It seems that each and every year we farm, there’s this overarching theme that becomes apparent to us at some point during the year.
The first year was the year of backbreaking effort. We knew, on a practical level, that the best farmers farm smarter, not harder. But we were so drained from the physical labor of starting a farm, that we didn’t have much mental space to even think about how to be smart with our time and energy. This meant tons of grueling hard work that actually did result in a back injury for Greg and it was not fun.
The second year was all about the YES. Maybe it was the FOMO (fear of missing out) or just plan optimism. But, we said YES to just about everything and everyone. This meant that we overextended ourselves and took on all sorts things that we didn’t have the time or energy for. To my knowledge, I don’t think that we ever missed a commitment to a customer, but we had to sacrifice somewhere (self care being the first to go) and this, we soon learned, was not ok.
Last year was our third year farming together, and it was definitely the year of fine-tuning. We finished re-building our 200 year old barn (which you can read about here) and invested a lot of energy into improving our systems so that we could farm smarter and be more efficient with our time and energy. This meant cutting some enterprises all together or rethinking how we did the others. All of this was scary, but freeing.
Now, it might be too early to call it. But we think that this year, the theme is perspective. When the farm throws us a curveball now, we have previous experience to help guide us and farm systems to lean on. We have goals for the future and clear plans for how we’re going to get there. And all this means that we’re able to surrender more fully into this work and enjoy the experience of being your farmers more than ever before.
I could never go so far as to say this work is easy. It is, in my estimation, one of the hardest jobs on the planet. But It’s getting easier year after year and we’re grateful for all the lessons we’ve learned along the way. After all, they’ve led us to where we are right now…growing exceptional food and helping families in Rochester eat well… and that literally lights our hearts on fire.
Your Farmers,
Jenney and Greg