I am back from Washinton D.C. and we are ready for a great week of farm shares! Before we get started, I added new locations for our El Dorado and Union Parish farm share members. Starting this week you can switch over to pick up at MAD Farmers Market or El Dorado home delivery. Union Parish folks can also check out the new pick up option at 3 Board Farm in Downsville! The 3 Board Farm pick up is on Thursdays after 5 PM and El Dorado will be on Saturdays!
This Week
Lots of summertime veggies just in time for your 4th of July party! I added more tomatoes this week than any previous week. There's also jalapenos, habaneros, cabbage, carrots, cucumbers, colorful daikon radishes, scallions, pretty much every ingredient you need for the best cole slaw of your life!
Next Week
WATERMELONS!!!!
Farm Update
The series of storms that moved through last week really has affected our crops. Not only was the ground saturated, but it's been a dadgum steam bath sauna as well. A lot of plants are just rotting, even though we have raised the beds and have good drainage in our walkways. Every day our tomatoes are looking worse. I just hope they hold on until the end of this season when we should be starting Fall cherry tomatoes. Our squash took a beating too. Luckily, we have a large planting that will begin harvest in two weeks, along with a strong green bean crop to finish out this farm share season. This Summer has brought some rough weather our way. It got hot earlier than normal and really impacted a lot of our leafy greens.
I think Tuna handled the farm shares pretty good while I was gone! Although, while I was walking through the Capitol offices on Wednesday, Tuna called me to tell me he couldn't walk. After convincing him he could afford medical treatment, he finally consented to going to the emergency clinic. Turns out he had an infection on his foot from when we foraged for chanterelle mushrooms right before I left for D.C. He didn't mention at the time that while we were walking around in the woods, a stick jabbed him in the foot above his toes. Of course, this man wore sandals in a dang forest, so I had a hard time feeling sympathetic. Good news though, Tuna still has the foot and all of his toes. We ordered him some shoes, but now he is complaining he doesn't have any socks...
I had an amazing experience during the Farm Bill Fly-In. The organization, Sprout, is the non-profit who sponsored me being there. I first got connected with them in 2019, when Kaden and I attended the Louisiana Sustainable Agriculture Conference in NOLA. Marguerite Green is the executive director and founder of Sprout, which is an organization under the umbrella of the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition. Margee is a farmer, advocate, food policy expert, and probably the most important local food organizer in Louisiana. For years, I have been inspired by her state-wide leadership for promoting and organizing local farms and food. It was a privilege that Sprout selected me as part of their inaugural fly-in. This was the first time in Louisiana history that small scale, Louisiana farmers earing less than $200,000 went to Congress to talk about the farm bill.
We had meetings with the Louisiana delegation all day on Tuesday and Wednesday. Every single issue that we brought up in these meetings already has bi-partisan support. 95% of the "marker bills" had a sponsor and co-sponsor from each party. The issue comes down to the amount of funding provided to these laws within the farm bill itself, and the ability of small farms to access the funding. Sen. John Kennedy's office called the current House farm bill appropriations a "political stunt" because it reduces funding to some of the most important programs for small farms by up to 70%. Experienced Feds told us the numbers are so low, so that they could be met halfway once the farm bill heads to the Senate. Regardless, what we went there to say is that the same opportunities provided to large farms in the farm bill, just aren't available to the small-medium sized farms--and they should be. Rep. Mike Johnson told me he had never met a first generation farmer. I told him that accessing arable land is the biggest hurdle to overcome for young people who want to farm. If Kaden and I were not farming on family land, we most likely would not have a farm.
Sprout has been lobbying in these congressional offices for the past year. Elisa, Margee, and Devin have spent a lot of time with boots on the ground, building relationships, and getting important information into the hands of lawmakers. Our team was debriefing on Tuesday evening in the hotel lobby, and received an invitation to meet with Rep. Mike Johnson the following morning at 8 AM for "Coffee with the Congressman". Elisa was excited, because of her constantly being in the LA delegations offices was the reason our group was invited to that event. Our group wanted to use that time to prepare for our 5 other meetings that day. I felt comfortable with my level of preparation, so I volunteered to go to the meeting for our group. As a constituent of Rep. Mike Johnson, I thought it was important for at least one person in our group to show face. So the next morning I set off for the House offices, by myself. Once there, I waited just a few minutes in the lobby, then it was my turn for a face-to-face meeting in his office. I really cannot say how grateful I am to Sprout for the opportunity to meet my Congressional Representative in Washington D.C. to talk about issues facing our farm. Just thinking about myself being there seems so wild, but hey, I know more about farming than Mike Johnson does!
Our best meeting of the entire trip was with Senator Kennedy's office. I was not expecting that based on a lot of his gaffes and rhetoric. Each office has groups of staff devoted to main blocks of legislation. For instance, we met with his senior Agriculture staffer. Turns out Cade was a ULM alum, a shopper at farmers markets, and very on top of a lot of farm bill issues and how small farms have been left out for decades. A lot of talk has gone into making crop insurance more accessible and afforable for small farms. Out of all the farms making less than $200,000 per year, only 2 farms have crop insurance in the entire state of Louisiana. The rates are so unaffordable, that I could pay a large infrastructure loan more easily, and honestly have less of a headache. These policies right now want farmers to call when they plant a crop and after they harvest a crop. Not only is our farm very diverse, but we plant and harvest every day--and some of the insurance agents are only available 3 days of the week. If you were part of our Winter farm shares, then you remember when we lost 40% of our crops during the late December freeze. Did we panic? A little bit, but we got to work the very next day growing microgreens, planting fast growing crops, and making jams. We never missed a single order that season. However, if the freeze had resulted in 60% loss of our crops including carrots and collards, we might not have made it.
This is about as political that I will ever get on our farm happening. I wanted to give some insights into the trip, because some of you taught me AP Civics, but also just importance of letting your elected officials know that locally grown food should be a priority investment for the federal, state, and local governments . I think that the long-term cost benefits regarding the sustainability of local economies, the health of our communities, and the protection of soil and bio-diversity are worth every dollar invested.
