Looking back
Another season has come and gone here at Appleton
farms. I feel, as I do at the end of
each season, that we have made so much forward progress this year as a farm and
as farmers although not without some growing pains along the way. This was another tremendous learning year for
us. We welcomed almost 100 new members
who joined us from the Moraine Farm CSA. What a fantastic group of people! We also expanded our acreage by growing
vegetables on the Moraine fields. Working
out the logistics of farming in two places at once and the last minute
re-budgeting that accompanied this process sometimes drove the sleep from our
eyes and left our heads pounding but, at the end of the season, I’m proud and
pleased with what we have been able to accomplish this year.
Above and beyond the added production demands we achieved
this season, the Appleton CSA can boast that we have an experienced crew of
dedicated and passionate farmers working to keep the share room full of
seasonal goodness. I am overwhelmed by
the hard work and commitment to our mission that I see from our young farmers. In all kinds of weather, through pestilence
and drought, through good days and bad
As part of our continuing efforts to improve our soil
structure and fertility, we were able to fallow one of our fields for the
entire year. This is the first time in
many years that we have been able to manage a year long fallow. Even more exciting, we were able to coordinate
with the dairy team and graze the cows on the cover crop growing in this
field! By mimicing the ecology of a natural
plain or meadow we hope to see compounding benefits to our soil structure,
biology and fertility. While managing
animals within a crop rotation poses new and interesting restrictions on how
and when we can use a field to grow vegetables (think food safety) the chance
to improve our cultural practices has been well worth the challenge.
“Farming in a changing climate” was the theme of a
conference I attended this past winter and it seems to have been a defining
theme in our season as well. We have
borne witness to a season of extremes. A
late winter, an erratic spring and a long, hot and very dry summer challenged
our carefully laid plans. Some crops
flourished under these conditions and some languished. For me the failures have been equal measures
humbling and educational. By taking the
lessons of this season into the next we hope to construct plans of greater
resilience to manage Appleton Farm in this changing climate. We hope also that our CSA members can bare
the cost of our lessons with rueful good humor.
But instead of dwelling on our disappointment I would like
to innumerate and reflect on a few of our triumphs from this season. We were able to consistently provide a
variety of share room staples. Beets,
cabbage, carrots, chard, kale and onions are a few prime examples of “staple”
vegetables that had an increased presence in the share this season as compared
to last. We also introduced over a dozen
new vegetable varieties to the share room and pick your own fields this season:
that is added, not replaced! Many of our
crops performed as well or better than we had hoped but a few stood out as
exceptional. Slicing cucumbers for
example were far more abundant than in years past and the quality was much
improved from last season. The greater
care and attention we paid to our eggplant was rewarded with a true bumper crop. Although we only planted 2 experimental beds
of Sun Jewel melons (just enough for our CSA members to try as it turned out),
we were blown away by the sweetness, texture and “Wow” factor of this new comer. I was unreasonably proud of our spring
spinach and broccoli, both of which we were able to offer without the usual
limits. Both our direct seeding schedule
and our cultivation schedule were executed with great precision this season
which resulted in higher quality greens and PYO crops, a smoother transition
between successions and fewer weeds reaching maturity!
The successful growth at Appleton has a created a positive ripple
effect beyond the impact in the CSA program.
This was a season of building and strengthening our relationships within
the community. Working with local food
access organizations we were able to donate nearly twice as much food towards
hunger relief this season compared to last season; over 10 thousand pounds! Working with other local farmers to help
supply our CSA we were able to address weaknesses in our own farming methods
while simultaneously quickening the local farm economy. The Appleton CSA also gave back to the
farming community through sharing our equipment, resources and labor with over
half a dozen other small farms this season.
We have been very active in the pursuit of our goals to become leaders
in food access and local agriculture.
Looking forward
We still have so much work to do in order to build on the
successes of this season and address our short
comings. Even as this season winds down I have been a
part of so many exciting conversations about where we want to go next season
and well beyond. The winter is the time
to engineer our grand designs and for the farmer these are days of boundless
optimism. I’d like to share some of this
optimism with those of you reading.
Hopefully all of our CSA members have received a link to the
CSA renewal web page at this point.
Online renewals are live and running smoothly. If you have taken the chance to check out the
renewal page you have probably noticed that the cost of CSA membership is
staying the same while we are moving from 22 weeks to 20 weeks of CSA
distribution next season. Appleton CSA
share prices have stayed steady for the past 4 years and we decided to reduce
the number of distribution weeks in lieu of hiking the upfront cost of a share.
This change makes the Appleton CSA share
consistent with the other Trustees CSA programs throughout the state. Beginning next season, we will NOT be reducing the amount of fall
crops we plan to grow or harvest for the CSA!
Instead these crops (squash, onions, cauliflower, carrots and all
the rest) will be offered in the same quantities over a shorter span of
time. Effectively this should allow us
to reduce or eliminate limits on the more popular fall crops and distribute them
all over fewer weeks.
Appleton Farms CSA will
end the last week in October.
We are very excited by the opportunities opened up by ending
our Summer CSA season a little sooner.
Although this was a fantastic season at Appleton it wasn’t
by any means a perfect year. From
production, to communication and shareholder experience, we are looking for
ways to elevate our level of excellence next year. Getting a little better at everything we can
is ever our goal but we need your help to make it happen. We have a few great ideas for how to improve
the CSA from a farming and business perspective next season but we need the
voice of our members to guide and shape our decisions. CSA members should have received our season
wrap up email at the beginning of this week.
Within the body of that message is a link to an end of the year
survey. Please tell us what you thought
about this past
Ryan
