About Us
Hey there! We're Matt Gal and Summer Gal, the farmers and formulators behind Green Door. We like healthy foods that actually taste good, so we go for maximum freshness and organic growing practices - and we have a lot of fun doing it!
Green Door Farms was founded in 2016 as a diversified urban microfarm primarily serving St. Louis-area farmer's markets. Over the next couple of years, we expanded our product offerings beyond fresh produce to include dried teas, herbal extracts, our Skin Mend Salve, and our famous Elderberry Syrup. In winter 2019-2020, we moved our farm to Potosi MO and expanded our cultivated acerage to ~5 acres. After the 2020 season on that plot, we decided it was time to find land where we could focus on growing elderberries. In October 2020, Green Door moved to Oark AR on the ridgeline that separates the Mulberry and Arkansas River valleys. On 78 acres of mostly-wooded mountaintop that borders Ozark National Forest, we set about planting American elderberry, building healthy soil, and managing our forest to maximize biodiversity and sustainability. It's an ongoing process but with every passing season, we see the land around us becoming more and more abundant.
How We Farm
We never use synthetic pesticides or fertilizers on our fields.
Tools and techniques we use:
- no-till permanent beds
- organic and natural fertilizers, like compost
- mulches
- occlusion
- flame-weeding
- beneficial insectaries and other natural pest control methods
- companion planting
- and more!