As we all have witnessed over the last decade, our society has become so polarized, so fractioned, that often we can not even talk to our literal neighbors if they differ from our political views — regardless of life interests or the common bonds that living in community creates.
As a sustainable farmer in upstate NY, I have a unique view into both sides of the political spectrum.
It has been a rough year. Here is a little present for all the food lovers, melon lovers and joy lovers out there.
We decided to make a queer-d up farmer spoof of Harry Styles’ Watermelon Sugar, in honor of our epic watermelon harvest a couple weeks ago!
Filmed by farmers, edited by the wonderful Walter Hergt. Enjoy!
Picking up where we left off in our last post, this week we’re highlighting more of our community partners. These orgs and initiatives are part of what make up the Rock Steady ecosystem, and allow for us to grow veggies for food relief efforts throughout our communities (beyond our sliding scale CSA model).
The enthusiasm and support for local food is an encouraging trend coming out of this brutal time. Because of COVID, we’ve shifted our plans for this season to meet an increased demand for our CSA, which will hopefully balance out the significant decrease in our restaurant wholesales outlets.
Unsurprisingly, another change we’ve seen this season is an even higher percentage of folks needing financial assistance and coming in on the “lower income” end of our sliding scale - we are glad people know we are here to provide affordable access to nourishing food.
If you’re curious, here’s the current breakdown . . .
HUGE THANKS to all who showed up for our “Meet Your Farmers” online event on Tuesday night. We had 95 people register for the call! If you couldn’t make it live, or if you were there and want to revisit anything, you can watch the recording, linked in this post. We’re also sharing some top highlights from the call, and pics from the farm this week!
Usually, this is the time of year we come out of hibernation and start attending events and posting our flyers both locally and in NYC to promote our CSA and Food Access Fund.
As we adapt to a new way of life we are gearing up for a different kind of season kick-off. We wanted to create an online space to share and connect safely. We hope you’ll check it out, join us, and please spread the word!
It’s a strange time to be surrounded by so much new life and beauty – trees are budding, seeds are sprouting, anemones are blooming and tulips are getting taller.
Our greenhouse is packed with seedlings! It also happens to be snowing today, which is typical Spring here, too.
Despite several recent losses due to COVID-19, we are heartened to be able to support our community with the necessary and nourishing service of responsibly grown food. Learn more about where we’re at, and how we’re responding.
To our 2020 CSA members & folks considering joining: This is a quickly changing situation, so we’ll keep this post updated with the steps we’re taking in response to the coronavirus pandemic. In this post, we want to address specific protocols around what we’re doing on-farm to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and ensure food safety for our customers.
There is so much uncertainty and concern right now around COVID-19, we hear it and we feel it, and here is what we know:
Everyone has a role in a global crisis. We are committed to ours, as your farmers.
We will have our hands in the soil. (We’ll wash them often!)
We will continue to sow seeds in our greenhouse, and soon in our fields.
We will grow nourishing, sustainable food with care for our land.
We will safely transport that food directly to our CSA members, friends and neighbors - and be ready to innovate and pivot creatively as needed.
We will lean into our community and ask for the support we need to fulfill these commitments.
We will take care of each other.
February. It can be a little brutal around here, with so much cold/grey behind us and still a solid stretch before we see some green. That said, when your local grocery store veg is wilting away, there’s nothing like daydreams of summer bounty to get you through the Winter slog, am I right?! Fight the Winter blues, Join our CSA!
Meanwhile, I have to keep reminding myself that Spring is closer than we think -- in just two months, our farm crew will be back and plants will start sprouting all over this place. For now, we’re plugging along on the hefty list of off-season to-dos and unique opportunities that are keeping us very busy. Here are some highlights . . .
We’re excited to share a guest post today, written by one of our farmers! Mika joined our crew last season, and we are honored to have her coming back in 2020, hooray!! In addition to her eight years of farming experience, Mika brings so much insight and compassion to our team. We are grateful to share her voice here. Thank you, Mika!
Before we turn the corner into a brand new year, we wanted to take a moment and look back on a pretty remarkable season. All in all, we are feeling proud of what we were able to create in 2019, and determined to grow our impact and keep going in 2020. Check out our key lessons learned in 2019, and how it’s shaping the year ahead.
So here's a big question . . . where are you, in your personal relationship with the climate crisis? I think we've all been confronted with the questions, "What am I doing, to harm or help this situation? Is it enough? What can I do better?"
As farmers, these questions hit very close to home, as we strive to take care of our land, navigate extreme weather, replenish our soil, and make responsible choices from seed to plate.
For you as a consumer, we thought it would be useful to lay out some of the ways we are mitigating climate change, and how you contribute to those efforts when you support us.
