If you meet Andrea Bemis in person, there will be dirt under her fingernails—and that’s exactly the way she likes it. Soil is rich, dark, and nutritious, and she wishes more people would let themselves get dirty. Dirt is wholesome. It’s delicious. It’s real. It’s home.

Andrea and her husband Taylor run Tumbleweed Farm near Parkdale, Oregon, with their two daughters, ages four and eighteen months, and their Great Pyrenees, Stoney. For twelve seasons, the Bemis family has lived here, nestled in the shadow of Mount Hood. Of the six acres they own, they actively cultivate three, where they grow roughly fifty different kinds of vegetables: root vegetables, herbs, summer tomatoes, peppers, onions, summer and winter squash, garlic, and many different varieties of kale, lettuce, salad greens, and cabbage.

Using these ingredients, Andrea loves to experiment with and create recipes, and she shares many of those recipes on her popular website dishingupthedirt.com and in her three cookbooks: Dishing Up the Dirt: Simple Recipes for Cooking Through the Seasons; Local Dirt: Seasonal Recipes for Eating Close to Home; and Let Them Eat Dirt: Homemade Baby Food to Nourish Your Family. Andrea and Taylor also grow vegetables for their local community, and once a week they drive into Portland to deliver produce to members of their farm’s Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program, which routinely sells out.

When I look at food I ask myself: Is this good for my body? Is it good for the environment? Is it good for my family, and is it good for the world?

Andrea Bemis

When she’s not knuckle-deep in her farm’s gorgeous soil or cooking with her daughters, Andrea dons another hat: real food advocate. In a society that “often values profit over the health of our most vulnerable population,” Bemis is on a mission to bring back our children’s taste buds, one zucchini at a time. She cherishes seasonal, locally grown, mindfully sourced food—even when it takes creativity and effort to source, cook, and share it.

“It’s the way I want to eat,” she smiles. “And that feels so good.”

For Andrea and Taylor, farming success didn’t happen overnight. “When we first moved onto our land, it was a neglected horse pasture that had never been cultivated,” Andrea recalls. “We were able to coax some vegetables out of the land, but they looked haggard and seemed to struggle just to survive. So we made the conscious decision to invest a lot of time and energy into improving our soil and our farming practices.”

Each spring, they spread 200 yards of compost onto their fields. “We use chicken manure, feather meal, bone meal, and blood meal as our natural fertilizers. It takes a long time to build soil, but in the last five years we’ve seen a huge improvement in our crops.” Their vegetables are vibrant, healthy, and bursting with lushness.

It’s hard work, of course—but the Bemis family has support. They barter with their local farming friends for meat, eggs, milk, and other products and often watch each other’s animals, water crops, and generally help each other.

That support for farmers, she believes, is important—both for her family and also for communities around the world. Almost always, Andrea finds, “. . . the small farmers in small local communities are doing it right.” The food can be a little more expensive up front, but the benefits of eating locally are manyfold.

“I wish more people knew and understood that it’s our duty to support our local economy and small-scale producers,” she says. “The farther away your product comes from, the less traceable it is. Do you know where the things in your kitchen were made? How the workers were treated? How the soil is nourished, and how those foods nourish you?”

“When I look at food,” she says, “I ask myself: Is this good for my body? Is it good for the environment? Is it good for my family, and is it good for the world?”

In between stints of collaborating with her daughter’s preschool—she’s helping them apply for local grants for an edible farm program—Andrea cooks with her daughters as often as she can. “If I have one tip for parents of small children,” she says, “it’s to get them in the kitchen with you. And the farmer’s market, and the grocery store, and—ideally—the garden.” Just walk through the aisles, she encourages, and ask them: “What looks good to you? What would you like to make?”

“It doesn’t need to be complicated. Even if nobody in the family has tried turnips before, it’s a fun experiment—and it’s been proven, over and over, that kids are more likely to eat food that they help prepare, touch, or even pretend to chop.” Andrea is the first to acknowledge that her family isn’t perfect, of course. “My kids see a cupcake, and it’s all over,” she grins. “But it’s all about moderation, and we do our best. And cooking is a nourishing activity you can all do together, where you get to bond with your kids and have fun.”

Continue Reading

Explore More

Adam Edwards

Whitewater Kayaker and Writer

Watch Video Read Story

The Dee Mill

Urban Wood Salvage and Sawmill

Watch Video Read Story

Terrie Brigham

Traditional Hoop Net Fisherwoman

Watch Video Read Story

Joshua Hood

Indigenous Bowmaker

Watch Video Read Story

Daniel Robinson

Painter and Musician

Watch Video Read Story

Arnon Kartmazov

Blacksmith

Watch Video Read Story

Rachael Taylor-Tuller

Goat Farmer/Veteran/Mother

Watch Video Read Story

Kiliii Yuyan

Photographer/Traditional Kayak Builder

Watch Video Read Story

Lars Limburg

Arborist

Watch Video Read Story

Mo Heim

Conservation Photographer

Watch Video Read Story

Elan Hagens

Mushroom Forager

Watch Video Read Story

Robert Gunnier & Family

Dip-Net Fishermen

Watch Video Read Story

Josh Hydeman

Cave Explorer and Photographer

Watch Video Read Story

Greg Hennes

Founder of The Jennings Hotel

Watch Video Read Story

Christopher Van Tilburg

Crag Rats Search & Rescue

Watch Video Read Story

Cory Carman

Owner of Carman Ranch

Watch Video Read Story