RE FARM CAFÉ @ WINDSWEPT FARM

DUKE AND MONICA GASTIGER

swipe to view photos

CLIENT GOALS

The clients bought a 57-acre farmstead with the vision of creating an organic practice farm to support a farm-to-table cafe, CSA, and vegetable/meat online and wholesale market. They chose to follow regenerative design principles and guidelines outlined in the Living Building Challenge (LBC).

SOLUTIONS

WMF developed a flexible master plan for the farmstead with the help of Doug Manning, Ecologist and naturalist, and Eric Hagen, Ecologist and Farm Manager. WMF then scaled the master plan down into an edible café landscape to demonstrate to restaurant guests how the food on the menu is cultivated on the larger site. Site plans and documentation were prepared for Living Building Challenge (LBC) certification.

RESULTS

Re Farm Café opened for business in 2019. Windswept Farm supplies 90% of the Café’s menu using ingredients grown on site. The farm also supplies vegetables and meats for their CSA and online market. The new building and LBC site, encompassing 11 of the sites 57 acres, will undergo a 1 year performance period to demonstrate that it can achieve net positive energy while keeping 80% of the LBC site in agricultural production.