**REMINDER** If you have a Thursday pickup this week, it falls on 4th of July. We'll still be doing deliveries, so if you'll have an issue with picking up, you can place your share on hold for the week or contact us to arrange an alternate delivery.
Now that we got that out of the way, we're finally starting to feel like summer is here! We harvested the first two pints of cherry tomatoes - its always funny to think how slow it starts out and how excited we are to harvest them; soon enough we'll be harvesting hundreds each week and dreading doing it. It's all part of the game! Everything has kicked it into high gear with this warm sunny weather - after the slow start, we're not complaining.
Even though we've been looking forward to summer for what seems like decades, we're already thinking about fall and changes we want to make for next spring - farming has a way of doing that. While the bulk of our planting plan is done by February, now's the time that we fill in all of the small details of hoophouse crops and field-grown greens for the fall. There's a constant anticipation of what's next in farming. The quickest turnaround we have is a 10 day crop of microgreens, but most crops take nearly 4 months from seeding in the greenhouse to harvesting - some even longer. Some crops like tomatoes, we only get one shot at doing right every year; we all know practice makes perfect, but over a 30 year career, we'll only get 30 shots at growing tomatoes right. So, obviously, it can be exciting to see it all come together and disappointing when it doesn't, but aside from the late start this year, most things are going well thus far and our offerings should be expanding pretty quickly over the next few weeks...finally!
It's probably worth taking a minute to say that for many farms it is not going so well this year, so we're definitely fortunate. There have been a lot of articles about farming in the past few weeks that you may or may not have seen. Many farmers across the Midwest (and much of the country, for that matter) haven't been able to get any crops planted this year because of the late spring and heavy rains they've received. The ones that did manage to plant, were forced to plant into mud or waited so late that they don't qualify for crop insurance or have seen their crops destroyed by hail - or more rain. Full grain bins that are typically money in the bank have flooded and burst at the seams, rendering them worthless. Low dairy prices have resulted in suicide help notices being sent with their milk checks. Trade issues are eliminating markets for products like soy and pork. Michigan has lost a net 4,500 farms from 2012 through 2017 and there doesn't look to be much slowing down.
As a farm, we feel it's important to discuss this. We often hear about veteran suicide rates, but rarely hear about how farmer suicide rates are twice the national average. There's no real wonder why; farming is a capital intensive, low margin business that typically requires taking on large amounts of debt while working at the mercy of the weather for a payday that may or may not ever materialize. It's a business that blurs the lines between work and home life - our days start around 7 in the morning and typically end around 9:30 at night - not because we're out of work, but because there's just no motivation left for the day. On a good day, we may check off all of the day's to-do's, but the overall to-do list tends to continue to grow; especially this time of year. Farming tends to be all encompassing, so it's not too hard to see why mental health can be a challenge for farmers when things they can't control start going wrong.
Unlike most other businesses where work comes to a standstill when everyone leaves for the day, farm work compounds - weeds grow, pests multiply, etc. That makes it hard to take time to relax, as you know that your problems that need attention are only getting worse the longer you wait - it'd be as though a car at a manufacturing plant slowly disassembled itself between shifts. It leaves a constant feeling of anxiety - we like to think we get used to it and you accept that it's part of farming, but it's never that simple.
Luckily, we have a strong network of farms in our region to offer support to each other. It's always nice to interact with other farmers face-to-face, especially in today's social media age. It's easy to get the wrong impression with the positive face that everyone puts on for their Instagram or Facebook pages, but when we get together it doesn't take long to realize that everyone is facing the same sorts of problems and as much as it looks like they have it all together, they're usually just struggling to keep up like you are.
Hopefully we didn't just kill everyone's good mood because while there are struggles across the farming industry, there are bright spots as well. We have nearly 180 of you signed up to support our farm, we have friends that are operating successful farms throughout the area and are expanding and investing into their businesses just like we are. As much of a struggle as it is - it's a good thing! There are still plenty of opportunities in farming, especially with the support of local communities - they just tend to be drastically different than the way things have been done for the past few decades.
Hope everyone has a good 4th of July!
-Brendan & Greta
