Farm share, week 20

[magid]

From this week’s email from the farmer:

2025 has been a good growing season! Until this year our farm was about the same size for ten years, and any growth in output was mostly going towards extra food bank donations and increasing the number of free senior farm shares in Springfield. But last year I realized that to be sustainable the business really had to get about 10-15% bigger (and then ideally stay there). So in the spring we made a big push to go from 335 total summer shares in 2024 to 375 shares in 2025, which we accomplished thanks to help from current members in spreading the word!

This extra income allowed us to also increase the amount of food we donate to food pantries every week, and up the number of free senior shares. This year we also expanded the amount of land that we're growing on at the Porter-Phelps Museum, which allowed us to up the number of acres that we're sharing for free with the Somali refugees collective.

The point of all this is that in 2025 we grew the most produce we've ever grown, sold the most, donated the most, shared the most land with other farmers, and raised wages for Stone Soup employees to the highest they've ever been. So it was a good year all around! The only thing that's really bugging me is that there weren't a lot of ripe sweet peppers which are one of my favorite crops. But there's always next year, and I've got some ideas for how to do those better in 2026…

I’ve signed up for the winter share, which is 11 distributions that are mostly every two weeks, except the first two are back to back, and there’s a gap at the end of December for the obvious reason.

• 4 pounds of sweet potatoes
  
• 4 pounds of starburst purple daikon
  
• 1.5 pounds of spinach
  
• 2 medium-small heads of cabbage
  
• 2 bunches of kale
  
• 3 pounds of carrots carrots
  
• 4 medium-small yellow onions
  
• 6 heads of garlic
  
• 4 tiny heads of cauliflower
  
• 1 pound of mixed salad greens
  
• take-what-you-want herbs and hot peppers (I took some parsley)

First thoughts: this is not nearly enough onions for a couple of dishes, much less a week; maybe I’ll get more from tomorrow’s farmers’ market near work. Lemon-tahini kale salad with sunflower seeds. Cabbage-carrot slaw, or roasted cabbage. Carrot-daikon slaw (or maybe a ferment, though there’s really not enough room for more jars in the fridge unless I finish some other things off). Sweet potatoes and spinach with something spicy (hot sauce, sausage, berbere seasoning, etc). Roasted garlic. Roasted cauliflower. Sauted spinach and garlic (possibly to freeze for later).

Comments

[cellio]

Congrats and kudos to your CSA. That sounds like great progress on all fronts!

[magid]

I hadn’t realized how much this farm does until I read this email with all the details in one place; I’m really glad I have the chance to support them.