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| Sandra Knuckles |
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Roosterplow Farms
Herbal vinegars, goat’s milk soap &
shampoo, vegetable starts
newport
Many years ago, long before she moved to Oregon, Sandra Knuckles hatched a dream. She wanted to live in the country, grow her own vegetables, tend a few animals and sell healthy products at a farmers’ market.
Today, Knuckles lives her dream at RoosterPlow Farm. Located just outside Siletz, her little square of heaven has a pen for the goats, a garden for the herbs, a greenhouse for the vegetable starts and, of course, a barn for the hens and roosters. From her small crop, Knuckles makes herbal vinegars and body care products, herbal jellies and mixed potpourri, which she sells at the farmers’ markets in Lincoln City and Newport.
Once spring warms up, Knuckles will be sharing her garden through healthy young vegetable starts, including cauliflower, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cucumbers and tomatoes, and later, squash, gourds and peppers. Herbs, both starts and in bunches, will fill her tables with aroma and promise.
She’s now in her third year at Lincoln County farmers’ markets.
“The surprising thing to me is that folks do like to buy from the small farmers. I really like that,” she said. “One year, I had a lot of fennel bulbs. Other vendors, bigger vendors, had them too, but my customers came until mine were bought up. I was awed that someone bought from me, even though it was the only fresh vegetable I had.”
Conversations range from the practical (where to plant it, what to feed it) to the romantic (“I love this lavender and rose geranium jelly on biscuits, or in my goat’s milk yogurt”). You can hear about the nannies ready to kid, and the fight for supremacy among the farm’s proud roosters. Customers can put a face to the label on their herbal shampoo or aftershave, or their Borghese tomatoes.
“The most fun and rewarding things I do, I do in my garden. I just love it,” she said. “And providing other people with that feeling, extending the fun out to other people, is very rewarding.”
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