It's Harvest Time At Swagelok Northern California!

We've transformed a small portion of our office park into a working farm

Next time you are in Fremont, feel free to stop to smell the vegetables at our commmunity garden »

As you sit down for another meal at your kitchen table or your favorite restaurant, take a moment to be thankful for the resources you are blessed with to put food on your table and for the folks who grew the food and prepared it.  One way to give tangible thanks this Thanksgiving is supporting your local food drive. Consider donating to Second Harvest Food Bank or participating in this year's Applied Materials Silicon Valley Turkey Trot. 

As much as we enjoy the abundance of food we enjoy in this country, we don't always reflect on where it comes from. For the associates of Swagelok Northern California, some food comes right from our own headquarter's property. We've teamed up with Farmscape, the largest urban farming venture in California, to create our own community garden.

"I give all the credit to my wife," says Rod Fallow, president of Swagelok Northern California. Rebecca Fallow first came up with the idea of using the flat roof of the building as a place to grow food. It turned out that would require expensive modifications, so she turned her attention to the lawn in front of the building.

Rod agreed it would be a good fit with the company's longtime focus on wellness, but he also wanted the project to go long-term.

"What I didn't want is that everybody would get excited about planting it, but then not maintain it," he says. Rebecca started researching their options, and found Farmscape.

Farmscape started in 2008 in Southern California with the goal of helping people create their own food supply. The Fallows asked Farmscape to see what they could do with the industrial park that Swagelok Northern California calls home. We provide the space, and Farmscape takes care of the whole food cycle from planting to harvest.

Easy to share

The project started in May of 2014 with about 1,000 square feet of growing space in seven raised beds. Our primary urban farmer is Lara Hermanson, a principal at Farmscape. She and Nicole Doonan of Farmscape chose a range of crops that would be high-yield and easy to share. That meant things like cherry tomatoes, eggplant, cooking greens and herbs for the summer. In the winter, we've got a lot of lettuce and snap peas coming along.

"What's special about the Swagelok garden is that we also planted a lot of fruit trees and perennials," Hermanson says. The trees are mature dwarfs with trunks of about four or five inches in diameter. It takes a little while for a tree to recover from being transplanted, Hermanson says, but after a few months it gets in sync with the seasons and starts growing again. She already has harvested some pineapple guavas, and expects all the trees to be in production within 12 to 18 months.

Another aspect of the garden that really pleased Hermanson is that the food is simply given to Swagelok associates rather than sold to a restaurant or store. This past summer we were able to fill tables with about 30 pounds of produce each week. As soon as our staff sees the Farmscape crew bringing it inside, they start lining up.

"Also we encourage people to harvest on their own," Hermanson says. All the crops are labeled out in the "field."

Changing environment

While we're pretty busy every day with valves, fittings and other components for fluid systems, there has been enough time for our people to get to know our urban farmers, and even discuss challenges of home gardening.

"I think it is one of the coolest gardens that we have ever done," Hermanson says. "There was not much of an ecosystem there when we got there. Since we put that garden in, hummingbirds and all sorts of birds have returned to the site." Bees are back, and we've even seen a pesky woodchuck out there.

The garden has had an impact on nearby humans as well. Mentor Graphics, one of our neighbors, was so impressed that they've asked Farmscape to install a garden for them too.