CANCELLED due to the weather.

Draft Horse Plows to prepare Mother Earth Farm for planting.

What’s one of the first steps required to get 150,000 pounds of fresh, organic produce to local food banks? Plowing the soil, of course.

But who best to plow the soil, a team of draft horses, or a team of Lutes basketball players and their coaches?

We’ll tip off the growing season properly with a battle to determine which species is superior, the horse, or the college basketball player. Will the draft horses plow more ground, or will 13 Lutes and their coaches?

On April 6 from 10am until 3pm, teams of drivers and plow horses from Hames & Tugs Draft Horse Club will compete against the PLU Lutes Basketball team to see which group can plow the most land at Mother Earth Farm. Their competition will have the added benefit of helping to ready the field for spring planting.

Emergency Food Network operates the 8-acre Orting farm, managed by staff member Canyon Little. This annual event exemplifies the spirit of the program. Mother Earth Farm grows more than 40 varieties of vegetables, as wells as fruit trees. Bees are kept on site to pollinate, and their honey is collected for distribution as well. Vegetables grown at Mother Earth Farm are harvested and delivered fresh to area food banks on the same day that it is harvested.

Attendees are encouraged to bring weather-appropriate clothing like boots, gloves, and raingear, a sack lunch, a camera, and chair to sit on. Be there to witness feats of strength and farming that will be talked about for generations!!

Emergency Food Network provides 14 million pounds of food to 67 food banks, meal sites, and shelters annually. An average of 115,000 clients visit feeding programs in Pierce County each month. Eighty percent of all emergency food distributed in Pierce County comes from EFN.

Directions to Mother Earth Farm

From I-5 north or south—Take Hwy. 512 (to Puyallup) and follow signs east to Highway 410 East (Yakima/Sumner) exit. Follow 410 to second Sumner exit (Valley Avenue/Orting-Highway 162); and turn right at stoplight at end of exit ramp (toward Orting). Drive approximately 1.9 miles (past Alderton and Spooner Farms) to 102nd. Look for gravel road on left—Mother Earth Farm sign will be at entrance to 102nd. Farm is at the end of the gravel road on the right. Look for the parking signs.

Mother Earth Farm
15208 102nd St E, Puyallup 98374

Click here to view the event page!