Meet Shastin Diaz & Sarah Shields | Micro Farmers

We had the good fortune of connecting with Shastin Diaz & Sarah Shields and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Shastin Diaz & Sarah Shields, as a parent, what do you feel is the most meaningful thing you’ve done for them?
Eating healthy is always a main concern as a parent. We are two moms with a passion for growing our own food in a sustainable way and all the while we’ve had little hands helping us out and little eyes watching. Because of our choice in business, our children love eating straight off of the tower, have a wide knowledge of a variety of vegetables, lettuces and herbs and have a clear understanding of where food should be coming from and how that is done. We have our tower gardens in schools around our area and love watching the kids learn about sustainable growing as well as great nutrition. Giving our kids a solid foundation of health is a win in our books!

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
We are an all woman run business and the first Micro Farm in Orange County! We have 12 aeroponic towers that trellis over a family run business where we sell produce, organic, non-gmo and disease resistant seedlings and the Tower Gardens.

We started by selling the tower gardens and as a gift to our customers we would germinate seedlings and give them enough to fill their garden. Business quickly picked up after about a year and growing 100 seedlings a month for our customers quickly turned into growing 1,000. We then got our certification and became certified seedling dealers and opened an e-commerce website and a micro farm where we would grow seedlings along with produce. Our goal was to create a space for the community to come together through fun events and healthy living.

We were the furthest thing from engineers, plumbers and electricians but quickly had to learn to set up our farm! It was a challenge and brought in friends and family to help and we managed to get all the irrigation, plumbing, chemistry and all other farming jobs complete and ready to rock and roll! I would say overall in business the most challenging thing is finding good employees with the same work ethic and vision as ours.

We want to inspire people to grow their own food sustainably to not only help our Mother Earth but create a strong foundation for a healthy lifestyle for their families that will carry out through generations.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
First stop would be 2145 for lunch where we have our Tower Garden’s and they do an amazing farm to table menu. Then I’d take them to Handle’s Ice Cream for dessert down at the Newport Pier. For fun nightlife I would take them down to Laguna Beach and enjoy the art and bars.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
We would love to give a shout out to our families. Krista for always watching the kids while we work, Steven for being that extra muscle when we need it and Emmilee for always continuing to inspire us.

Website: www.ocmicrofarm.com

Instagram: @ocmicrofarm

Image Credits
Halleigh Hill Photography