Either there are not enough hours in a day, or we just had wayyyy too much work to do! Without our family, friends, and volunteers, I honestly don’t think we would have survived this season! Thank you all for donating your time and energy to this effort. We cannot express our gratitude enough.
THANK YOU!!
This was the first season we were able to hire employees - whoohoo!! Finding consistent dependable workers for a entire season was a challenge. Farm work - really is hard work! And working in the elements is difficult to endure. This is truly a labor of love for those of us who choose to be out there. At the peak of our season, we had lost one employee and the other had limited availability. At this time, we were at our craziest time of year, overworked, overwhelmed, and exhausted.
Again, many thanks to our volunteers, family, and friends for being there and lending us your helping hands ~~~ much love and appreciation to you!!
Volunteer Stuart M, stepped up to fill our need and we were able to employ him for the remainder of the season. To our amazement, he still wanted to count the Wednesday harvest day as his volunteer day, and not as an employee day. Amazing. What a good man and true supporter of this endeavor! We are excited to have Stuart return for the 2008 season! He is a committed dependable workhorse, and we know what a treasure we have in him! ~~Many thanks Stuart!
Crop loss: What happen to our crops?!
Gophers, took 2/3rds of the garlic, some cabbage, carrots, and kohlrabi. We don’t mind sharing, but did the critters have to eat half of one cabbage and half of another? Seriously!
How ’bout those eggplants? What? There was eggplant?! Nay, the eggplant did nada, zilch.
The squash plants were attacked and nearly decimated by cucumber beetles. Amazingly, many of the plants were able to make a recovery and produce plenty. Plants are incredible that way. We were able to pull out a decent crop of cucumbers and summer squash for our members.
The carrots didn’t germinate - still not sure what happen there, but we are buying new seeds for the 2008 season.
At the other end - as our members experienced - the tomatoes, sweet peppers, hot peppers, basil, kale, chard, and apples produced a true - Abundant Harvest. At times, we couldn’t give the stuff away!!
Another challenge is our personal life balance. We are doing what we can to make this a success. Steve has a drive like I’ve never seen! Keeping up with him is near impossible! Steve wakes up, BEFORE first light, usually to do some paperwork and plan for the day. He is on the farm sunup to sundown, 6- usually 7 days a week ~~ though we try to take a half day to ourselves most weekends. I have a full time job, plus a commute, then will go to the farm till sundown with Steve - or go to our home office to do administrative tasks (payroll, AP, AR, newsletter, ect). In the peak of the season, we were usually up til well after midnight. Mmm, that sometimes left us a little cranky and led to our exhaustion! We apologize for those times we were a bit on edge! We already have a plan in place for next season so that we will get much more rest and eat properly!
Getting time in to spend with family, friends, or even each other was difficult. And making time for anything beyond that - exercise, recreation ~~ultimate frisbee for me, yoga and running for Steve~~ was nearly impossible. Though at times, we did manage to make it work.
At the end of the season, we took a much needed vacation.
Where to? Home sweet home. To be home, veg out, watch movies, play games, and spend time together was exactly what we needed. It was awesome and one of the most restful, relaxing, wonderful vacations we’ve ever had!
What we learned in 2007: Clear honest communication is key. We appreciate honest and open communication with our employees, volunteers, partners, members, and each other. We need to hear that our veggies are great…….and if they’re not so great. We will do the same - we’ll let you know when we’re running late, lost a crop, need committed help, are overwhelmed, or share when we’re in a state of euphoria (or exhaustion)!!
We already knew this, but we were reminded that we have incredible, amazing, wonderful family, friends, and members. Thank you all!!
We did have several offers to come out and help us, even if for a couple hours, here and there. Though we usually tried to do the work ourselves. LESSON LEARNED: When they offer help, take it! Turns out, people actually want to spend time working time on the farm and with us. AND, knowing that they are making a huge difference to us, means a lot to them. They hated seeing us exhausted and overworked as much as we didn’t want to be. We are incredible lucky to be surrounded by so many amazing people.
Thank you for being a part of this journey!!
Changes for 2008:
In our appreciation and thanks, we will continue to share our produce, flowers, and herbs with our volunteers. Steve will keep up his special treats of smoothies and Steve-made breads. I will send along sweet breads, sweet treats, and lavender lemonade or ice tea a lot more often.
We will make and keep to a sustainable personal schedule, so that we are able to get enough sleep, food, and time for socializing and play.
Again ! ~~~ Many, many thanks for all your support! We couldn’t do it without you!
The flowers required a lot of time and effort to maintain. We had a difficult time keeping up - but they are totally worth it!
