5 Woods Life

Tommy & Kristi Wood grow microgreens and seasonal vegetables on a small farm in Kernersville, named 5 Woods Farm.
After choosing to leave the corporate world for a simpler life, the Wood family decided to start their own farm.
Tommy Wood explained that he and his wife, Kristi have had a garden since they were married in 2003, but after growing to a family of five and becoming more health conscience they decided to expand.
“About 10 years ago, our leisure time began to be watching health documentaries and our perspective on food and farming practices changed very drastically,” he said, adding that over the years, their practices have expanded. Along with 5 Woods Farm, they also have a holistic health business, His Anointed LLC.
Tommy noted that the name 5 Woods Farm comes from the fact that there are five Wood family members, they have a farm and it’s their life. Their children’s ages are 11, 10 and 8.
“The ‘life’ part of the name has a bigger story,” he mentioned, as he explained that they homeschool, farm together, teach holistic medicine together, serve at church together and spend their lives together as a family. Along with serving at The Bridge and homeschooling, Tommy said they also do taekwondo as a family.
Tommy said he officially left a 20-year corporate job in 2008.
“I wanted to spend more time with my family and grow health food for people,” he said. “We do a lot of microgreens and mostly salad crops and summer vegetables.”
Tommy admitted that when they first started the farm, there was a learning process.
“We’re still learning,” he said.
Having previously grown everything in garden beds on their farm, Tommy said this is the first year they have been able to erect caterpillar tunnels, which allows them to now grow all year long. He added that the four tunnels are non-heated and they have been growing continuously since January when they began growing in the tunnels.
Kristi added that each year since they started the farm, they have doubled their production.
While Tommy does most of the gardening as he enjoys getting his hands dirty, Kristi sees herself more as the communications manager. She also does most of the homeschooling and runs the wholistic business on the side.
“I am a registered nurse who turned into an herbalist,” she said, adding that she is working toward her certification to be a biblical herbalist. “We hope to have medicinal herbs by this fall or next year.”
Tommy explained that they chose to grow micro-greens because they are more nutrient rich.
“Microgreens have up to 40 times more nutrition than the adult greens,” he said. “We grow 27 different microgreens.”
When they harvest the microgreens, Tommy said they are usually 14 – 20 days old. He added that microgreens are baby vegetables and are not to be confused with baby greens, which they also grow.
Tommy mentioned that some of the food they grow consists of microgreens, including cilantro, radish, broccoli, mustard-southern giant, sunflower, and micro spicy mix; seasonal greens including mustard-baby greens, spinach, beet greens, kale (red Russian baby kale); lettuce and salad mixes such as romaine, green crisp lettuce, red leaf lettuce and butter green lettuce; herbs, including rosemary, oregano, sage, lemon balm, Italian green beans and pineapple sage; and edible flowers, including edible blossom sampler, edible nasturtium and edible violas. He mentioned that they are also growing blackberries this year.
“Microgreens are more tender and nutritious,” he said.
Kristi said as part of the homeschooling, their two daughters and son enjoy helping around the farm.
“It’s very educational for them to learn where their food comes from and it builds their work ethic,” she said.
As they focus on health and being wholistic, Tommy said they are certified naturally grown.
“That means we follow all organic practices. We don’t use any synthetic pesticides, we use all organic seeds and no GMOs,” he said. “We also work at building the soil with natural materials.”
Tommy said they originally primarily sold produce out of the Piedmont Triad Farmers Market in Colfax, but now they only sell there os an as-need basis.
“Now, we mostly do online sales and pick up,” he said.
Along with selling to individual families, Tommy said they also sell to local restaurants including The Prescott in Kernersville, DaVinci’s Table in Burlington and the have just started working with Alexandria’s Bistro in High Point.
Tommy mentioned that they are also working toward building a farm store on site at their home.
“We’re saving money from market sales, but it will end up being a stand-alone building with glass coolers to keep product preserved and we’ll have parking and shelters so we can end up selling plants and other farm goodies,” he explained.
Kristi said along with taking orders online, they also offer CSAs (community supported agriculture) or “salad subscriptions.”
“We’re starting our second 10-week cycle, and then we’ll have a fall and winter CSA,” she said. “The weekend of June 12 – 14 is our first salad subscription/CSA, so there is still time for people to jump into the summer one.”
Kristi explained that the CSA is salad focused, but they will also have some summer crops like tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, peppers, okra, edible flowers and more.
“By doing a CSA, people are investing in the farm to help us,” she said. “You can go to our website to sign up and we offer delivery for $5 within 15 miles of the farm, but most people are pick up.”
Tommy added that they update their shopping list every Thursday and people can subscribe to an email for a “fresh list,” which lists what is fresh from the farm each week.
Along with growing food for the community, Tommy said they also grow and raise other things for their own consumption, including eggs, honeybees, and chickens and turkeys for meat. They also have two farm cats.
When asked what they enjoy most about 5 Woods Farm, Tommy said, “Watching God’s creation grow and spending time as a family. The office space is beautiful.”