Thanks and More Thanks

This is it, the last weekly blog post as your farmer. My head and heart are swirling with emotion, which will likely continue to unfold for months and years to come.

The 2018 Crew. Kneeling: Ryna, Sophon, Jonnah, Standing: Sid, Jesse, Barb, Eric, Abby, David , Ning, Yun.

We didn’t do this on our own! We had the idea and initiative, but it takes a whole community! Thank You to our CSA community for the support you have provided for 24 years. A very special Thank You to those of you who have been with us for all or most of these 24 years. You had the confidence in us and in the concept. You hung in there with us as we figured it out, made mistakes, went through growing pains and in turn we used your feedback to direct change and make improvements.

Thank You to our worker shares! Hundreds of you have given your time to join us in the fields and packing shed as we tackled every hot, cold, dirty, sweaty, repetitive task. You gave it your all, you were valuable crew to the farm and we got to know each other. This farm’s labor force was built on the Worker Share program.

Thank You to our site hosts! You have very generously opened your homes and have been an integral part of this movement. You have shown patience and humor and persevered as you made phone calls, helped families and went out of your way to make sure everyone got what they needed. Particular thanks to Joe Schmitt, in addition to being a site host for 24 years, he was instrumental in helping launch the farm with his wealth of growing knowledge.

Thank You to the Cambodian crew who has been with us for 15 years! You have been the consistent work force on this farm. We value your dedication to our farm and our family. You made us feel part of the Cambodian community in Dane County.

But most of all, THANK YOU TO OUR CHILDREN. How could we ever have imagined when we started this farm, when you were in grade school and middle school, that you, along with us, would become the backbone of this CSA? We had the crazy idea to move you from your comfortable east side neighborhood to a farm! We worked day and night and weekends and felt as if we had precious little time to spend with you. But in return, you embraced what we were doing and decided to do it with us! Jesse, thank you for your proficiency with equipment and field techniques as you worked with your dad and most recently amazing crew leadership as you worked along with your mom. Thanks for carrying on the seed potato business. Eric, thank you for your attention to detail and packing shed processes which have allowed deliveries to go out smoothly week after week. Becky, thank you for the delicious and nutritious lunches you prepared for the crews and your time spent in the packing shed. Jonnah, thank you for taking over the office duties, communicating so well with members and taking our farm into the age of computers. Thanks to each of you for spending hours brainstorming and discussing ideas and concepts to move this farm forward. I know it has not always been easy working day after day with family, so thank you from the bottom of our hearts!

With heartfelt joy and gratitude,

Barb and David

 

Potato Time of Year

We grow a lot of potatoes. We dedicated nine acres to potatoes this year, more than any other vegetable we grow on the farm. In addition to growing spuds for our CSA shares, we also produce potato seed for other farmers. Our seed is double certified – certified organic and certified disease free by the Wisconsin Seed Potato Certification Program. During this busy week of CSA harvest, David, Jesse and Eric spent a great deal of each work day harvesting potatoes from our land in Arena, near the Wisconsin River. We’ve been waiting for this dry weather to be able to access the fields with our tractors. There was still a fair amount of mud and Jesse managed to get a tractor stuck. Luckily we use two tractors in the harvest process so David was able to tow him out with the other tractor. The guys brought in French Fingerling, Carola, Peter Wilcox, Goldrush Russet, and Magic Molly varieties this week and the potato cooler is getting pretty full. When the entire harvest is done we will be storing over 200,000 pounds of potatoes on this farm through winter and spring. If you ask any of us what our favorite vegetables are, potato is pretty high on the list, usually number one.

~Jonnah

David and Jesse drive tractors side by side and Eric pulls debris off of the potato digger.

A dewy morning in the potato field.

Jesse hauls crates of dropped potatoes out of the field.

The potato digger drops potatoes into the potato wagon.

Potatoes get dug then ride up a belt. Dirt and stems get separated from the potatoes.

Eric, Jesse, and Yun empty the potato wagon into bulk bins to be trucked back to the farm.

Dream Lens Media photography

 

A Good Week to Be a Vegetable Farmer

After a week of intense heat, humidity, and mosquitoes, we were all very happy to work these past few days. We had a busy schedule of harvest for the Spring Season shares and early summer planting continues. In weather like this, everyone is eager to be outside and work seems to get done faster. Yesterday morning we had a short thunderstorm that sent us running for the packing shed only to get back out into the field 20 minutes later. It’s hard not to love your work during weeks like this.

Jonnah

Morning spinach harvest before the sun gets high in the sky.

Barb walking crates of spinach out of the field.

A beautiful stand of scallions. Pulling these out of the ground is one of my favorite jobs on the farm!

Jesse counting as Jon harvests.

Jesse and Barb, son and mother, figuring out the best way to remove the row cover.

