Greetings Featherstone Farm Community!
What a world we are living in now, and how it has changed in the past 10 days. What will it look like in another 10? I don’t think any of us can say with any confidence whatsoever.
What I can say with some degree of optimism, however, is that the small farm community we’ve created at and around Featherstone Farm, is built for sustainability and community resilience from the ground up. Of this, I think we can all take some measure of comfort. But as necessary and important as this is, it is in no way sufficient to meet the challenges ahead.
My hope now is that our broader communities- families, neighborhoods, towns, states and nations- can be guided by compassion and yes, love- rather than by fear- as we decide what steps to take tomorrow, next week, next month. I am hopeful, yes. Moreover, I am determined to put my best, best foot forward- personally, and as leader of Featherstone Farm- to meet the community challenges that lie ahead. I hope and trust that all of you reading this will join me in this effort. In this belief, I am truly optimistic.
This does not mean that we are not letting science, common sense and an abundance of caution guide our actions at Featherstone Farm, now or in the future. As I just wrote and shared with employees at the farm yesterday, our two top priorities are the health and well being of Featherstone Farm employees, and the health and well being of the broader Featherstone Farm community (families, customers, neighbors etc etc).
To this end, we have taken the following steps, effective immediately:
- Doubled down on hand washing in daily activity at the farm, well in excess of basic food safety standards. This is a community responsibility, as well as a personal one.
- Initiated a new 3x/day sanitizing regime in public spaces and surfaces at the farm (thanks for early action on this, field production people!)
- Started to asses work spaces and systems for current and future operations, to make changes to assist social distancing among employees as the crew grows
- Mandated that any /all employees stay at home if they or someone in their household is showing signs of COVID-19 infection
- Instituted 5 days of new “emergency/pandemic” paid sick time for employees, to bring total annual paid sick time to 80 hours for all current employees
After long consideration earlier this week, I made the decision to carry on with “normal” work in the greenhouse, warehouse and machine shop this spring, despite the wild uncertainty. Not full “business as usual,” but “continuing operations” with the precautions outlined above. I truly believe that, no matter what happens in the coming weeks and months, good food will be more important than ever, locally, regionally, (inter)nationally; this is no time to crawl into a small farm shell and cover our heads against the elements. Featherstone Farm and other food system people and institutions really are “critical infrastructure” in times of crisis. We will rise to the occasion.
Without a doubt, however, these 5 precautions are just the start of a longer list, that will grow increasingly complex and important as we move from a team of 14 at Featherstone Farm, to as seasonal crew of 40 in late spring. As we move from seeding romaine lettuce to harvesting, washing packing and shipping that lettuce in June, as we hope and plan to. As the CSA season begins. My job is to keep on top of this growing list of precautions and adjustments, to make them work in real time, and to keep all of you informed and involved as they develop. Transparency is part of the sunlight that can, along with a bit of sanitizer, bleach the virus out of dark corners of our world.
At this point, I can tell you that ideas under consideration for the future include:
- Cancelling the annual Strawberry Social in June, for the first time in 24 years. There’s too much risk of exposure, even 90 days from now, and we need to focus on even more important things day-to-day
- Reassessing our 20+ year policy of CSA box reuse and recycle. This has been foundation level important to me (like the Social!) since day one of Featherstone Farm. But it may no longer be defensible, in an era of global pandemic.
- Reviewing CSA dropsite access and logistics for the start of the summer season. Some sites may be closed to us, others may not be practical in an era of social distancing and product integrity concerns. Lots to work on here, site by site. Rest assured, we’re starting to plan for any necessary adjustments in order to deliver your shares this season in a safe and reliable way.
- Making CSA shares more accessible and affordable to people- especially current and longstanding members- whose financial livelihoods have been disrupted
- Creating some new format- perhaps discounted CSA shares for local food shelves?- through which Featherstone Farm and contributing members could make good local food available to the much broader community. The need is going to be unimaginable.
The Featherstone Farm team and I are currently preparing for disruptions of all sorts, and trying to minimize their impact on all of us (CSA members, Minnesotans, humans!). What the future really looks like, I can’t say. But I am confident that we'll find a way to move forward as a farm, as a farm community, and as a society.
This morning I read the following, from a great friend and organic farmer that Jenni and I worked for years ago in the Central Valley of CA:
We share with you the uncertainty and disquiet of these days amid beauty, regularity and natural wonder. Look around, and there is solace and comfort as nature charges into another year, changing each moment with wonderful and beautiful regularity. Amid disquiet and misgivings in this time, look outside and let the seduction of springtime brighten your moment, loving her beauty, helping with perspective.
There are many new health directives that are shaping the responses to this challenge of a virulent virus. Our health departments don’t remind us enough that we can affect our ability to handle this by choosing to be strong and healthy mentally and physically. Eat good food, cook it slowly filling your home with the comforting smells of as simmering soup or cookies. Exercise to feel strong. Although we are asked to stay inside, open your windows and breathe in the smells of spring, or clean ocean air or the fertile funk and freshness of rain on soil. Find creative ways to grow closer to your family, friends, and neighbors within the boundaries of health directives. We are stronger together.
Well said, Paul. While we may not have “clean ocean air” to brighten our lives here in the flyover land, I sure wish you all a degree of “fertile funk and freshness of rain on soil” this spring. It’s one of the things that makes life worth living, on the farm and otherwise.
Most Gratefully -
Jack
