Betting the Farm on Love

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Dear Blog Followers,

It’s so good to be back here on the blog.   We have spent a lot of time this winter adjusting our lives to the wide range of changes that take place once a couple turns  together to a life of farming as their fulltime occupation.  Sara and I have been married just over a year, and for the last three years we’ve been tending the earth and planting seeds together, a life skill we completely lacked before that’s now an occupation for two rather than a hobby.

I’m fortunate to be farming another season side by side with Sara, who believes in all my abilities and is a constant reminder to turn to trust, and love.  It’s my main objective this season that I share with my wife, more  hugs and kisses than farming woes.

Seeds are being sown and the hand tools have met the soil.

We lack the money and supplies to start seeding our tomatoes… a bit concerning.

CSA shares are coming in slow and sparse.  I’m really bummed that the largest CSA farm in WA, Full Circle Farm, (which also ships CSA shares to Alaska) is delivering CSA shares to our  community some 103 miles away…  It seems odd to have to state this but, I highly encourage people to purchase Community Supportive Agriculture from farms in their own community, with the farm owners being the farmers.

4 Responses to “Betting the Farm on Love”

janet czarnecki Says:
Feb 28th, 2010 at 4:49 pm

Sounds tough!  In the past, I have asked specific shareholders who I knew to be financially comfortable if they could pay early for their shares to help me out with spring expenses.  I have found over the years people like to help and they actually are happy to be asked. Eventually, my shareholders were trained, so to speak, and pay me during the winter months so that I can pay myself during this time and cover spring start-up costs.  I think the main thing is to communicate with your shareholders about your situation.  Good luck—I look forward to reading about your progress!

Abi Says:
Mar 17th, 2010 at 6:25 pm

I read this post about three weeks ago and have been thinking about it ever since.  I wanted to share my experience as a consumer who wants to purchase from a small farm. 
You guys are impossible to find!!!  I’m in Northern CA where organic farms are fairly common.  When I started looking for a CSA to join, I found 2 very large ones that are based in the bay area and that was about it, which didn’t seem right.  There is tons of farm land all around me and lots of local farmers at the multitude of year round farmers markets that we have.  I just could not find contact information for these folks. 
I ended up finding the coolest farmer through an ad on craigslist.  I wanted to do a little bit of homework to make sure they were legit, and even that was a struggle, I was directed to their myspace page.  I’m tenacious, I knew what I wanted, a small local CSA, and it took me about 4 hours to find it, which is more than most people will spend.
I know that you are busy with the farm all day, and probably the last thing you want to do at night is hop online and network, but it may help people find you.  Here are some of the links that got me started, I hope they are helpful for you.
http://www.localharvest.org/
http://www.nal.usda.gov/afsic/pubs/csa/csa.shtml
Good luck this year and happy farming!  Abi

Angela Says:
Apr 2nd, 2010 at 8:53 am

Hi Jared and Sara -

Like the reader above, this post has been in my head for a while, but for a different reason.  I think it is so wonderful that you share the personal/relationship side of your farming life as well as the work-related stuff.  I think that takes courage.

What prompted me to finally comment is that the front-page article in April’s issue of Growing For Market is about “super-CSAs.”  She specifically talks about Full Circle Farm.  Among other things, I was shocked to learn that they actually “outsource” the majority of the produce they put in their boxes.  I think this sentence from the article sums it up pretty well:  “The larger damage done is the erosion of the concept of CSA and the widespread public confusion over the term that Full Circle has created.”  (Apparently they are no longer using CSA but “Farm to You.”)

Hopefully people will become aware that the term CSA is already changing, and do the research before joining one…

Jared Says:
Apr 12th, 2010 at 12:53 pm

Angela-
the ‘full circle dilemma’ which it is known to some of us as, is an issue here. While I commend Full circle on their success, I do believe that they are stepping on some toes out here, 103 miles from their home base. They have been actively contacting local vendors in our area (some of which were customers of ours) and with their great marketing and name recognition, we just cant compete. They have changed it so that they’re no longer calling it a “CSA” but it’s still seen that way by and large. Being a multi-million dollar company now, they can afford to fill their “CSA” with produce from all over the state, country and sometimes world (which is something we would never do) and drive it right to the doorstep of their customers. While it’s undoubtedly appealing to a great number of people, obviously, I think that it is indeed doing the opposite of what the CSA model originally intended. I guess ultimately it depends on what your definition of “community” is…. i guess.

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Vernal, UT
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Penn Valley, CA
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