We cordially invite you to tour the farm with us for our Annual Farm Share Member Social! Saturday, October 5th, 2024, from 2:30-4:00. Join us here at the farm to get to talk face to face, surrounded by the vegetables and flowers that we grow for you to enjoy. We'll answer any questions or curiosities that you all have, we'll walk around the farm and talk soil biology (we're passionate about this!), small regenerative farm methods, and soak in a fall afternoon. Stay the whole time or just pop in when you're able and pop out when you need to. Our kids keep getting more and more active, so we're squeezing in this event between a triathlon that morning for one of our children and a Homecoming dance that evening for another of our children. Plus Farm Shares and the farmers' market will happen as usual that day. Whewww!
---> Might you be able to lend us $10,000 to $25,000 that we'll repay you over the next five-six years? Read below for details! And thank you for considering support of your farmers and the weird ways in which we don't fit into the financial norms of our society!
It feels like monsoon season on the farm, but we're enormously grateful that our farm is only saturated and not flooded - and our crew has been amazing with their continued dedication to working through all these rainy days while slipping through wet fields!
Our farming friends in Western NC are in crisis mode and growing seasons have come to an end due to massive flood damage. We may very well lose our Beet and Carrot crops for this fall (plus a large amount of loss of Lettuces and Cabbages), because of so much rain and saturated ground, but that is obviously minor in comparison. (Did you know that plants' roots need air in the soil in order to grow properly? When water saturates all the air pockets, the roots can't respirate. There's a lot of rotting happening!) BUT. We aren't flooded and we're still planting fall crops (though this much rain disputes our usual schedule). We have delicious food to harvest for you this week! Meanwhile, we hope we are all paying attention to ways that we can help our neighbors in areas devastated by this most recent storm. The one upside of tragedy is experiencing how us humans can help each other.
Back to self-centered vegetables:
Here's what dinner prep at our house generally looks like:
The chopped greens are Arugula and Cilantro. You'll notice some corn snuck in there. I made a rare purchase of a vegetable that we didn't grow. The recipe above combined all those vegetables from our farm with charred corn, stir-friend tofu, and a Lime Crema sauce. We served it on top of rice. My kids said it was the best dinner they'd had in months. Sweet! We invite you to create this or similar in your kitchen.
Right now is the sweet spot in the season where most summer crops are still producing (like the peppers pictured above and below) and also fall crops are rolling. Enjoy it!!
For a few more weeks we'll keep sharing our request to find private lenders for our farm; see below. We've had a few kind and generous members reply and we're setting up meetings to discuss possibilities, but we know it's helpful to continue to get the word out, so please read on:
We've recently mentioned that we have a new farm project underway. We are now ready to share details and also put out a significant request to our community. Short version: We have the very unique opportunity to purchase an old farm in Nelson County (just south of Charlottesville) by finding private lenders - with a firm deadline of this December. In order to do this, we need to find individuals willing to lend us a collective total of $240,000. We need to pay the current owners no later than January 2025.
We know this sounds bizarre. Read on for more information.
The longer version: "Retiring" as farmers is a interesting notion, and we know we will need to continue working until older than the average American. We are fine with this, and we've known this since starting the farm when we were in our early thirties. Now we're approaching 50 years of age (gulp) and we're starting to better map out our plan for the next couple of decades. We won't be able to indefinitely continue the physical work that Broadfork requires. We know that eventually we will need to sell our current farm. Over the next 8-10 years, we'd like to plan to transition from Broadfork to a new and very different farm. A farm that doesn't require the physical work that Broadfork requires. In order to afford this and establish perennials and improve soil health in advance, we need to make the purchase for this plan soon. We're thinking of our 60 year-olds selves and planning for a lighter version of farming (centered on perennials, growing seed for seed companies, and a greenhouse-based business), plus likely some farm education work, and our very strong desire to sell Broadfork to someone who will want to continue operating the farm.
We are planners. We are deliberate. We're cautious and conservative with our planning and projections, yet we are bold with our vision and goals. And we are very hard working. We've taken on debt in numerous forms in order to start and operate this farm. We've paid off numerous loans over the past 15 years. We've invested heavily in the farm's soil and infrastructure. We have just four years remaining on our mortgage. We have excellent credit. We've never carried any credit card debt.
