2024 Year End Reflection

Here we are at the end of another abundant, challenging, all-encompassing and life-giving farming season!

This season was SIGNIFICANTLY more easeful than 2023 to say the least! While giving birth to Dortheea in mid-April last year was such a gift of expansion and an opportunity for me to grow (and let go) in so many ways, it was very hard on my body. This year felt like a breath of fresh, more gentle air.

One other reason for this feeling of gentle ease this season, I think, is that Travis’s two-year non-compete was up for work (we made it!) and he could go back to a well paying job mid-summer. This immensely reduced the pressure I felt to make all of our family income from the farm. I felt like I could focus more on being the conscious, intentional farmer and mother I try to be and focused less on worrying about doing everything possible to make us enough money. While it was a fabulous two years of Travis being home full time and caring for our daughters and I wouldn’t trade it for anything, it feels much more spacious to have that off-farm income again. I am so grateful we had the opportunity to give it a go as we had planned on for years, I am happy to have tried and I am just as happy to let it go :)

Since Travis went back to work in mid-June, I became the primary caregiver for our daughters while ALSO managing the farm organism and 2 employees, including our new apprentice, Calvin (yay Calvin!). Thankfully, Hannah was willing and able to do the majority of Calvin’s training (THANK YOU HANNAH!) and I made it work doing as much as I could around the farm with Dortheea on my back and Tillee by my side (see some photos below of what that looks like :)).

Overall, the weather was quite nice and gentle as well with NO late May frost after 3 years running of that, thank Goddess. I really do not have any complaints about the weather this year. I didn’t have to irrigate too much, it wasn’t too cold, it wasn’t too wet, there were no air quality issues. A lovely year, weather-wise.

From a production standpoint, we put in an astounding 25-30% more value in the CSA shares than what folks paid for! WOW! That is actually probably too much but we literally had so much!

2024 Highlights:

Harvest Log Fun Facts:

We write down the weight of every-single-thing that we harvest so we can add it all up at the end of the season. This year we produced almost 24,000 pounds of produce on just under 1 acre!

Here are some interesting notes (in pounds or #) from the harvest log analysis:

  • Apples went from 200# in 2023 to 1200# in 2024!

  • Blackberries went from almost nothing to 50 1/2 pints!!

  • Interesting chard numbers: we plant the same 1 bed worth every year:

    • 2021 370# (average year)

    • 2022 540# (crazy year!)

    • 2023 180# (bad year)

    • 2024 110# (ouch!)

  • We had 185# more Brussels sprouts this year from 1 bed!

  • Root crops like beets and carrots were way down, for obvious reasons: we didn't plant much of them as we are not at a great farm scale for doing these crops well.

  • It was a really good year for big brassicas like broccoli and cauliflower but a pretty bad kale year (500# down from 2023 but still definitely better than a really bad 2022!)

  • It was an absolutely horrible hot pepper and snack pepper year but we produced 400# more ripe sweet peppers than last year (this compares only to 2019 which was also a really good ripe pepper year).

  • Winter squash was down 1500# this year! Not surprising but I remember feeling like 2023 was really bad and this year was even worse...

  • Tomatoes overall:

    • Greenhouse cherry tomato production was similar to 2023 with 2 more beds in cherry tomatoes but missed out on 600# of slicers we got in 2023 out of those 2 beds... are slicing tomatoes more productive in that space?!

    • High tunnel tomatoes increased 400# with a total of 1700# of heirloom tomatoes!

    • Field tomatoes had a much better year without a late May frost: hybrid tomatoes up 400# but heirlooms were similar... can heirloom tomatoes withstand lower temps better than hybrids or is there something else going on?

  • Lettuce/mesclun mix notes:

    • We produced over 250# in the GH!

    • Right on as the last couple of years with about 1300# from the field

What’s in store for 2025?

As I move more into motherhood, I am feeling the desire to integrate and harmonize my life work even more: mothering, farming and shamanic work. To bring together and express these parts of my life more fluidly, usefully and with less tension between them. Because I love all of these work-joys of my life!

This means that I know I need to shift some things on the farm to make space for my other work like teaching and bringing in our next child. This feels especially pertinent as my right-hand woman, Hannah, is moving on to start her OWN farm next spring! YayHannah!

I really love CSA and will continue to hold that as the heart of our farm, even if it’s much less than in previous years. I also really love working with our dedicated chefs that are committed to buying local and working with a farmer like me. We have so much capacity to grow food here after spending over a decade building my business and my relationship with our Land.

I REALLY enjoyed bringing moms and kids on the farm each week for our Tribal Mamas worker share mornings this summer. It felt really ancestrally-aligned and connecting and I would love to do more of that in the future!

Travis is really enjoying raising animals that need less off-farm inputs like organic feed and eat mostly grass/forage. We are LOVING raising geese and looking to expand that for next year. We also want to try a few lambs!

I don’t know 100% what any changes might look like in the physical world for the farm but I do know that it’s best to following the cycles of the seasons. Right now is the time for going deep into reflection and holding space for what we need as a family and what I am being guided to do in the world. I am working on setting a clear intention this winter of where I would like to go with the farm and my other life works while the spring will be the time of manifestation. I am holding space for the possibility of the spring bringing clarity and an awakening of these changes into the world!

The one thing I know is that I do plan to down size our CSA- so if you know you for sure want to sign up in 2025, please get on my wait list here.

Thank you all for being a part of this community!
Farmer Beth

The crew at the end of the summer CSA season! From left: Hannah, Beth, Dortheea, Tillee and Calvin

Dortheea’s first summer CSA share photo this year at 14 months!

Remembering Tillee helping with CSA in 2020 at 21 months!

Most day’s looked like this: Dortheea boppin’ along on my back!

Oftentimes Tillee would join us working in the field! She is truly becoming quite helpful.

Bethanee WrightComment