Hi Everyone,
In this update:
1. October activities at the farm (how to enjoy them or avoid them)
Most of you are familiar with the October incursion of kids and pumpkin seekers. Many of you have told me that you enjoy it - others think longingly of quieter days of the earlier season.
October is the one month of the year that we are open to the public. Pumpkins began as a small "cash crop" for us. It is still that, but it has become a cash crop that also provides us with a means of creating greater awareness about the existence and importance of local, organic (biodynamic) agriculture. We see it as an important time of outreach as well as a time that provides the financial basis for improvements to the farm.
If you are among those who would like to avoid as much of the busyness as possible, here are a few suggestions. Come to the farm to pick up on Tuesday, Wednesday, or Friday after 2:30 in the afternoon (when our kids' tours are over). Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons are better than Friday afternoon. For Saturday pick-ups, our best advice to avoid the rush is to come early. If you can and would like to, you can switch your pick-up day to a Tuesday or Wednesday which would get you away from the Saturday morning pumpkin crowd.
We hope you all can either enjoy the October activities, or at least patiently endure them. Let us know if you have ideas or suggestions. jubileefarm@hotmail.com
2. Fall Session starts November 4th: time to sign up now
With only three more weeks left of the Summer Session (Summer Session ends the last week of October), it is time to register for the Fall CSA. For those of you who may be new to this, our Fall Session (like all our "off-season" Sessions) is different from our 20-week Summer Session. The Fall Session is only six weeks long. Because we are into flooding season in November, we deliver all the Fall Session shares. Deliveries are on Wednesdays, starting November 4th and continuing for six successive weeks. Most of the produce for the Fall Session is from our farm, but we do supplement the boxes with organic produce as necessary. During the Fall Session (and other Sessions) we offer a locavore box that contains only items from our farm or from organic farms within our region.
The cost of the Fall Share is $175 for a three-quarters box, and $225 for the regular box. The best way to sign up is on-line (http://jubileefarm.org/apps/). Our webmaster, Joe Meboe, has set up a registration process that is very simple. You can also pay for the Session on-line.
3. Skagit Valley sets a remarkable example in farm land preservation
In a remarkable and almost unprecedented show of foresight, the Skagit County has decided to deal decisively with an issue that has not been dealt with as decisively in our own County. The question is how to preserve farmland, and in the Skagit a huge step toward preservation of farmland and the agricultural community has been taken. The problem is that farmland is being purchased at alarming rates by people of means who have no intention to farm, but who want expansive and relatively inexpensive land on which to build a home and live. The phenomenon has been labeled the creation of "Mac Mansions," on land that was once farmed. With very large and very expensive homes being built on farmland by people who have no interest in farming, the value of the land inflates, as does the value of neighboring properties, and suddenly farms are priced out of the range at which they could be purchased by farmers.
While we in King County have been wringing our hands over the loss the farmland, this is what they have done to preserve farmland in the Skagit: they have not denied anyone the right to buy farmland, or to tear down existing homes and build new ones. But they have passed an ordinance that requires that the farmland be farmed. More significantly, with getting a permit to build a new home the new owners are required to farm the land themselves - they can't just lease the land out for someone else to farm. This may sound pretty radical, maybe even unconstitutional, but it is a move predicated on the belief that land which lies in fertile lowlands that have been traditionally farmed, and that has been designated as "farmland" (as it is in the Skagit, and as it in King County's APDs - Agricultural Production Districts), should be farmed rather than converted to non-agricultural use. It is only now becoming clear to many of us that not farming agricultural land is also a "non-agricultural" use!
I applaud the courage of land-use folks in the Skagit. I hope their strong stand to preserve agriculture will survive the legal challenges that will likely come and that at some point we here in King County will follow their bold example.
4. Next year's Summer Session: sign up now
Most of you know what I'm going to say here, and understand why we are asking you to both commit yourselves now to next year's Summer Session and to make a hundred dollar deposit with your application. So for those of you who already know, please accept this gentle "it's time," and send in your application and deposit for Summer Session 2010 now. For those of you to whom it seems odd to be making application and paying a deposit now for next summer (a reasonable bewilderment), please read on.
When you buy your food at a grocery store, very little is expected from you beyond paying on the way out the door. But being involved in a Community Supported Agriculture project is different. There is more involved. I'm hopeful that each of you in our CSA, both returning members and members new to us this year, recognizes that CSA is as much about a relationship with a farm as it is about food. Relationships are based on mutual interests and values, trust, and commitment. No one, of course, should maintain a relationship that isn't working. But if a relationship is working, then a commitment commensurate to the relationship is a reasonable expectation. In marital relationships we expect a commitment for a lifetime. Don't get nervous - CSA commitments are not quite like that! We know that a number of our members will not rejoin next year, and that for a variety of reasons. But we also know that a majority of you will rejoin.
