Greetings CSA Members-
Many of you will remember a time five short years ago, when early December found Featherstone Farm on the verge of liquidation and closure, after a catastrophically wet, disease plagued season. It’s a time all of us would certainly like to forget- the stress was intense. But it is also a time that we would do well to recall, from time to time, because it reminds us (a) how far we have come since and (b) how profoundly fragile this entire business of local, fresh market vegetable farming really is.
For those of you who were not CSA members with us at that time, here’s the quick summary.
In the summer and fall of 2016 Featherstone Farm suffered a series of body blows. First was the loss of nearly our entire bell pepper crop, after European corn boers migrated into it from nearby non-gmo field corn; every single pepper had a tiny hole near the calix where a worm had bored in (after this discovery, my memory is that we did not harvest a single pepper for the rest of the season). Persistent heavy rainfall late summer and fall fueled an outbreak of a bacterial disease in cauliflower, kale and cabbage, reducing entire fields to blackened rubble. Fields of broccoli succumbed to a different moisture driven foliar disease. The final blow was an “October surprise” in CSA accounting, which left an additional $60k hole in the farm’s cashflow.
What followed was a remarkable coming together of the Featherstone Farm community, beginning with the group of farm managers and employees who devised a campaign for survival and recovery. Many of you participated in this campaign, by purchasing 3 and 5 year CSA shares, to give the farm operating capital to rebuild. I believe that 11 of the winter CSA shares that we are packing and delivering this week are part of the farm’s payback of that incredibly generous, forward looking investment. THANKS to all of you who were (and still are!) part of this!!
In the five years since that memorable time, Featherstone Farm has made incredible strides forward on so many levels, it hardly feels like the same place. ALL of the key employees and managers who helped us through that time, are still in place (thank goodness!!). We have tightened up field operations, improved our crop mix (less risk) and above all, invested in soil: with no commercial crop insurance available for vegetable crops in the upper Midwest, our best “insurance” against disease and pest pressure, is uber-healthy organic soil. But the risks of another super wet, disease plagued season remain real and present…
I will be reporting on many of these advances in a final “Featherstone Farm 3.0 Report” for 3 and 5 year shareholders- and for all of you- early in the new year.
For now however, I will take just a moment to reflect on the (b) part above. The fragility of it all, and the overwhelming sense of humility and uncertainty I feel about the future. At the very highest level, de-stabilized climate and the destabilized fabric of our society are sources of huge worry for me as a farmer, as a privileged “person of white” business owner (first world problems for sure, but FF is my whole life’s work), and as a citizen of this great democracy. These should be sources of grave concern and action for us all (my opinion, anyway). Instabilities in structures of social injustice and environmental degredation are not necessarily a bad thing!!
But in this very narrow world of fresh market vegetables and local markets… also trouble brewing at so many levels. I hate this creeping feeling of skepticism, but I’ve seen at least as many small farms like Featherstone shut down / go away in the past 25 years, as I have seen pop up and succeed. There is just such an institutional bias away from small players in our food system (think of FF as an independent bookseller in an era of Amazon hegemony). I worry. And I am more aware than ever of things I don’t know, things I can’t control (not just weather).
Which brings me back to the things I do understand, that all of us at Featherstone Farm can count on in the coming year and beyond. Chief among these are the relationships we have with you, our long term, most dedicated CSA members. I’ll admit these relationships feel attenuated to some degree by the pandemic; we all sure look forward to seeing you at the farm in the sunny spring of 2022, for strawberry picking (speaking of the social, below are photos of our late fall mulching of the berry beds!). But these relationships remain fundamentally strong, and the source of much of my hope for the farm and for the future in general.
Meanwhile, the house is now smelling fantastic from the whole buttercup squash I put in the oven for slow roast 3+ hours ago (250 degrees). I’m going to go downstairs and have a late breakfast.
I will be in touch with a final “FF 3.0 Report” and updates on changes for the 2022 season, just after the New Year.
Happy Holidays everyone!
Most Gratefully-
Jack
