Mid Season reflection...Oh Crap its August!! Time to plant Fall Crops...

Good Day,

We just wanted to reach out to announce we will not distribute produce next weekend and we will be closed August 13-15 for farm maintenance.

As we move into the fall harvest season we have many expired crops we want to remove from the gardens and re-plant new cops.

Every season we plan for this mid August push. Mid August is our last chance to plant outdoor crops and we need to set time aside to prepare seed beds as well as remove old crops and make room for all the wonderful fall cabbage and broccoli crops. We also plant more root veggies and lettuce greens. The other main focus is cleaning up any weeds that are driving us mad… And clearing out greenhouses for the winter salad crop plan.

For any of your fresh produce needs please find us Thursday Night at the Grand Junction Farmers Market. August 12, 5:30-8:30

WOW, It is hard to believe we are 1/2 way through the 2021 growing season. Monday begins Clive’s first day of 4th grade we are sad to loose his help as he has been such a big part of the farm this summer. Having our sons help is so fun for us and we all really enjoy working together.

This season has been very good one of our best and we made many changes and looked deep at the bottle necks we needed to remove. We took time to cut out a lot of the fat. Our systems are good and still need improvements, the farm still needs improvements, that will never change we always have room for improvements.

Mostly we are very proud of our decision making this season and we are thrilled each week to share our farm products with so many wonderful people.

This week we are celebrating 30 weeks of CSA shares distributed and 30 weeks of farm store sales since January. Being a 4 season farm is not a sprint and we have about 20 more weeks to go until we close for our Holiday Break and bring in the New Year of 2022.

Amazing how quickly the weeks go and we have been enjoying this season more then any previous season. This is our 12th growing season here in Mesa County and our soil is charged and growing great produce our greenhouse investments are working for us and we actually have more time as a family and independently.

2021 has been a chance for us to re-evaluate and look within. As we were planning this season last winter we took time to ask some really important questions, questions that we had not asked since we began Field To Fork. We wanted to think about why we farm and whom we farm for. In the past we had employees we were working for trying to teach the life skill of farming and support. Or restaurants we were serving and hoping they were happy. Or CSA shares we trying to fill to make members feel satisfied. All if that was rewarding and we were in 100% but it was not why we started farming and many times it felt forced not natural and it was hard to sleep at night knowing things were off balance.

This year we stopped a lot of things that were not serving us anymore. This year we stopped filling CSA shares and focused 100% on the growing we said to ourselves and our customers we know we raise great produce just trust us we have proven ourselves for 10 years let us serve you…and we restructured our farm membership as a a credit card (Farm Card) system that has been successful. We are not concerned with perfect CSA shares anymore not everyone wants the same thing and some people want a bag of lettuce and other people want to feed 4 teenagers so now farm members can get what they want every week all year long, its working great for us and the members.

We are not training or employing anyone and instead taking that time we used to give to employees and giving it back to ourselves in turn we have more privacy and freedom and time to relax by the pool on hot days.

Lastly we have not sold to one restaurant in over a year or more and our stress level is reduced so much knowing that the produce we raise is going to homes and enjoyed weekly around a family dinner.

Sadly we do see the importance of restaurants buying local food to help solve a bigger picture of food issues but restaurants are going to need to make choices too. I see the week points of a farm as the strong points of a restaurant and the week points of a restaurant are the strong points of a farm but it must be a mutual respectful relationship and the restaurant industry has many systemic issues due to our fast food culture that need addressing for positive change and healthy plates. I would love to see chefs take more time into sourcing and start shopping at the farmers markets and stop buying from Sysco. Its time chefs buy from the farm stands and see what looks good pay the prices we need and support the regional growers in their areas and stand for Organic production. In my decade of farming here I have never seen chefs really shopping at the markets or support Organic. I feel this needs to change. It will influence a stronger healthier community with a vibrant food system. We welcome all chefs who have the same ethics I don’t ask for my meal cheaper at restaurant establishments and it should go both ways…

2021 has been a year full of decision making for us and we see ourselves moving more into the vision we had when we started the farm. Direct partnerships. Simply growing great healthy food for the local families of Western Colorado. As that idea took us on a journey through restaurants, grocery stores, whole sale accounts, training young farmers and more it never filled us with joy the way our farm families do.

2020 was the year of a new vision. Many people changed, I know we did. When we look back at some of our past decisions we ask why did we do that and it was because we have a young child and it seemed easier and gave us more time to raise him. As he is getting older and now taking on more chores and ownership we see our family farm being just what we envisioned early on our family farm. All of those decisions from the past were good and experiencing this journey gave us courage and helped us gain the confidence to start saying yes to our original vision.

2021 is good and we see and hear our farm speaking to us. We are happy with our work the vision we had early on with the farm is alive. Thank you everyone who has participated with us and helped us it takes a village we are so humbled for this journey.

We hope you are enjoying all the awesome produce and that you are looking forward to the fall harvest season with us this September-December.

Then to follow….

2022 Winter -Spring Salad Share Feb-May

2022 Summer - Fall Main Season Share June-September