We have never asked for a commitment of more than one year from our members (although many of you have volunteered a longer commitment). But it seems to us, given the nature of our relationship with our members, that it is not inappropriate to ask for a one year commitment. By committing to the CSA for one year (i.e. making application for 2010 now), you are confirming your support of our farm for another year. By making a $100 deposit, you provide us with the money we need to cover our expenses as we start the next season. This seems reasonable to us, and we hope it does to all of you. If so, and if you are planning to be with us next year, please take a minute, go on-line (http://jubileefarm.org/apps/), and apply for the 2010 Summer Session. Thanks!
5. How much is a share?
While Summer Session isn't over yet (our last week is the last week of this month), I can't help but be a bit reflective about this season. We have had many very good years; I'd like to think that most of our seasons have been "very good." But this year has clearly surpassed our previous "bests," as many of you have noted.
One of the issues we've faced is just how much of the abundance to pass on to our share-holders. We haven't wanted to bury you with produce. For a long time we've tried quite self-consciously to keep the share quantity proportionate to the cost of the shares. But this season, and in light of having such abundance, we've re-thought that a bit. If, and I hate to even mention this possibility, we had a total disaster of a season, obviously each of you, our members, would end up with much smaller shares. That being the case, it seems that this year, with the great harvest we've had, we should "share in the wealth."
I know things haven't been perfect this year, but the only persistent "complaint" we've heard is, "we can't get through all this produce." Obviously, that's not the worst problem we could have! But it is an issue and I'd like to at least say something about it. Some people feel wasteful because they can't eat all of the produce they have been getting. Some people feel frustrated for the same reason.
Our hope is that you can just take it for what it is, and not worry about the excess. Many of you have told us that you've been preserving your shares by canning, freezing or drying. Others have said they've been sharing the wealth with friends and neighbors. Some of you who pick up at the farm have just been taking less than is offered.
I know a lot of us have had it drummed into our heads that "if we paid for it, we should take it, and we should not waste it." But that old adage may conceal a couple of thinly-veiled fallacies. The first is the assumption that we pay for what we get in life. I used to think that, but as I live longer, and reflect more, I've come to recognize that so many of the things in life that I enjoy are really gifts that are just there for the taking. Life itself is a gift that no one has "paid for." So it may not follow that there is a one-to-one entitlement to "possess" to the fullest those things we have been gifted to be able to pay for.
Another fallacy that pops up in our thinking about abundance is a little more controversial, and one that I want to only suggest as a possible way of seeing things. Several of you have said to me that it's hurtful for you to think that not all the produce of the farm is being harvested. I understand this sentiment, but I don't think it can stand up to clear thinking. On a farm that is well-managed, there is no waste. What isn't harvested is simply turned back into the soil. The nutrients that might have fed humans become food for the microbes, which in turn, will enrich the soil so that more food can be grown. That is the way the natural systems of our earth work: if we are good stewards and return to the earth that part of the abundance we don't need, it will do the job of preservation for us. I grant that in situations of poor stewardship, there can be and often is waste; but I don't believe that "returning the unused portion to the point of origin" when it comes to agricultural production is waste.
Here's another thought. One might be tempted to think that we are somehow morally obligated to harvest "excess" (if there is such a thing) crops and distribute them to the poor. This is something I used to always feel, and still do at times. But when I try to think critically about this idea, it doesn't seem to hold up to examination. Yes, we could most certainly harvest the excess of our crops and give them to the poor. But think about what this is asking of the farmer. First, in harvesting excess produce, in "taking" from the land, the farmer must "put back" something. Certainly no one else will! So the farmer must provide fertility to replace what has been taken. On most farms this requires an outlay of cash and time (which is also, in a sense, cash). On our farm, since we are endeavoring to be good stewards and to provide all our own fertility for the farm from the farm itself, that means a lot more time spent in the provision of that fertility. It also takes a lot of time to harvest, clean, box and transport the food. Maybe some people think a farmer's time isn't worth much or anything, but it's hard for us to see it that way!
