About

Regenerative agriculture and community

2687 West Valley Road on San Juan Island, WA

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Our Purpose

Saturn’s Return is where we gather in celebration of abundance and return to ourselves. We believe agriculture and community, philosophy and practice, economy and ecology, pleasure and purpose are all strongest intertwined. And more fun.

Eating with the fullest pleasure—pleasure, that is, that does not depend on ignorance—is perhaps the profoundest enactment of our connection with the world. In this pleasure we experience and celebrate our dependence and our gratitude, for we are living from mystery, from creatures we did not make and powers we cannot comprehend.
"The Pleasures of Eating" — Wendell Berry

We first fell in love with good food. Then where it comes from. Then soil science and regenerative agriculture; resilient regional food economies and food sovereignty. We know many others will step into care and action for a sustainable, just food system through the same doorway we did — that first astounding bite of a new fruit. A breathtaking bouquet of flowers. Watching a smiling child reach down and pluck her first strawberry. Pleasure that does not depend on ignorance. Enacting our connection with the world. Celebrating our dependence and gratitude. For we are living from mystery.

The Farm

Over the coming five years, we’ll plant over two thousand berries, fruit trees, nut trees, perennial flowers and herbs. Between the perennials, our focus will be storage and staple crops, like beans, polenta corn, and squash, filling gaps in the islands’ winter food supply. Plus, vegetable gardens, laying hens, and honey bees to supply our busy kitchen. Lots of drying, canning, fermenting, and otherwise preserving of peak-season flavor.

But right now, it’s year 2, and we’re just beginning. Instead of planting fencerow to fencerow, we’re slowing down and observing the land through a full year of its seasonal rhythms. Our guests — that’s you, we hope! — will enjoy open grassy fields and the fruits (well, actually the flowers, eggs, and vegetables) of a sub-acre farm and the ambitious inklings of a much larger one.

  • Trials: Agroforestry trial block of young chestnuts, plums, persimmons, figs, and currants. Bean and polenta corn variety trials, uniquely adapted to the Pacific Northwest. Shiitake mushroom forest grove.
  • Food & flowers for the Inn: Layer flock of 60 hens, rotating in a mobile coop. Honey bee hives. Kitchen garden of vegetables and herbs. An indulgent mix of narcissi, tulips, cosmos, poppies, dahlias, and more.

The Name

Saturn completes its cycle around the Sun every 29.5 years, returning to the same position it was at your birth. Many wisdom traditions say that in the year preceding your Saturn return, your soul gets antsy and yearns to reconcile any misalignment between your current path and your essence. It can be a time of great turbulence but also of great discovery, healing, and action. We committed to this land and project during our own Saturn returns and hope to play host to countless others as they return to their source.

We can't wait to meet you!

— Emma & Wiley

All photos by Chase Anderson. Except this one from the International Space Station: