2023 Year End Reflection
And thus concludes my 10th season running my own CSA farm! I still want to pinch myself every time I say that.
And wow. Wow, I am tired; that is what I can say about 2023. I know we didn’t set out to have a baby in the spring AND have this be our first year trying to make all our income from the farm but wow, it just happened and it was hard! Beautiful and hard! I can truly say my life has never felt SO full. I am so incredibly grateful for my amazing employees (Julie and Hannah), my husband (Travis) and my parents (Jim and Wendee) for helping me keep the farm afloat! I finally feel like I am coming up for air during this slower time of year and I feel in love with all that I see around me.
Now that I am 10 years in, I really feel like I am honing my growing skills and what works on our Land and what doesn’t. There are a lot of crops that grow really well on our Land and a few that just don’t. I feel like I am surrendering even more into “allowing” that to be okay. Like, we grow some darn good lettuce and tomatoes in our beautiful, sandy soil. Broccoli and carrots, not so much. As much as I have tried over the years, I cannot grow the perfect CSA box for everyone- there are just so many factor at play. I know and trust that our CSA families who love what we do continue to keep getting their organic veggies from us.
I could literally just copy and paste this from 2022: From a production standpoint, it was a very challenging year. The spring came in fits and starts (this was the THIRD year in a row that we had late May frosts after warm early springs) but we really saw a steep drop in tomato production because of the drought. It was really dry (again third year in a row) which meant I had to irrigate every week which has brought it’s own challenges with our soil pH due to our alkaline water, our naturally higher pH soil to begin with and lack of natural rain water for soil profile flushing. But the good news is that we were able to fill all CSA shares with at least 8-16% more in value than what folks paid for- more than last year! My goal every year is to fill those CSA shares to their value and we haven’t missed a year yet!
2023 Highlights:
We grew over 30,000# of produce on just 1 acre for 120+ summer CSA members and local restaurants/schools/businesses for 12 months of the year.
Our second child was born at home on April 12th: Dortheea Sage is a delight!
We got a new farm puppy, Joiya!
We literally couldn’t pick all the berries this year! See why in the photo :)
Hannah graduated from the WI organic vegetable farm manager apprenticeship program on our farm!
The Land gifted us with peaches again!
I figured out how to reels on Instagram ;)
Crops that did well:
Beets: I am in love with our fall beet crop this year; they are so creamy and sweet and earthy and huge. Beets might be one of my favorites from this year. Our harvest was up 400# from previous years!
Blueberries: we literally couldn’t pick all the blueberries this year but we were still up 100# from 2022!
Greenhouse: I am proud to have fine tuned our greenhouse production this year, even with giving birth to Dortheea in April! I think we are starting to figure out what works best in the zone 9 growing space and when it makes sense to pull a crop that is no longer as productive. We upped our total yield in the space by 1000#!
Kale: 2022 was a sad year for the kale with very low yields but 2023 was crazy: we harvested over 700# more kale this year! Very happy plants :)
Leeks: we called them “the never-ending bed of leeks” because it felt like no matter how many times we harvested from those beds, they just kept producing! While we had our best crop ever in 2022, we produced 300# more this year!
Crops that didn’t do well:
Chard: we grow the same amount of chard every year: 1 bed 100’ long. 2021 was what I would consider a normal year of 370# of production. 2022 was a CRAZY year with 540# that we harvested (do you remember the palm tree-sized leaves?!). 2023 was very poor at only 180#! This is a great example of how many variables there are in organic farming: weather, pests, soil quality, rain (or lack of it) and more! My guess is the biggest factor this year was the drought- chard just loves more water!
Field Tomatoes: we had good increases in the greenhouse and high tunnel tomatoes but the field tomato production was down 575# this year! My best guess is threefold: 1) the drought 2) a powdery mildew issue we had in the greenhouse that transferred to the field 3) we had a late May frost which I wasn’t expecting, nor was I prepared to emergency row cover (given that I was 6 weeks postpartum) even if the forecast warranted it. They were not happy tomatoes in the field this year.
Peppers: I was surprised to see that the pepper production was essentially the same as 2022 which was perplexing to me given that the peppers were just as affected by the late frost and drought as the field tomatoes. It looks like we harvested way more green peppers this year which made up for the reduction in ripe peppers.
Sweet corn: I love corn, it’s a very sacred plant but it’s not financially profitable at our very small scale (24x100’ plot). I essentially grow enough just for the CSA. This spring was very challenging to keep up with the weeds since I was postpartum and the corn was one that we had to just let go.
What’s in store for 2024?
I feel myself maturing as a grower (and a human!) and settling into this new phase of my life: motherhood while farming! This is a delicate and interesting balance and is something I have struggled with since my first growing season with Tillee in 2019. The farm was five years old before Tillee was born and I gave it ALL of my energy and love. Once I had Tillee, that needed some adjustments. And now, with Dortheea too, I have had to settle into even more adjustments about my priorities. If you had asked me 5 years ago if I would scale back the farm to be a mother, I would have laughed at you and said no, I will do it all! But motherhood changes and expands you in amazing ways; motherhood has made me realize farming IS also a form of motherhood, of tending and caring. Parenting and farming are not that different and I am feeling into that for 2024. I don’t know what that will look like but I am open and curious. I will always grow food, as long as I am able; the question is more “at what scale”?
Right now, we plan to have Travis take some contract work (once his 2 year non-compete is up next summer) and I want reduce the CSA to about 70 families (about half). I have already hired a new apprentice for the next two year cycle (yay Calvin!) and Hannah will be back as manager as her and her fiance work to find the Land and farm that is calling them. Julie is moving on to new things and places so we send her a hearty thank you and love for all her work here the last 3 years.
This 10 year mark feels significant and an opportunity to asses what I want the next 10 years to look like! For me, I know that means family, another baby hopefully, growing good food and maybe beginning our homeschooling journey.
Thank you for being a part of our farm. I love this work!
Farmer Beth
