We all know the proverb, “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.” But what if you’re a beginner farmer and life gives you land that’s too wet for even the thirstiest crops? For Dan Southey, of Washashore Farm on Nantucket, the question presented itself in 2016, and what started as an experimental way to make use of flood-prone land has evolved into a valuable regenerative asset and a source of some of the island’s most sought-after eggs.
As a new farmer in the Walter F. Ballinger Mentor Farmer Program with a couple of leased acres at the Nantucket Land Bank’s Mount Vernon Farm– a program established by the agriculture-focused nonprofit Sustainable Nantucket – Dan was committed to organic farming. He first focused on crops like baby greens and brassicas, but soggy land wasn’t his only challenge.
On a recent visit to his farm, Dan gestured over his shoulder, “This area here is really wet. I wanted to use it, and I felt like having a protein at the farm was a good idea. Plus, I had slug and snail problems, and I had read that ducks are great slug assassins.” While it’s hard to picture what this area looked like nine years ago, today it feels like a lush oasis. Years of rotating his laying flock of ducks along the eastern fence line have transformed this previously unusable part of Dan’s acreage, where wetland-loving native elderberry and willow thrive flanking the enclosure, and songbirds flit through the space. Listening to the ducks softly chatter and forage among the greenery, it’s clear that these ladies are living the dream.
Introducing ducks was not just a solution for mud and slugs; for Dan, the flock has evolved into a closed-loop system. The ducks quickly took care of his slug and snail problem and, in return, rewarded Dan’s soils with rich fertilizer as they foraged. At the same time, they made quick work of surplus and unsaleable produce, reducing the need for expensive off-island feed. As time passed, Dan learned that the benefits of ducks over other types of layers didn’t end there. Unlike flighty, spookable chickens, domesticated ducks have been bred to be flightless, with short feathers and small wings, and their strong flocking instinct keeps them together and makes them unappealing targets for predatory falcons that would normally make quick work of an unsuspecting chicken. A simple three-foot-high fenced enclosure and covered coop for nighttime protection is all they require, and though they don’t use egg boxes to lay their eggs, they are prolific layers of sturdy, golden-yolked eggs. His flock of Khaki Campbells, Cayugas, Anconas, and Golden 300s can produce 250-300 eggs per year, though he typically gets around 220. Incredibly, nearly all of Dan’s ducks have been with him since the beginning, making them nearly nine years old and still reliably laying eggs (an age that would be unheard of for the average laying chicken). He especially appreciates that they are easygoing animals with tons of personality and without a pecking order. Dan smirks when alluding to their capacity for genuine joy. “Their favorite food is watermelon. They freak out when they see me coming over with it. Lots of quacking – just this big group all running over as soon as they see it.”
Dan once experimented with keeping guinea hens for their eggs, only to find their incessant shrieking, unruly behavior, and alarming broodiness more trouble than it was worth. “I tried selling their eggs for a couple of years but collecting them was terrifying. They’d be crowded into a nest like a three-headed monster attacking you as you tried to collect the eggs. Then once they got out and demolished my lettuce rows. It was a disaster.” He ended up dispatching all but one guinea hen, which escaped the slaughter but refused to leave the farm, instead joining the rest of the flock of ducks. “The ducks were like, ‘That’s cool,’” Dan says, and the guinea hen has been an honorary“duck” ever since.
Despite being more nutritious than chicken eggs, with a richer, eggier flavor, duck eggs remain a niche product. There is a misconception that duck eggs taste fishy, but Dan assures this could only happen if the ducks had access to a pond where they would naturally find things to snack on beneath the water’s surface. Domesticated ducks, on the other hand, are perfectly happy on dry land, though they need enough water to fully dip their beaks, which fulfills their needs for preening and drinking. Dan will, on occasion, fill a big pool for his ducks to enjoy, since, well, ducks are ducks and ducks love water.
When the flock is laying (they typically take the winter off), Dan has no trouble selling his egg sat his stall at Sustainable Nantucket’s farm stand at 168 Hummock Pond Road and to island restaurants like American Seasons and Sister Ship, though he does field questions on occasion from curious folks that have never tried them. “One duck egg is equal to one and a half chicken eggs, so you can substitute it in anything. They are just richer, and I’d say more delicious.”
Most notably, just one duck egg is almost a full day’s supply of vitamin B12 which maintains healthy nerve and blood cells and converts food into energy. Their higher fat content and carotenoid-rich yolks lend luxurious depth and a golden hue to all manner of baked items and take simple preparations like omelets and scrambled eggs to new heights. Dan’s favorite duck egg preparation is emphatically purist: deviled eggs.
With the help of his wife Misha and his small team of dedicated employees, Washashore Farm has built an avid following for his eggs as well as his specialty greens and produce. On just an acre and a quarter, with a handful of hoop houses, Dan is able to produce an impressive amount of custom baby greens mixes and niche vegetable cultivars in dense, organized production, with plans to expand onto two newly acquired acres nearby from the Land Bank this year. In addition to vegetables and ducks, he also keeps bees. Dan has four hives right now and hopes to grow to 20 hives in the coming years. “The honey’s great. I love the honey. Misha loves it, too – she’s really into that part of the farm.”
When queried as to whether there is a favorite duck among his flock, a smile spreads across Dan’s face. He points to one in particular with a small plume of feathers atop her head, reminiscent of a poofy wig. “Yeah, of course: Afroduck. That’s the only one that has a name. She’s a crested, which just means she has that poof, you know? I just got one because I like the contrast here. She still lays too.”
Dan appreciates being able to experiment but knows the importance of balance. “I love trying new things, but I also like to cut the waste. You know, the stuff that’s just too much labor. It’s fun to learn, but it also has to work.” With a diverse setup already in place and more land coming under his management, his focus is on refining what he does best: “You have to look at what you’re actually capable of, figure out how to do it, and make sure everything’s healthy and happy.” One look at Dan’s flock or a taste of his delicious, golden-yolked duck eggs is ample evidence that he is more than succeeding in his mission.
Washashore Farm
WashashoreFarm.com
Leah Mojer is a classically-trained chef, wine professional, and writer focused on biodiversity in food and wine. Her expertise in charcuterie has been featured in The Art of Eating, and she has written for Yesterday’s Island and Bartlett’s Farm newsletters. She works in communications for Sustainable Nantucket and founded Nantucket Wildscapes to expand education and access to native plants. She also launched the Nantucket Litter Derby, which has removed43 tons of litter from Nantucket’s environment since 2019. Leah lives on Nantucket, where she enjoys cooking, gardening, and exploring Nantucket’s wild places with her partner and their rescue dog, Isla.
