Location: Geraldine, AL
Owners: Dove and Russell Stackhouse
Type: Organically grown (not certified) and regenerative ecosystem

Products/services available: seasonal CSA/produce box, provides vegetables and grains for area restaurants, home of the Sand Mountain Seed Bank and future teaching farm.

Written and photographed by: Breanne Brazeale

Dove and Russell Stackhouse are the owners of Whirlwind Farm. They’ve each been farming for over 30 years, and have been working their land in Geraldine, Alabama for more than a decade. Russell is a Vietnam Veteran, and they are both founding members of ASAN (Alabama Sustainable Agriculture Network). Dove and Russell’s Indigenous heritage (Cheyenne and Penobscot ancestry, respectively) inform their personal philosophies and decision to steward their land as holistically and mindfully as they can.

I originally visited Whirlwind farm about three years ago, and since my visit, Dove and Russell have shifted away from as much market gardening so that Dove can dedicate her energy to the Sand Mountain Seed Bank. The seed bank, co-founded by Dove with Charlotte Hagood of Albertville, AL more than 20 years ago, serves as a repository for not only local heirloom seeds, but the stories of those seeds, the people who saved them, and their collective cultural and food heritage. The seeds are kept in cold storage (6 full-sized refrigerators packed full) and Dove and Charlotte try to rotate the seeds, growing out each variety at least every 10 years to maintain the viability and integrity of the seed.

When I arrived at Whirlwind Farm in the morning, and the sun was rising above the pine trees and living fences of hawthorn and other trees and shrubs. After they ushered their two farm dogs into the house, Dove and Russell showed me and my three young children around their property.

**Here is one of their fields under cultivation, along with a hoop house in the background.

The farm got its name from a series of whirlwinds and tornados which struck the property. The worst took out an entire hoop house! Dove decided, if you can’t beat them, join them, and Whirlwind Farm was born. Because they are both carpenters, Dove and Russell built all the structures on the farm from the ground up. The entire property is a labor of love, which is clear in how they steward the land.

Dove and Russell believe in creating a growing environment as close to what we find in nature as possible. When asked about her farming practices, Dove said, “We come from an understanding of treating nature as one organism, one ecosystem.”

Both her Native American heritage and her degree in forestry have informed her desire to cultivate a farm as close to its natural state as possible. She feels that the less you fight nature, the more success you will have growing and farming. Plants do not grow in isolation naturally, so they have many borders of pollinator plants, native medicinal plants, and their ever-increasing seed-saving garden.

**This seed-saving garden is designed in a spiral shape. The native and medicinal plants surrounding it include Jerusalem Artichoke, lobelia and more. At the time of my visit, the garden had yellow-fleshed watermelons, blue corn, and others. They save seeds that are expensive, rare, culturally significant to our region, or hard to source. A large cluster of Echinacea (Purple Coneflower) is at the center.

According to Dove, it isn’t wild plants that are depleting the nutrients of the soil. Plants like to grow together. Other than grasses and invasive species, native plants and flowers support soil health, beneficial insects and plant growth.

**Growing near a hoop house, from top to bottom, are lobelia and passionflower (or maypop), both medicinal plants with many uses.

Dove explained to me that the real dangers to soil health and impediments to growing things are excessive tillage, monoculture, harsh chemical additives, and other modern, large-scale farming practices.

Because of their choice to farm as naturally and carefully as possible, they stay away from everything from chemical sprays to black plastic mulch. Dove and Russell use cover crops (like buckwheat) to enrich the soil and add organic matter. They bring in truckloads of chopped leaves to use as mulch. This composted leaf mulch helps to retain moisture and improve drainage, and further supports soil health. Their property started with just barren soil and sand. The corps of engineers brought in sand and terraced it in the area decades ago. Now, rich black earth covers the property and it is teeming with life.

We walked by one of their potato fields and Russell stopped to show my children how to dig potatoes. Instead of burying their seed potatoes, they lay them on the ground and then cover them with composted leaf mulch. This not only feeds the plants with rich nutrients, it also helps to drain away the excess rain and moisture and prevents rotting in our wet southern climate.

**Russell Stackhouse, teaching my children, 7, 4 and 2 years old at the time, how to harvest potatoes.

When explaining the growing process, as well as how to harvest the potatoes to small children, Russell was kind, patient, and informative. It was no surprise when I learned that Dove and Russell have hopes of using their property as an educational hub in addition to their seed saving endeavors. Their dream is to transform Whirlwind Farm into a teaching farm.

**The photo above shows Dove Stackhouse pointing out a baby gherkin cucumber.

After decades of struggling to compete with big agricultural corporations, they’ve turned their focus to helping others learn how to become more self-sufficient and work with the land rather than against it. They hope people will learn and respect all the time, effort and expense that go into organically and sustainably grown produce, especially when it is someone’s livelihood. They want to work with individuals, groups, schools and homeschoolers in the future.

Dove, along with Charlotte Hagood, are also always seeking assistance with their seed saving efforts through the Sand Mountain Seed Bank. They hope to convey the importance of saving seed from one season to the next, preserving rich plant life and food traditions, and teaching people exactly how to save their own seed as they travel further down a path of self-reliance. Dove is always looking for more people to help with seed-saving efforts, particularly farmers and home gardeners who are interested in helping with seed grow-outs and keeping the seed of Sand Mountain Seed Bank viable.

They feel that teaching the next generation where their food comes from and giving children and young people the tools with which to farm is important. They are also huge believers in the healing power of plants and fresh food. Dove and Russell use many of the things growing at Whirlwind Farm for food and medicine. They encourage the growth of things other people see as weeds, such as purslane.

**A veggie-hating 4-year-old is trying purslane, a tart-tasting herbal green, for the very first time and actually enjoying it!