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Show WASATCH COUNTY COURIER PROFILE Fields of Flowers to Piles of P Potpourri ‘At Sundance Farms the Products and the Concepts Keep Growing | by Jean Croasmun, Courier staff frost has hit, S Sundance Fah is an all-naeieal: allorganic environment. No chemical : pesticides or weed killers are used here. but there’s still so much to do. Fertilizers are all derived naturally, either Flowers: are hung, soaps are formed, herbs from composting or with the digestive assistance of local farm animals. And the entire farm, including the gift end, operates with only one residential-sized trash can. are packaged, dried grasses are tied into wreaths. Seems there’s never a down time at Sundance Farms in Charleston. For General Manager, Liz Sprackland, that’s a good thing, and a bit of a surprise. Sibabiasee Farms fowas and produce e¢come ~ from just a small three acre parcel-the adjacent land is made up of buildings and horse _pastures and an alfalfa field. Visitors are rr welcome to see for themselves the mani-festation. of an organic-farming goal restaurants, and dried goods to wholesalers world-wide. “We're going to need another drying barn,” she says. po Redford set ‘some eleven years ago. Most are surprised that so much can be created from so little. ‘Including Sprackland. — T “I knew Redford’ vision, and knowing that he was’an environmentalist, I knew we were going to be sensitive to the environ- Now, joie fall, is when the Acsvene ai ae Farms’ organic _ the herbs from Sundance garden are harvested and transferred to drying racks in what used to be a dairy barn. And Sprackland is quickly finding mm ment,” says Sprackland. What Sprackland didn’t know was how diverse the Farms would ultimately become. “The oak of the 2S was:i erieinally to get ish flowers ¢on the tables at the restaurants,” says Sprackland of the idea that out that the Farms’ two drying barns just aren’t enough. _ for use Herbs Sundance’s in and three dried - our dried flowers,” says Sprackland, and a arrange- concept produce for doing was indicating Sundance newer gift “We had to start planting visinediaicks” - says Sprackland, indicating that a move in _ May, 1996 might not have been the best fill,” she says. So her crew conceived of the idea of bath oils, soaps and potpourri. “But I didn’t know | ry how tomake them,” says ‘Sprackland. So she got ¢ on. the phone and called Hepple and asked questions and soon Sundance. Farms was producing its own line of bath products. Mail-order houses snatched up Wasatch County. Sundance Farms. is an. all-organic, working farm. Produce from the Farms _ feeds look at some of the locally-created at Sundance ~ ‘Farms in erie: ‘Farms has — a resident of herb mixes, dried- and three counties,” says Sprackland of the flower wreaths and condition of Sundance Farms before their move to Charleston in May, 1996. The gardens started out on Redford’s property bouquets, all-natu- ral Redford cil an old dairy farm across the street from. moment. ~ work. Reservoir in Charleston, for about : Sundance Farms’ “product line is ever - expanding and the operation is continual- a Then it was time to 7 back to and hand bath wants - to increase the bath-line. Soaps - come in all varieties and flavors and there’s ~a bath salt or lotion to match each. But even with all its growth, Sundance Farms’ operation still remains homey and natural~ almost everything i is created in-house. salts; getting everything ready for the In keeping with the Sundance philosophy, ‘holiday —_— season; - Sundance: Farms recycles, composts, and packaging with ecomakes a conscious effort to use every last _logically-friendly crumb, stem, and petal it. produces. ‘materials; . finding _. Virtually nothing is wasted. The gardens ‘new uses for what. are drip-irrigated. Old seeds are harvested others might con-. _by school children. The no-waste concept in Spanish Fork Canyon and surrounding areas. Sprackland is quick to admit that the geographic diversity made the = tasks more difficult. was thrilled, soaps, lotions near Sundance resort; others were located Creek And it’s still that way. first frost, all eyes dy growing—Sprackland just created and focus on the drying» ~ hired for two new positions. _ Sprackland operations-making — “The Farms were spread out in four towns Deer of soap were barely dry before they had to label them. Everything happened so fast. the Farms fill vases and gardener/soap-maker, Lyn Walker, have been with Sundance Farms since the beginning. ‘Sprackland fected and orders were coming in-the bars ~ at the resort during growing season. And now, after the Sundance’s General Store sold cases of the soaps. According to Sprackland, the recipes weren’t even per- Sundance’s ‘restaurants in the sum“mer. Flowers from Wasatch County for only a little over three years now, although the organic gardens were started eleven years ago. Sprackland So three years ago, wher the Farms’ products. z goods | Charleston. dried flowers,” Sprackland says, that a stagnant period for the Farms ultimately bore their lines. Somewhere along the way, Sprackland, a native of Chicago, and _ before they even had the buildings ready, - Sundance Farms was tilling soil, compost| © ing, dropping in seeds and creating an roe environmentally-friendly habitat in Students from Wasatch High School _ born. “We got to a cate for about four or five years where it seemed like all we were restaurants also | come from. the Farms. ~ time. “We had orders to Was oer ‘Farms --ments. - a year after we started. They took some of TT Ty Broom corn is grown at Sundance TTT spawned Sundance Farms in the late 1980s. “Then’ it was fresh herbs for. the chefs. The Sundance catalogue came out - -sider* waste. . And Lyn Walker cuts a block of aloe’ soap into smaller bars, ee’ selling in Sundance Farms’ gift shop. passing on what fi “Tl had no plan to be doing paisick like this,” says Sprackland, of her job overseeing the operations at Sundance Farms, the © organic. gardening branch of Robert Redford’s Sundance Resort that supplies fresh flowers and herbs to the resort’s ry It’s fall now and — there’s not much left to eat in the garden, ~ goes so far that Sundance Farms’ gardener they have learned ~ SUNDANCE continued on page 25 8 Se | to others. - = |