Fresh garlic harvest. The smell of garlic was so amazing while we were pulling it up!

 

Ready, Set, Transplant!

Summer really feels like it has started for me once we start putting tomatoes in the ground outside. Yesterday we planted 3024 tomatoes along with 7496 peppers, melons, and cucumber plants! All of those thousands of seeds that were sown on chilly spring days in the potting shed are finally strong enough to grow independently out in the real world. With the massive amounts of rain that southern Wisconsin has seen the past few weeks, our field planting got behind and now we we’re playing catch up. No one is leaving on Friday until everything is in the ground! – those were the words of the big boss, David.

May is an exhilarating month on the farm. We are in full swing with the Spring Season CSA harvest while managing the frenzy of transplants that need to be put in the ground for summer deliveries. Both are equally important and need our full attention. Thursdays are devoted to the CSA delivery but guess what we’re doing tomorrow? Transplanting. We will finish out the week with sweet corn, eggplant, broccoli, Brussel’s sprouts, and popcorn for a total of 25,354 plants in the ground over three days. I hope you’re hungry for summer vegetables – if you aren’t signed up for the Bounty Season Share they’re still available!

Bounty Season July 19 – October 18 – send us an email to join! farm@vermontvalley.com

~Jonnah

Jonnah pauses to capture a picture of what is behind her as she works on the waterwheel transplanter. She sits on a black plastic seat and has all of the tomato plants in front of her. The water wheel pokes holes into the plastic at a determined distance and water flows into the wheel and then into the hole for the plant. 

David adjusting the seat on the transplanter before we lay out a couple thousand plants.

Locked and loaded for high speed transplanting.

Raised beds with plastic mulch covering drip tape irrigation. We use straw mulch in between rows to control weeds in the entire garden.

 

Get Outside, Eat Local Food

Bikers gathering around to each lunch at Vermont Valley during a previous bike tour.

Some would say that September is the best month for local vegetables in Wisconsin. And it’s undeniable that September is the the best month for being outside enjoying the cooler temperatures and high likelihood of dry, sunny weather. This time of year we are still getting mountains of tomatoes and other summer vegetables and are welcoming in the fall crops that warm our bellies like winter squash and leafy greens.

This month we are donating our vegetables to two great events that will tie together local food with outdoor recreation in a community adventure setting. FairShare CSA Coalition’s 11th Annual Bike the Barns event and Ice Age Trail Alliance Hike and Farm-to-Table Dinner are coming up on back-to-back weekends. Both events feature locally produced food prepared by top Madison Chefs in a beautiful natural settings.

Bike the Barns – September 17
Registration/Tickets and Information
All ages welcome
This is an opportunity to tour several Dane County Farms (not Vermont Valley this year) on your bike while sampling the best that the season has to offer. The best part is that the proceeds go to the Partner Shares Program, which subsidizes CSA shares for lower-income families. In addition to the bike tour, FairShare has also organized a bus tour. So you can participate in the entire experience without committing to the miles on the bike.

Bike Tour:

• Short Route: ~28 miles; Short route riders start at 11 AM
• Medium Route: ~58 miles; Medium route riders start at 10 AM
• Long Route: ~78 miles; Long route riders start at 9 AM
• Bus Option: Depart Lake Farm Park at 10 AM & return ~ 4 PM

Bus Tour:
Join us for this unique, first-time event! Registration for this interactive bus tour includes all meals, farm tours and activities at three farms, and bus transportation. Tour Itinerary (*exact farm times subject to change, but start and end times are finalized)

• 9:30 am: Meet at Lake Farm Park in Madison
• 10 am: Depart for bus tour!
• 10:30 am: Winterfell Acres – Local snack, farm tour & demo
• 12 pm: Raleigh’s Hillside Farm – Farm to table lunch, interactive activities & tour
• 2:15 pm: Vitruvian Farms – Local snack, tour & foodie activities
• 3:30 pm: Enjoy the After Party at Lake Farm Park
  

Both bike and bus tours include fun food & farm-related workshops and activities.

• A crash course in making farm-fresh cocktails with J. Henry & Sons Bourbon
• Cider press demonstration, courtesy of Brix Cider, at Winterfell Acres
• Smoothie-making with a bike blender
• Veggie-themed mural painting at Raleigh’s Hillside Farm
• Taste of organic presentation by Purple Cow Organics
• Behind-the-scenes tours of several community supported agriculture (CSA) farms

Beautiful wooded trails and wide open prairie will be the backdrop for a lovely September farm-to-table dinner

Ice Age Trail Alliance Hike and Farm-to-Table Dinner – September 23

Tickets and Information

Women and girls of all ages welcome

Ice Age Trail Alliance teamed up with REI to present a series for events throughout the year focused on empowering women on the trail through the REI Force of Nature campaign. The kick-off dinner, on September 23rd, will be a great time to learn about the Ice Age Trail and meet other women who are passionate about outdoor recreation. The group of women and girls will hike a 2 mile section of the Ice Age Trail Table Bluff Segment in Cross Plains to get to the beautiful event location. Executive sous chef, Jamie Hoang of Sujeo, will be preparing a post-hike dinner with produce from Vermont Valley and meat sourced from StoneHaus Farm.

