Homer community, 2020 being Wayne’s first full-time year on the farm and the likelihood we would go stir-crazy if we did not grow food, the decision seemed obvious. Go big and work hard! With so many uncertainties in our markets we choose to concentrate on increasing our CSA support, growing weekly share-holders to 25. We are so grateful for our many new customers interest in our produce and their patience as we worked through the kinks and challenges of expansion and during a pandemic!  We ended the 2020 season with 45 happy CSA folks! Lastly, the Farmers Market Board and staff adapted swiftly and firmly to this new-circumstance to keep sellers and buyers safe and our Homer community stepped up to support their local farmers!

Out two interns bailed from Chicago, and after self-quarantining, they came ready, strong and eager to learn, assist, and harvest.  We shared a fun, great, intense season with awesome weather. After their season with us, Jessi and Phil went on to marry and are starring in Ace Hardware mini Youtube video series, Making Our Roots.

We got through the weirdest and likely most dangerous farming year we’ve ever seen and we did it by farming in an engaged, caring community. And maybe that’s one of the many lessons, the silver lining in the dark cloud of 2020. A local lesson. A global lesson. The best way through tough times is together.

As we move into the 2021 growing season, the seeds have arrived and the earliest starts are under lights in our south facing windows. Crop plans are in the works, intern interviews (now taking place on Zoom) are underway and our sap is certainly rising as the days lengthen. The challenges of Covid are still with us at this writing and markets are still somewhat uncertain. This year we hope to grow the CSA again, and be ready for expanded Farmers Market and Alaska Food Hub sales. We are checking in with our restaurants, bless them as they continue to struggle through all this. Our work-trade crew is coming together and we are looking forward to the best season ever!


Synergy Spring Update 2020

2019 was the best year yet at Synergy gardens. We are finding a balance and a rhythm as things grow and progress on the farm. Some of our goals achieved for the year include the incorporation of a new field on the south of our property that greatly increases our available gardening space enabling more crop rotational strategies to be introduced. We have also finished the moose fencing around most of the property saving us much stress and directing moose traffic to safer corridors around our gardens.

Backroads brought over 140 gusts to the farm for farm-to-table lunches and farm tours this summer and our CSA was strong with 15 shares sold to friends and families in the local community. This success has urged us to expand our available CSA shares to 25 this year!

Heres what we’ve got going on this Spring (our 7th season farming in Homer AK!) and what were planning for the Summer of 2020!!!

Sign up now for our limited Synergy Gardens CSA shares! Our CSA is growing and evolving, this year we will be offering 25 full CSA shares. Purchasing a CSA share is the most direct way to join the Local Food Movement by supporting Locally Sourced Community Supported Agriculture and gain access to the freshest in season produce available from our organic farm.

For CSA information contact Lori Jenkins - (706)-273-0077

We prefer text messaging to calls so we don’t have to stop working… thanks for your patience, farming ain’t easy ya’ll! we will be in touch as soon as we wash our hands…

Synergy Workshop Schedule

April 14 2020- 7 to 8 pm. Farm Tour for CSA folks and Early spring leaf tasting.

June 11 2020- Composting Class. Come learn from Lori and Wayne the art of composting for success. $40 per person. This 2 hour class will give you the skills needed to compost at home for big and small gardening alike. Class will be Thursday from 6 to 8 pm at Synergy gardens. pre-register by June 8th please. Call Lori @ 706 273 0077

July 16 2020- Garlic Braiding and tasting. learn from Lori the art of harvesting, preparing, and braiding beautiful garlic. $40 per person. Thursday 6-8pm at Synergy Gardens. pre-register by June 13th please. Call lori @ 706 273 0077

Sept 6 2020- How to grow great garlic. Learn from Lori and Wayne the art of planting garlic in alaska. $50 per person. Sunday 2-4 pm at Synergy gardens. Call Lori @ 706 273 0077

Synergy spring update 2018;

So far the journey has been indescribable, but I'm going to try anyway. to say that it has been the greatest adventure of our lives would be an understatement. to say that it has been challenging beyond imagination would be fair. to say that it has been rewarding beyond all expectation would be a fact. As Synergy Gardens goes into its 5th growing season, we feel the grip of winter slowly relenting and are finally seeing plant life take the risk of sending out green shoots. we're prepped and ready for the year with thousands of plants getting their start inside the family home and a garlic crop that has endured the long winter and is poking up from our new garden beds. this is going to be a huge season for synergy gardens and the jenkins family as we try to reach our goals of achieving our lands full potential at being an organic market garden. we've cleared land for a sizable garden space, built 2 more high tunnels, are making plans for a new shop and product managing center as well as Obadiah's future house, and we've put in extensive irrigation ponds to secure a dependable water source. the effort it will take to achieve these goals are immense but the long alaska summer days make the work a pleasure. 

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