Come into the fox’s Den

Foxhole is a full-time family farm started by us: Sam and Rich Wickham in 2018. With two youngsters, May and Jack, at our heels, we grow a wide variety of produce, herbs, shiitake mushrooms and plants for the Dayton area. With a background in culinary arts market goers can expect to find sourdough bread, an array of granolas, floral jellies, pastries, and whatever the cottage food law of Ohio will allow us to whip up in the farmhouse kitchen. Don’t forget the band of Katahdin hair sheep on the farm who help to maintain the 25 acres of pasture space and who rotate the fields daily.

Our Philosophy

The 30-acre farm nestled in Brookville, Ohio is managed rather holistically. Embracing practices which benefit the whole ecosystem that the farm occupies, we aim to maintain a balance of all the moving parts which allows the land, including our cultivated crops, to thrive. This means that we not only focus on a vibrant and productive vegetable field, but also on maintaining plenty of habitat for wild plant and animal species which play a part in the well-being of this space. Soil health and biodiversity serve as the best indicators of the farm’s wellbeing. When the whole farm system is in relative balance, it is possible to cultivate nourishing and flavorful food to offer to our local community. When that balance exists, the farmer can work with the natural system, not against it.

Some of our practices in action on the farm:

  • Low till vegetable bed preparation and maintenance

  • Feeding the soil so that it may sustain life, using compost and other naturally-occurring soil amendments

  • Mindful applications for the field:

    • We don’t spray pesticides:

      • No Herbicides

      • No Fungicides

      • No Insecticides

    • We DO spray:

      • Beneficial microbes

      • Micronutrients

  • Crop and livestock rotation

  • Habitat maintenance for birds, beneficial insects, mycorrhizae, etc.

  • Composting

  • Cover cropping

  • Selecting plant species to grow for market which excel in our climate, during the seasons in which they thrive (this is why you don’t find kale on Foxhole’s summer market table…but rather in the cooler seasons)

  • Resting previous years’ cultivated spaces

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The Foxhole Goods

Veggies

Lettuce, carrots, and squash, oh my! We grow a wide variety of vegetables throughout the year. We choose varieties of vegetables and herbs from seed companies, such as High Mowing Organic seeds which thrive in our climate and stand out as most flavorful. Salad mix, tomatoes, squash, and garlic are some of our biggest players. But we grow about 30 different varieties of vegetable.

Microgreens

We grow a variety of microgreens in organic potting soil, including sunflower greens, pea shoots, broccoli, radish, and kale micros.  Microgreens are very young, tender plants.  These are hyper flavorful and nutrient-dense as all of the plant's nutrition is concentrated in a small package.  Microgreens offer a fresh crunch to many dishes, smoothies, juices, etc and make for stunning and tasty garnishes.  You can find our microgreens and shoots year-round at all three Dorothy Lane Market locations.

Spring Seedlings.

In the spring and early summer, we bring a variety of organically-grown vegetable, herb, and flower starts to plug right into your garden.  We always encourage folks to grow what they have space and time for.  Our seedlings are sturdy and selected to grow well in our climate of Southern Ohio.

 

Farmhouse Sourdough

Rich has spent years mastering the art of baking true sourdough bread.  Authentic sourdough bread is naturally-leavened with wild yeast...the way bread was traditionally made.  This process makes for superior flavor, an unmistakable crust and texture, and a final product that is more easily digested than other breads because the fermentation process partially digests the grains.  We use all organic grain in our sourdough. 

Farmhouse Granola

I found myself baking granola weekly to ‘refuel’ in the middle of our long farming days. I decided to take it to the masses. Our granola is proper fuel…just slightly sweetened with coconut sugar and a touch of honey. It is packed with goodies including sunflower and sesame seeds, toasted walnuts, apple puree, oats, coconut oil and freshly ground spices.

Floral Jellies

We decided to capture the floral flavors of the flowers that grow on the farm by conjuring up a line of floral jellies.  All flowers steeped and transformed into jelly were picked by hand on our farm.  We have wild violet, apple blossom and dandelion jelly for sale while supplies last.