I think what it really comes down to is that when I or anyone else tells a farmer that he or she is wasting something, we are uncritically singling out the farmer for a charge that could be made against any of us in any occupation. Worse than that, it is saying that farmers, people who as a class earn less than most people in other occupations, have a moral responsibility to feed the poor to a degree that others don't have. As a farmer (and, hopefully, as a critical thinker) I'm not willing to bear that supra-responsibility! Yes, the farmer could certainly work more and pay more to feed the poor; so could anyone. Who couldn't work longer hours, or take a part-time job to make money to buy food for the poor?
I hope no one thinks that I'm just being insensitive to the poor. I think (and hope) that my life has shown otherwise. But I also don't want to feel guilty because I'm not doing what someone else thinks I should do when they themselves could do the same thing (but usually don't). More than that, I find another fallacy lurking here, and that fallacy is that the reason some people don't have food is because there just isn't enough food. Were that the case, the simple solution would be to grow more food. And I know some people (politicians, mostly) who think (or claim to think) that growing more food is the solution to hunger. Such people seem to ignore the fact that this solution has never worked in the past, and that its simplistic idealism fails to recognize the real problem is not the problem of scarcity but the problem of fair and equal distribution. I'm often reminded of Albert Camus' terse judgment that "the worm is in the heart of man." While we may not be able to change the human heart, we could, perhaps, change the legal and political systems that insure that no matter how much abundance there is the wealthy will always directly or indirectly take their larger share from the share of those with less. I know this is a hard thing to say; it's a lot easier to pass the buck (in the form of a moral imperative) on to the farmer!
6. Farm chatter
As the season winds down, and prior to the busyness of October, we have been quietly but assiduously attending to the stewardship of the soil. The huge mounds of compost that spent the summer in heaps behind our house have been, scoop-by-scoop, spread over the fields to nourish next year's crops (and thereby us!). Along with that, as I'm sure you've all noticed, is the green "grass" that is appearing on all the soil throughout the farm that isn't bearing harvestable crops. That "grass" is actually cereal rye, which is the cover crop we are using on most parts of the farm this year.
The reason we've chosen cereal rye for our cover crop is that WSU would like to conduct some no-till research next year, and would like to do a lot of it here. Although most no-till operations in the US use chemicals to kill the cover crop that is then planted through, in organic applications a "crimper" is used to bend and break the cover crop. Certain cover crops - notably cereal rye - will die if crimped at the right time, which obviates the need for the poison. So we've planted rye over all the areas we spread compost this fall, and are looking forward to attempting some no-till crops next year.
The source of our compost, our herd, continues to occupy a great deal of our time. They are like children, who need attention, well, when they need attention. They are hard to put off! But (also like our children) they have become a great joy to me and Wendy. I don't quite know how to explain this, but we both have noticed that the whole farm feels different since we've taken on the herd. Nothing feels more natural than the interplay of animals and crops. That interplay has existed since the dawn of agriculture, and will continue in one way or another on farms of civilizations that will survive in the future.
You can, of course, raise the animals away from the crops, but, again, it just feels (to us) so right to raise them together. It's a sad thing that part of the justification of the separation of animals off of food-production farms has been justified because of the fear of E-Coli. This, as you probably know, is a classic instance of conflating cause and effect. E-Coli is a modern disease - first detected in the early 1980s at the exact time and place where we started raising immense herds of cattle in confinement and feeding them a diet of grains they are not equipped for. It may be that the potential (and/or even the existence) of the virulent strand of E-Coli has always been there, but it has been only with the neutralization of the cow's rumen that occurs through a forced diet of "cow unfriendly" foods provided in modern feed-lots that the fury of virulent E-Coli has been unleashed - a kind of sorcerer's apprentice nightmare. Fortunately, that doesn't happen with cows that eat grass. What a novel solution to a disease introduced by artificial conditions!
It looks like next week the weather will change. We may be coming to an end of our glorious summer. One of the crops that has especially benefited from all that sunshine is peppers. They have gown this year like we've never seen. I hope you've all enjoyed the quality, quantity and variety of peppers we've had this year. Almost every year we trial new varieties, and this year almost every trial was a stunning success. Unfortunately, the cold and rain will bring an end to them, as they are truly heat-lovers (like some of us!). It's sad to see them go, but I know at least some of you have pickled some for winter, and the rest of us have great memories of a great summer.
As always, there is more I'd like to say. But it's somehow gotten to be 6:00 am (on Friday morning) and in just two hours the crew and work shares will be here to harvest - it's time for a quick proof read and then get going.
I know I often say this, but it's only because I sense it so strongly: CSA is really a "revolutionary" way of doing business in the modern world. I would like to thank you all for you all for your willingness to step out of the norm and try something different. We believe it is working well, and hope you do too.
Our best to you all,
Erick and Wendy