MAY’S LICK — Farming is a family affair at Wholesome Ridge Farm.

Shannon Ulrich has been farming in May’s Lick with her husband, Joe, and five children for more than 20 years. They gradually transitioned from conventional farming to organic when they discovered that a healthy environment makes healthy food.

Ulrich is a huge proponent of chemical-free farming and explained that too many pesticides are used in commercial farming. Ulrich strives to create a balanced biosystem on the farm. One of the ways she does that is through implementing practices to encourage pollinators.

“When you spray for aphids, you’re killing a lot of the good bugs in the process. By growing organically, we take advantage of predatory bugs which are naturally found in Kentucky and also work to improve the soil, making the plants healthier.” Ulrich continued, “Since we started farming organically there’s been a noticeable beneficial change to our farm. There are more frogs and we’ve even seen a few salamanders.”

Ulrich utilizes greenhouses for potted plants and a high tunnel, which is like a covered greenhouse, for plants growing in the ground. She offers a variety of vegetables including beets, broccoli, peppers, squash, green beans, melons, herbs, carrots, cucumbers, eggplants, kale, lettuce, and cabbage. Tomatoes are her specialty and the farm also produces cut flowers, farm fresh eggs, and breeding stock sheep.

In 2020, Ulrich started Community Supported Agriculture. It’s a program implementing a one-time fee to her customers at the beginning of the year when the farm is first gearing up and then providing them with a box full of fresh vegetables every week, starting in May. The boxes usually contain eight seasonal items and the farm will deliver in the Maysville area or boxes are available for pickup at the Farmers Market. There’s even a weekly cut flower box available.

Ulrich came up with the idea of CSA because of her desire to make it easier for people to have fresh vegetables.

“It’s scary to go into a grocery store and there’s not as much food on the shelves as there used to be,” Ulrich said. “Considering the shortages that are happening, I want to get locally grown food to the community.”

Check out Wholesome Ridge Farm on its website at www.wholesomeridge.com or stop by and see Shannon and her daughters during the growing season at the Mason County Farmers Market in Old Washington on Saturdays, 9 a.m. – 1 p.m.