When the first signs of the Strawberry Festival weekend were showing themselves in town last Thursday, a quieter scene was taking place less than a mile away, as farmer Peter Smutko worked in a field. He was accompanied not with the noise of a tractor engine, but with the hushed sound of hooves striking the dirt, as he drove his team of work horses up and down the rows, cultivating the earth.

That farm — known to many as the former Hogsback Farm — has deep roots in the island’s agricultural history and was once a Japanese strawberry farm. Now, those who pass by and catch a glimpse of Smutko or his wife Emma Fuller might think they traveled back in time themselves — if they should see either of the duo out working with the horses, whom the couple calls “the brains behind the operation.”

Last week, in a patch of shade at what is now Northbourne Farm, Smutko talked about what drew him to farming on the island and to working with horses in particular. He made clear the decision was not an economic one, as he has not yet tabulated what style of farming would be more lucrative, but a decision made from a deeper place than his wallet.

“I am not sure how it pencils out,” he said. “For me it is a lifestyle decision.”

Last summer, he and Fuller were living with her parents in North Seattle, while she was finishing her dissertation at Princeton University long distance. He was working on a farm in Sequim that relies on horses, and the experience planted the seed, he said, “of the romantic idea of being able to farm without diesel.”

He knew he wanted to farm, and his in-laws, too, had always dreamed of living in a more rural setting.

“We had it in our minds that we would look for farmland at some point,” he said.

Last June he looked at the Tilth website, and spotted the ad for Hogsback Farm.

“We thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be cool to check that out and see what it’s like,’” he added. “It turned out to be exactly what we were looking for.”

From there, they quickly put together a tour of some other farms in the area for sale, but they kept coming back to this farm, thinking, “That Vashon place, that had a lot going for it.”

After a few weeks — and a talk with his own parents — they took action and made an offer.

Amy Bogaard, who owned Hogsback Farm with her husband Joseph, recalls when the family came to the farm. Other people had looked at it and seemed most interested in the homes on the property. But when Smutko and Fuller came with her parents, they looked at the fields, Bogaard said.

“I knew then they were my people,” she recalled. “I wanted them to have it.”

In the end, their timing was right, and the Bogaards accepted their offer.

Through the small community of those who farm with horses, Smutko learned of a man in Michigan who was selling farm tools and his team of Suffolk Punch horses, Roy and Jay. He hired someone to bring the horses to Washington in November, shortly after the family moved in October.

The horses were accustomed to working in the fields, which was important to him as a beginner, Smutko said. And they are a breed that is known to be fairly calm and somewhat smaller than many other work horses. When farmers began turning to the tractor, work horse lines were kept up for shows, he added. As a result, work horses became taller and more energetic — possibly good for the show world, but not ideal on a farm.

Smutko began working with the Jay and Roy as soon as they arrived, even though he did not plow the fields until April.

The plowing process — which he wrote about on the farm’s blog — turned out fine, which he attributed to the horses.

“Plowing went that well precisely because they knew what was going on as well or better than I did,” he said.

Fuller also acknowledges the horses’ skills.

“I think they have been doing farm work longer than we have,” she said.

The spring was extraordinarily wet, but with no other farming year on Vashon to compare it to, Smutko said that went well, too.

“We also have well-trained soil,” he joked.

Now, crops are growing in the farm’s fields. The garlic crop had problems, but the salad mix is popular and abundant, he said. Additional crops include carrots, beets, radishes, tomatoes, onions, orchard fruit, berries and eggs — available at their farm stand and at the Saturday Farmers Market. The farm also has a robust crop of sunflowers growing in a u-pick flower garden, and Smutko and Fuller encourage islanders to stop in for those, too.

Smutko noted he is not very mechanically inclined, and working with horses fits well in that regard.

“All the equipment is simple. My farm will never come to rely on my ability to fix an engine quickly,” he said, noting there is a flip side. “A horse could get sick or injured, and I would be stuck in the lurch as well.”

In the field last week, Smutko drove the team, and Fuller assisted in getting the horses harnessed and with some additional chores.

She earned her doctorate in ecology and evolutionary biology from Princeton and now works for a company called Granular, which sells farm management software. As a data scientist, she analyzes the data — such as yields and fertilizer usage — of the large farms that use the software.

“I go to work and look at really big farms and come home and work on a small farm,” she said with a laugh.

Taking a break and watching her husband drive the horses, she noted that they are farming with both the old and the new, using the best of both.

On the one hand, they have horses and the typically old equipment that goes along with them — often made between the first and second world wars. On the other, they rely on plastic irrigation tubing with laser-cut holes. She added that working with horses is a fine choice for a farm that size, with about 1 acre of food currently growing. It would be more difficult with 10 acres and not possible with 100 acres.

As for how running a farm with horses pencils out compared to farming with tractors, her training shows itself.

“That is a question I am really interested in answering with data,” she said.

In the mean time, both Smutko and Fuller say they are happy to be living on Vashon, a place with an “amazing community,” Fuller said. And the property itself serves them well, with a larger house for her parents and a smaller house for the two of them. The rewards are high, Smutko added.

“Living and working on the farm is really great. I don’t commute, and I can watch the sun set over the farm from the comfort of my house,” he said.

Stop by the farm and farm stand at 16530 91st Ave. SW. Or find the farm online at northbourne.farm.