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This is the time of the season that these farmers have to see past their fears.  To trust their instincts and to have faith that through hard work and perseverance it will all work out.  We have twenty members signed up and a little over two months to sign up an addition forty five  members, which we desperately need in order to cover all of our costs.  We sit and ponder, when that rain is falling and the farm chores are complete, how to market, how do we find those forty five CSA customers.  Do we focus our advertising efforts on the blog or social media, do we shake hands in front of food co-ops, do we post craigslist adds or put up flyers?  With a budget of a few hundred dollars the challenge seems insurmountable.  And to take it one step further how do we attract those  members who will incorporate themselves into the community of our farm, who seek refuge on the farm, helping us to weed, harvest or just show up to take in the sun and the beauty of our garden.  We spent the last couple years bending over backwards to get folks to sign up and have come to the realization that we can’t do that anymore.  It just isn’t sustainable for us and it is not the vision we have for the farm.  We have to meet in the middle.

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We want to build a community of people that are passionate about the pursuit; the pursuit of healthy living, healthy food, healthy relationships and healthy conversations over wine at old wooden farm tables.  We want to see families on the farm playing catch with dad and watch children munching on veggies straight from the soil.  All just because their favorite farmer told them that it was delicious and safe.  To watch parents watch their kids eat veggies for the first time and then glance at me like, ‘how did farmer Brian get them to eat that?’  And to see our “lost generation” of young professionals invest their money in a CSA because they want to choose a sustainable lifestyle, to pursue a diet that keeps them energetic and their healthcare costs to a minimum.  We want to attract those folks who take time to do the math.  All of the math.  Folks that realize that the produce we are growing is cost effective.  That it costs about forty bucks a week and it is enough food for three people to share.  That breaks down to thirteen dollars per person per week and the food is fresh, it is harvested just hours before you have it in your home.

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We hope to have the types of members who’ll take the time to understand that their farmer works eighty hours a week and makes $1,500 a month, which equals four dollars and sixty three sense per hour, half of the minimum wage in Oregon.  And we want those people to know that this salary is not a problem because we are happy and we love what we do.  For that we are so grateful, we are living our dream.

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It is the families, the friends, the time we get to spend alone, thoughtfully harvesting our carrots or watching a community of strangers come together to watch ‘Cool Hand Luke’ in the pasture on a hot summers night.  These things are a gift.

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We believe that the CSA business model is sustainable for us and for our community, we have to believe it .  Through this process of learning to be better farmers/small business owners we have come to a new definition of wisdom.  That wisdom is the renewed faith in ones self that leads them to believe they are capable of surmounting all fears that lie ahead.  Now is the time when we choose to believe that we are capable. We believe that small farms are necessary for the health of our communities and our local economy.  And maybe that is just it, maybe community isn’t something that one finds but is built by all of us.

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faithfully yours,

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farmer brian

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