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 in his field. 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 again 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 for us :)).

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 many 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. Overall, 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 and analyze our production. 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! Thank you no late-May frost!

  • Blackberries went from almost nothing for over 6 years to 50 1/2 pints!!

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

    • 2021 370# (average year)

    • 2022 540# (crazy year- anybody remember those banana leaf-sized leaves?!)

    • 2023 180# (bad year)

    • 2024 110# (ouch- even worse!)

  • 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 (mostly due to too much shade in their field) 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 juicy sum 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 a record 250# in the GH January to April!

    • Right on compared to 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, balance 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!

It keep hearing: it can be this simple just raising my children, growing good food and being in shamanic ceremony!

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! Yay Hannah!

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 farm like ours. We have so much easeful capacity to grow food here after spending 11 years 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 plan to formalize this and do more of that in 2025!

Travis is really enjoying raising animals that need less off-farm inputs 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 egg ducks and maybe lambs!

I don’t know 100% what all these 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 summer CSA by half (40 shares total)- 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