I started this farm seven years ago to follow my passion for growing and eating high-quality, nutrient-dense, sustainably and organically grown food. I was ignited by doing something, just one thing, with my life that could help shift the world around me in a small way. CSA farming was it (and it still is). That was the work that I wanted to do with my life to help reduce my impact and my farm members impact on the Earth, to live authentically and passionately. But most importantly, I was and still am passionate about re-connecting people to the Land: eating with the seasons, intimating knowing where their vegetables come from and deepening their relationship with the Earth, here and now. Given everything that is happening in the world today, this work feels more important than ever.

At the time, I knew that this life would be physically and mentally challenging, yet fulfilling. Farming has alwaysbeen hard and I also believe I am farming in one of the easiesttimes in all of human history. Ease of access to fuel, equipment, customers and relatively stable pricing is astounding compared to what our ancestors dealt with. Just one gallon of diesel holds the equivalent of 29,000 calories of human labor!

What I didn’t know seven years ago was how spiritually and psychologically challenging this farming life would be. Sure, farming does have a high rate of suicide and the lack of control you have over so many things is astounding and maddening sometimes. But I wouldn’t have guessed that the biggest stressor I feel most often is weather related.

I’ve always known that climate change is the only trueconstant on Planet Earth. Our Earth’s history has been one huge, ever-changing mass of star dust. Our history as humans has been TINY compared to what the Earth has been through. I will not extrapolate my anecdotal experiences and apply them to the whole, living, breathing being we call Earth. And yet, the last few seasons of farming, I have been wondering: what is happening?

I won’t list all the numbers and statistics about how we perhaps have irrevocably changed the climate. I can’t hear or read another thing that says how screwed we all are. I will not espouse “eco-anxiety.” I also am not arrogant enough to think we have it all figured out; that we understand the science; or even that our science is correct or 100% accurate. All I know, deep in my bones, is that the Earth will continue to do her thing. And her thing, well, it’s constant change and constant rebalancing.

So what is a CSA farmer to do? How am I mitigating, adapting and creating more resiliency here at Winterfell Acres?

1) My Pledge to my Farm Members

The majority of vegetables that Americans consume is industrially-produced by verylarge farms. These production methods deliver cheap and consistent product for global commodity markets, while exploiting labor, degrading ecosystems and destroying small and mid-sized farms. Most CSA farms are different and, like I mentioned above, one of the main reasons I started farming was to grow sustainably and to deliver high quality produce to a community of conscious farm members who believe in what I do.

So here’s what I promise to my CSA members:

· You will receive a great diversity of organic, well-grown, nutrient-dense produce. I might not know 100% what will be in your share until the morning I harvest. It might be perfect and blemish-free like what you see in the stores. But you know that everything in your share will be well grown and healthy for you and the Land.

· I will continue to put a lot of energy, love and intention into the produce that I grow. I touch and care for each plant 10 or more times between seeding, planting, weeding, harvesting and packing into your share. I know you will be able to tell.

· Transparency. I will always let my farm members know when something is going well or when something isn’t going well. This is a core piece of CSA farming that I take very seriously. You will know if there’s been a crop failure or if a spring seeding got washed out.

2) Continued Reliance on Farm Member Flexibility

CSA is all about shared risk and shared bounty. Some years we have great tomatoes due to dry, warm weather; some years we have no fall spinach due to unending rains. And as the climate continues to shift, I anticipate needing to rely on my CSA farm member’s goodwill and flexibility to ensure that I continue to be the best caretaker of our Land. That might mean some crops need to cut out of the rotation or I need to scale back a field that is consistently wet. My farm CSA member handbook outlines this in depth.

3) Continuing Efficient and Sustainable Production

o We grew 22,500 pounds of food and 114 CSA shares on just 1 acre in 2019! My plan for 2020 is for similar yield goals per acre. One of the main reasons I can grow this efficiently is because I rely very strategically on my tractor and utilize human labor for everything else. I cultivate by hand, not by tractor, so I can plant more densely. I lay plastic with my tractor and plant cover crop in the aisles so I never have to weed those plants or the aisles. I use a hand-scale paper pot transplanter instead of a tractor-mounted water wheel transplanter for less soil compaction. I use landscape fabric for all my vining crops so I only have to till once and never once have to weed those plots. These are just a few examples of my style of efficient vegetable production.

o Speaking of efficiency. Last fall, I decided to calculate my calorie input to output ratio. I was appalled to learn that with industrial agriculture, it takes 15 calories to produce just 1 calorie of food. But I’ve also heard the argument that local ag isn’t as efficient as industrial, larger scale growing. So I wanted to find out: how efficient is my farm anyways? Between the farm’s electricity usage, propane for the greenhouse, tractor diesel and mileage for delivery, I am proud to say that Winterfell has a 3:1 calorie production ratio! For every calorie of food produced, it takes only 3 calories to produce it. I’d love to continue to get that even lower.

o Speaking of emissions. As I was thinking and calculating our farm’s caloric efficiency, another number kept popping up in my research: carbon emissions.This is frankly, nothing I have ever thought of before but it is vitally important when taking in the whole of the farm’s impact on the Earth and climate. How much CO2 is the farm emitting yearly? Well nearly 12 tons (or 24,000 pounds) per year! At first that seemed like a lot but then I looked up the average Americans total yearly emissions of CO2 and it’s DOUBLE. The average one American emits double what my small farm emits… That’s staggering and frankly, it made me feel a bit better about it. I’d love to work towards total carbon neutrality for the farm. In order to do that I would have to plant something like 500 trees per year which we don’t have room for on our land. I could also try to calculate how much CO2 I am sequestering in my soil but the easier option I am looking at is purchasing carbon offsets from a reputable nonprofit.

o There are also lots of other growing techniques that I utilize to reduce the farm’s impact:

- Vigilant winter soil coverage, cover cropping and soil amending with compost and organic soil amendments (soil science nerd here!).

-Erosion and other water controls:

· I have phased out 2 plots due to constant water issues.

· I rely almost exclusively on drip irrigation which uses less water than overhead. When I do use overhead, it is small wobblers that don’t over saturate and are easy to move around the farm when needed

· We hired our excavator to build us a berms to reduce water flow from the house and pack shed, divert it from going into my fields and let it flow through a grassy swale into a newly established wetland area.

- High tunnel growing: 100% no till and very high yield per square foot.

- My yearly crop rotation allows for this:

· 1/3 of my plots in plastic with living white clover walkways

· 1/3 of my plots in cover crop no-till techniques

· 1/3 of my plots in regular tillage

The whole farm was my vision seven years ago. Today, my vision is still the whole farm but with a deepening into remembering that we are all part of the Earth and the Land we live on. We are not separate; we are interconnected and we are important. My goal is to truly live that vision and help others connect with the Land and their food in a deeper, more meaningful way. Thank you for reading and supporting this small farm.

Love,

Farmer Beth

Climate Resiliency and the Veggies in Your Box

follow Winterfell Acres on instagram

Powered by Squarespace