• 3:00 p.m. Arrive & Check-in
• 3:30 p.m. Hike beautiful Table Bluff Segment (guided hike)
• 5:00 p.m. Welcome and introduction of Chef and farm-to-table partners
• 5:30 p.m. Dinner
• 6:00 p.m. A brief introduction to the Ice Age Trail & upcoming Trailtessa events
• 7:30 p.m. Evening wraps up

We hope you come out to celebrate these wonderful events alongside the local producers and national partners that make them possible. September is a time for soaking in all that season has to offer before the growing season tapers off while experiencing our farms and natural areas in one of the best times of the year.

Jonnah

 

Tomato Time of Year

August into September is all about tomatoes. I look forward to the tomato rush all year, which is good because we can’t escape it. Our workdays, weekends, and meals are based on tomatoes. To be honest, there are some vegetables I grow tired of, but tomatoes are not one of them. With the broad spectrum of colors and textures of tomatoes we grow, I am fully engaged from first blush until the first frost takes them down. Then I am left with a bit of sadness in my tomato loving heart.

Tomatoes are harvested Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, we wash and count tomatoes two ways a week, and we hold tomato u-pick events for our CSA members on the weekend. That’s five days a week of tomatoes! To further our passion for tomatoes, we work with a seed breeder from Johnny’s Selected Seeds, Emily Haga a former employee, to trial new varieties in development. Our CSA members get to try new varieties that will hit the seed market in future seasons.

Being the end of August, we are up to our necks in tomatoes, and we are perfectly happy with it.

Jonnah

CSA members: Tomato U-Pick info!

Emily Haga, from Johnny’s Selected Seeds, visiting from Maine to sample some tomato trials we grew for her research.

Currently being harvested, from top row, left to right: Chef’s Choice, Red Zebra, Pink Beauty, Garden Peach, Estiva. Damsel, Japanese Trifele Black, Wisconsin 55, Martha Washington. Orange Banana, Arbason, Be Orange, Pink Boar.

Cherry tomatoes are pouring in by the crateful!

Crates of tomatoes stacked up in the back of the truck. All varieties are separated until we bag them for the CSA delivery.

 

Bringing the Party to Our Farm

When we were asked by Madison Magazine to host a farm-to-table event on the farm we immediately responded with an enthusiastic YES! We work hard all week getting vegetables harvested, washed, packed, and delivered for the CSA, so when a super organized event planning production offers to throw a party on your farm and do all the work, we can’t just can’t say no. Madison Magazine teamed up with One Barrel Brewing Company, Liliana’s Restaurant, and several other sponsors, to put together a Beermosa Brunch, complete with beer pairings that complimented each coarse.

So after a long week at the end of July, all of the Vermont Valley farmers got to join nearly 200 guests to enjoy our food exquisitely prepared by Chef Dave Heide, listen to fabulous blues played by the Madtown Mannish Boys and taste several One Barrel beers under a big white tent in our yard. Other than cleaning up all of the sticks that fell out of the trees during the wild storms last week and leading a few farm tours, all we had to do was provide the vegetables.

Jonnah

Brunch in the orchard with a view of the valley

Touring the farm fields with Barb (you may not recognize her, she has on a black dress and isn’t wearing her farm cap)

A stacked list of sponsors were part of the Farm-to-Feast brunch!

Barb talking beer and farming with One Barrel owner, Peter Gentry, and his wife Jennifer.

 

 

 

Tornado Warnings, Electricity, and Garlic

Each week Mother Nature throws us a new curve ball and we’ve gotten pretty good at keeping our cool when things get wild on the farm. South Central Wisconsin has had it’s share of severe storms and large volumes of rain this summer but last night’s event set itself apart from the rest. At 9:30pm last night the power on the farm went out which was only a minor inconvenience as long as the vegetable coolers stayed shut, which we made sure they did. The grand challenge came when the crew arrived this morning at 6:30am to pack over 800 CSA shares and the box packing room and walk-in coolers were as dark as caves. Out came headlamps and flashlights and luckily the power flickered back on by 7:30 and do we were could now move through the morning at our electricity-supported pace. When the aftermath of the storm settled down we were all able share our stories of downed trees, flooded roads, flooded basements and our exciting nights at home without power. The only frustrating carryover from the eventful storm was the technology fallout. I spent the majority of my morning trying to restore service to our internet and email server. But that is all part of the monumental undertaking of running a business in a rural area. We didn’t become vegetable farmers to seek out a simple way of life, and we sure do take humor in making the most of the endless challenges that the farm life sends our way.

