This Week’s Harvest
Spinach
Salad Mix
Sweet Potatoes
Potatoes
Carrots
Onions
Farm News
In the grand scheme of things the organic farming community is pretty small. So when issues facing organic farms are featured in the national press we are always interested to read about things that other farmers are facing. This summer Ben and I came across several articles about the changing landscape for locally grown produce and how these changes have effected small farms–from farmer’s market sales being down for seasoned farmers (found here) and long time CSA farms experiencing a membership squeeze (found here). Overall the consensus seems to be that there was a local foods bubble the last couple of years that has begun to burst.
Assuming that this is an accurate description of what is happening we pretty much started our farm just as the local food bubble was beginning. And we have grown while interest in locally grown foods has been trendy and relatively widespread. While it has been great to feel part of a national wave of interest and engagement in local foods we’ve never wanted to grow organic food simply because it was popular to do so. Rather we want to grow organically and sell locally because we want these practices to be normal, not necessarily trendy!
At the same time we recognize that sourcing locally grown produce is not as convenient or easy as picking it up at the store or simply going out to eat. Plus in our attempt to grow a wide breadth of vegetables we are sure that most people receive a least a few unfamiliar items in their CSA share throughout the season. For all of these reasons and so many more we sincerely appreciate all the support that we receive from our customers. This time of the year we are grateful to have made it most of the way (we will still have another box on December 20!) through the season, and we are planning and excited for the year to come. Furthermore we are hopeful that “trendy” or not the local and organic food movement will continue to grow!
Recipes
Roasted Potatoes, Fennel and Radishes with Lemon Butter