Fern Homestead
A regenerative teaching farm in Sonoma County, CA
We use the principles of permaculture to produce diverse food products for our community-- and we want to teach you how to do it too.
Not your typical CSA
We offer a unique farm share experience in which participation is not only encouraged, it's required. Each week when you pick up your fresh eggs, milk, and cheese you'll also harvest your own veggies. Want to learn more? See our Farm Share page or Contact Us.
Workshops & Tours
Join us for an hour or a day to learn about land management and food production skills like animal husbandry, wool working, canning, carpentry, composting, hide tanning & more. Check out our Visit Us page for details.
Internships
Through our work with the Regenerative Education Alliance, we offer paid full and half year internships and apprenticeships to students and recent graduates seeking hands-on experience in food production and livestock management in a regenerative setting. Learn about our current interns and see postings about future positions on our Work With Us page.
Event Rentals
Our farm is available by the day or half day for events ranging from birthday parties to corporate retreats. See our Event Venue page for site specifications.
About the Farmer
Tomi Laine Henry, B.A., A.S.
I moved to Sonoma County in 2014 to manage my newly purchased 15-acre homestead in rural Northeast Santa Rosa. This remote cleft in the Mayacamas Mountains (nicknamed "The Hollow") was a perfect place to learn goat keeping. We quickly learned it was easier to fence our home and garden in and the goats out, so they spent their days free ranging in the forest, and their nights locked away, safe from mountain lions.
The 2020 Glass Fire took our farm and everything on it. When we founded our new farm in 2021, we were truly starting over. Not only were we without tools and equipment, but we also had an entirely different type of land to manage, so I decided to pursue a degree in Sustainable Agriculture from SRJC.
When we moved in, we were fortunate to start with a home, outdoor kitchen, shed, barn, and chicken run. For the next two years we focused on building fence and improving the soil with managed grazing, then we started landforming for water retainage, which allows us to have a longer growing season while recharging the aquifer.
In 2023, I graduated with an Associate of Science in Sustainable Agriculture, and began installing a series of gardens: annual vegetables, annual cut flowers, culinary herbs, pollinator hedgerows, chicken forage, berries, medicinal plants, citrus, and most recently, a pond ecosystem.
And I won't stop there. I envision a food forest that exists both to support its community's food needs, and to provide education for the next generation of farmers. The Homestead's ecosystem already boasts 6 species of livestock, hundreds of species of edible and medicinal plants, and a few billion soil microorganisms. In the years to come, there will be even more.
Our Mission
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To sustainably produce as much food as possible.
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To provide for the local community.
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To seek harmonious relationships with all.
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To help other people get started in, and be successful at, small farming.
Our Values
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We do not use synthetic fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides, or GMOs.
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We treat our animals as extensions of ourselves, in that they will eventually become part of us.
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We recognize that our soil is of primary importance. From the health of the soil all health flows.