On a lighter note, we got off to a great start with the garlic harvest on Tuesday and Wednesday! Over the coming week we will fit in the rest of the job whenever we can, harvesting a total of about a half acre of garlic. The garlic will be cured and stored in the upstairs of the barn and we will deliver it throughout the rest of the delivery season, saving about 20% back to plant for next year.

~Jonnah

Garlic growing out of straw mulch. The garlic looks beautiful this year!

Jesse and Casey pull garlic out and shake off the dirt from the roots.

Ryna with her garlic. She has been one of the crew members who has spent a lot of time out in the hot sun harvesting!

 

What Are You Doing for the 4th of July?

We get asked that question every year and the answer is always the same: oh, just farming. The truth is that the farm doesn’t stop for national holidays. If we have a CSA delivery to get out, we work – so that would be 20 straight weeks June through October. Vegetables don’t take a vacation day so neither do we. That doesn’t mean we don’t have a little extra fun and show our patriotism in our own farmy way. While most of our CSA members were off  having cookouts and sipping cold beverages on boats, the farm crew was going about our average Tuesday business of harvest, planting, and packing shed work. At the end of the day the crew cracked open a few beers and set off some fireworks to celebrate along with the rest of our compatriots. On the flip side of the no-days-off coin are the winter months. While most of the world is going to work 5 days a week, we have discretion with our schedules. Winter means that the Perkins family holds down the farm in between multi-week vacations while the rest of the farm crew gets 2 months off. Although the vegetable farming schedule is polarized to the extreme, it’s a lifestyle we have come to love.

Jonnah

Sophal and Neing harvesting fennel before the heat sets in.

Tonny, Sophal, worker-share Matt, and Jesse harvesting Swiss Chard.

Yun, Tom, J-Mo, Eric, and Tonny toasting with Budweiser’s “America”  to celebrate the 4th of July (after work!).

Tom setting off some fireworks to celebrate the holiday!

 

 

You Care About CSA, and You’re Not Alone

As CSA farmers, we could go on and on about the value and importance of the CSA model of farming. Ultimately, our love for community supported agriculture isn’t complete without the community support. The connection with our members is at the foundation of the farm itself. Back in 1994 when Barb and David started this farm, CSA was a relatively new concept. They pounded the pavement with grassroots marketing efforts to educate their members about CSA. They have gained the trust of thousands of families over the years while paving a path for younger farmers to join the movement.

The CSA model is such a brilliant one that national brands have caught on and are borrowing from the wholesome, authentic values and qualities of local family farms. CSA-style box-scheme distribution systems and subscription-based meal services are popping up in every media channel telling us that we can be healthier, save money, be environmentally sustainable, learn how to cook better, and contribute to building a better food system. This marketing language may be appealing to many, but as a farmer, I shudder at the notion that a national distribution of perishable food, packaged into individual servings, from farms coast-to-coast (and internationally!), could be improving our food system.

Last year we invited our CSA members to participate in a survey conducted by FairShare CSA Coalition with researchers from UW-Madison and University of Wisconsin-Extension, funded by a USDA grant. This survey helped us to understand the values and behaviors of our current CSA members. Over 80% of participants indicated that they will continue membership. Members went on to say that the top 5 reasons to do CSA were to eat local, eat fresh, eat healthy, support local farmers, and eat seasonally. These values have a striking resemblance to the mission statements of box-scheme services striving to connect with their potential customers.

One of the leading meal service providers, Blue Apron, makes a powerful statement: We’re eliminating the middleman to deliver fresher food. Actually, that is what CSA is doing, not box-scheme distributors. In fact, their statement is a bold contradiction – they are the middleman. If this is the message that food-conscious consumers what to hear, then CSA farmers need to remind our own communities that CSA is truly the absence of a middleman, farm-to-table at its purest.

Although the CSA movement is going strong, many farms are experiencing a drop in membership across the country. With increasing amounts of purchasing options that seem parallel to CSA, consumers are experimenting with other delivery services for their vegetables. The impact is felt on a community level. If national brands replace local farms, the personal connection to our food production is lost. In the FairShare CSA Coalition network, lower-income families can receive subsidized CSA shares, making it possible to afford organic, locally grown produce. National brands are driven by their bottom line, disregarding socioeconomic disadvantages that local farms care so much about.

Our purchasing choices speak louder than our voices. In the evolving healthy-eating marketplace, we need to have a heightened awareness of what our spending ultimately means. CSA continues to be the most direct line between the farm to the consumer. So long as we care about the food that we put into our bodies, knowing our farmers, and can embrace the joy and challenge of eating seasonally, CSA will thrive in our dedicated communities.

Jonnah

Vermont Valley Community Farm Crew