Our financials are good for a farm yet look unacceptable to banks and traditional lenders. This is because we have consistently used the majority of the business profits eaech year to further invest in the farm - rather than paying ourselves more money as the farm owners. We have asked banks for a loan. They have said they would only approve us if we were paying ourselves a significant salary. (Why would we do that instead of improving our farm?) They have only approved us with a co-signer and a high interest rate. We're not willing to go that route. Thus, we are turning to our community with this request.
We know what we're asking is unconventional. But - We know how to responsibly set up and repay private loans. The new, "old" farm will serve as collateral. (We're already part owners of the farm in question. Friends of ours own the majority of it and need to sell their portion as of January 2025.) If we defaulted on loan repayment, we'd sell the farm, worth more than $240,000, and lenders would be repaid.
We are open to one $240,000 lender (though that would astound us) or ten lenders at $24k each, or any variation thereof that totals $240k. We constantly run farm financial projections and are prepared to set up a repayment plan that will have us re-pay lenders for the new farm before we sell Broadfork.
By the way, currently none of our children have a desire to run Broadfork after we can no longer do so. However, they are young, and one or more of them may change their mind. We shall see what the future brings. But our thought is that, with help from our community, we can purchase the new farm land now and build a house for ourselves on it after selling Broadfork. (We'll need to sell Broadfork in order to have funds to build a home at the new farm.)
We've found a sweet little spot in Nelson County that we'd like to have time to ready to be our future "retirement" farm. We know it takes time to build up a place based on soil and perennial plants. We won't have that time if we wait to purchase our elder-years farm after we sell Broadfork.
As full time farmers, we live a modest life. We are comfortable, but our budget is modest. Material possessions are humble. Vehicles are old. Vacations for our family are camping trips. We live this way intentionally and happily. In order to be responsible about our older years, we want to purchase future farmland now, at 2024 prices -- rather than at the cost of land ten years from now.
We'd really, really like to find members of our community who are willing to collect interest in non traditional ways, such as through our produce, flowers, bread, and/or access to the new farm to enjoy what it has to offer visitors. The new farm has a sweet (tiny) little pond, a few open fields, beautiful forest, and a bold creek -- all tucked back away from a quiet country road. Private, yet minutes away from Rt 151 breweries, wineries, the Rockfish River, and trailheads. Would you like to collect interest through visiting for day trips or camping trips? When you want to visit, we'll give lenders the code to the gate. (It does NOT have a livable house.)
We feel really great about how over the past 14 years we have shown our community what we're capable of and committed to. We are incredibly uncomfortable asking for financial assistance, but here we are - pushing ourselves out of our comfort zone!
Want to know more? There are so many things to say! Reply to this email, talk with us here at the farm, give us a phone call (804-337-6540), or swing by our market booth during the last hour of market. We're happy to share more details and answer any questions from serious inquirers.
Thanks for reading this far, and we'll move forward with belief that the universe is a positive place and we'll find a way to make this work.
Need to check on or make changes to your pick up dates? Log in here.
Recipe suggestions:
- Quinoa Salad with Tamari Dressing
- Napa Cabbage with Ramen noodles and Sesame Dressing
- Lettuce Wraps with Asian Chicken Salad
Bread Share members: You get a SEPARATE email to customize your bread share.
To Customize Your Share:
Each time you are scheduled to have a share, you'll receive an email from us 2 days prior. It should have subject line "Time to Customize Your Share." The software will create a default share for you (based on your indicated preferences and what we have available to harvest) and list those default contents in the email. The email also contains a link saying "Want to make changes to your share or add extras?" Click on that link to customize your share! Customization usually ends at 6am on the day before your pick up day, and sometimes at 5am when our harvest days need to start extra early.
For Pick Up:
- Same for cooler(s) at pick up locations with any cold items that aren't vegetables (eggs, fermented vegetables, etc...See below for more info.)
- Preparation ideas and recipe suggestions are in your email. Also check out our Pinterest Page for lots of recipe ideas, organized by vegetable.
EGGS: Ring-a-Bell Farm in Pamplin offers their eggs for sale through us. Their chickens live on pasture and are fed supplemental non-gmo feed from Sunrise Farms. Their eggs are fabulous and we trust their farming practices completely. You can purchase their eggs in our self-serve FarmStand at our farm and you can order them through the Harvie system "Extras" when they are available.
With blessings on your meals ~
Janet, Dan, and the whole Broadfork crew (Julie, Alisa, Jen, Clara, Tabea, Christina, Jackson, and the farm kids)
