COVE Simple and unassuming, much like its owner, Friendly Farm sits gently upon the slopes of Mount Fanny in Cove.

From the front, there is little to distinguish Friendly Farm’s two acres from its rural neighbors. But take a closer look and you will see it is the owner and operator who has made Friendly Farm a special place.

Mary Cooke grows everything on her small farm organically without the use of chemicals of any kind. She has gardened organically for over 30 years 26 of them in Cove.

Although organic agriculture has been around since the mid-1940s, in the past decade organic farming has seen a surge in popularity driven by increases in consumer demand.

In Oregon, organic farms are considered one of the fasted growing trends in the agricultural industry.

Since the 1980s, Mary has been a familiar face at La Grande’s Farmers Market, offering everything over the years from early cabbages and sweet corn to tomatoes and zinnias.

Besides the usual fare of radishes, carrots, peas and berries, Friendly Farm has a variety of unusual plants that come on especially early to add fresh spring flavor and versatility to Mary’s kitchen.

"These are nettles the broth is especially delicious," she says.

Besides being a good flavoring for eggs and soup, Mary says nettle broth will reduce high blood pressure and provide allergy relief. "And they’re easy to grow," she smiles.

Mary also credits nettles with her lifelong love of botany. When she was 6 years old, she was introduced to nettles stinging her bare legs after a walk through the woods with her family. It happened more than once, and she remembers the day she finally spotted the nettles before they spotted her.

"I remember thinking, ‘Ha! I saw you first.’ From that day I was a botanist always exploring for plants," she recalls.

Other early greens thriving alongside the nettles at Friendly Farm are fennel which also deters insects chives, parsley and something very pretty Mary calls salad burnett. She plucks a small piece from the center of the almost fern-like plant and pops it in her mouth.

"It has a delicate flavor it’s very good. When you eat things fresh like this you get the benefits of all the vitamins and minerals."

Another unusual plant at Friendly Farm is orach, similar in flavor to fresh spinach. Mary grows both the green and red varieties.

"Most people have never heard of it. It’s much better than spinach in a salad," she says. Though orach can also be boiled like spinach, Mary definitely prefers it fresh.

All this bounty would not be possible without a good soil and organic gardening is all about the soil.

"If you feed the soil, it will take care of the plant," Mary says.

Grass clippings make the best mulch, she says. It’s free and slugs find grass clippings much too hot for living quarters.

Straw, on the other hand, is a haven for slugs and Mary uses it sparingly and only where it is called for.

Keeping the slug population further under control, Mary believes, are centipedes and salamanders.

"When we first discovered the salamanders in the garden, we said, ‘Oh, look, it’s a new friend.’ That’s how we look at everything in the garden and why we chose the name Friendly Farm," Mary looks toward 4-year-old Paloma, but her daughter has now lost interest in both her orange and the quiet conversation and is fast asleep.

It is Mary’s philosophy of noticing every living thing, then waiting to see how it interacts that provides the methodology for her actions.

"If you are dedicated to not using chemicals, there is an answer for everything," she says. "It takes longer, but it’s worth it."

Her knowledge has come mostly from trial and error combined with some reading.

"I’ve never found a book that has all the answers," she says.

For instance, Mary discovered when spading up a low-growing weed in her garden, it left behind soil that was loose, light and easy to work. "I let it go a little just enough to break up the heavy clay and it does the work for me," she says.

The wait-and-see philosophy has also taught Mary the bald-faced hornets that built a nest on her farm eat flies.

"We stay away from them. Their nest is high enough they don’t bother us," she says.

Experience has shown Mary what insects will eat corn ear worms, that ashes from her wood fire will keep worms out of radishes, and that slugs hate coffee grounds, but the soil loves them.

She knows which bugs are helper bugs and where they fit in the insect kingdom’s food chain.

She has learned that almost every organic scrap from her kitchen including meat, if it’s buried can be thrown into the compost pile. All except potatoes.

"If there’s any potato fungus, it will stay in the soil for five years," she says.

For several years, Mary has had a dream to share not only her knowledge, but her passion for organic gardening.

"I want to open my farm for visitors to come here and experience organic gardening. It is not the elite process some may think, though it is non-conventional," she admits.

On Saturday, Friendly Farm, 1503 Conklin Lane, will be open at 10 a.m. welcoming everyone to visit the garden, the chickens and, hopefully, the new baby bunnies due April 30.

After Saturday, Friendly Farm will be open by appointment for families, field trips and other small groups to "experience digging in the soil, sowing seeds, harvesting and tasting organically grown food fresh from the garden," Mary says."There is always something to harvest."

Group visits to Friendly Farm are by donation only; Mary will not charge a fee. However, in addition to group visits, Friendly Farm will also be available for small hands-on workshops with Mary on composting, mulching, planting, harvesting and more from the organic garden.

Fees for the two-hour workshop are $15 per person or $20 for two people.

For more information on Friendly Farm, or to schedule a visit, call Mary Cooke at Friendly Farm in Cove,

568-8021.

Mardi Ford