Growing For Everyone
I was listening to "James Brown's Funky Christmas" while picking spinach this week. It was late afternoon. The weather was spring-like and the sky was projecting its orange-pink sunset glow on the sides of the caterpillar tunnel.
It was the kind of idyllic moment that comes to mind when one might daydream about leaving the corporate world behind and moving out of the city to the farm. In actuality, these moments are few and far between in market farming. It's mostly the stress and worry. Do we have enough carrots for this week? Do we have enough that will be ready for next week? Is it ever going to rain? Is it ever going to stop raining? Why isn't this lettuce growing faster? Where did all these aphids come from?
Erin Benzakein of Floret said it great. Farming is "not all floppy hats and flowy dresses." What you see on Instagram is not what you get in reality. That becomes real clear when you start farming.
But occasionally, these dreamy moments do come and you take them when you can get them.
In the midst of my sunset spinach serenade I thought back on this year. The things that worked well, the things that didn't, the things to do differently, and the things we want to start for next year.
Winter is a time to dream for farmers. Things seem so plausible when they're laid out on a spreadsheet. Every crop block fits perfectly in the master plan and it seems like your biggest problem will be finding ways to sell all this beautiful, delicious bounty you will be gracing the world with.
Yeah right...
But high hopes drive the year ahead. And this winter we are dreaming of growing for everyone.
Since we started selling our food it has always been a dream to grow beyond that. We want to serve our community beyond those who can afford to pay retail prices at the Farmers Market or on our Virtual Farmstand.
Don't get me wrong. Those sales are the bread and butter of what we do. Not just for supporting us financially but also emotionally. Every carrot bunch or bag of greens that someone takes home is an adrenaline rush. That sounds corny but I don't care. It's hard to put it into the right words but our sales are the connection we have to the community and to our purpose within it.
But we know there is a huge portion of the community we haven't been serving. This was made even more clear when I visited the Country Pantry during their monthly distribution last week, part of the Clinton Chamber of Commerce's Networking Breakfast event.
The scope of how many people this organization works to feed (400+ families!) every month was on full display. Cars lined up down South Street in Clark Mills, some arriving as early as 4 a.m., wrapped around the block, waiting for their turn in the drive-through food pickup service.
Volunteers from the community as well as helpers from the local correctional system manned the stations. Some directed traffic. Some packed cars. I helped stock bags with apples, oranges and pears. I'm not sure how many people it takes to pull one of these distribution days off, but there were about 10 people helping at my station alone.
Thinking about managing the food vendors, the government organizations, the volunteer help, the recipient list—all with varying income and need levels—must be a real logistical nightmare. I thought putting together two different size CSA shares a week was a lot. Hats off to Mary Zimbler and the Country Pantry team. They make it happen every month, and, from what I witnessed, it runs smoothly.
As I said, it has always been a goal of ours to grow for everyone. We have wanted to grow food not only for sale but also for donation. It hasn't been until now, going into our fourth major growing season, that I feel we are stable enough to try and do so.
To make this happen, we have launched our Community Funded Farmshare project, based on a similar model that Edible Uprising Farm uses in Troy, N.Y. We're calling on our customers and the community as a whole to donate to help offset the costs of growing the food we will donate.
It's our first step in working toward our goal. I'm sure it will be an effort that will evolve and adapt over time but we are committed to making it work. A community works best when everyone is pitching in. There is a huge need in our community and we can all help fill it together.
Growing food isn't cheap or easy work. But with some help from you we can use our resources to produce a little extra that can go a long way. We hope your holiday season is one to remember. And, in the words of James Brown: "Let's make this Christmas mean something this year."
Happy holidays and thank you as always for your support.
—John
