Welcome, welcome
When we started the farm in June of 2016, we talked about whether we needed a website or not. We decided to forego the luxury at the time and focus on the brass tacks of starting our operation. You know: high tunnels, tractors, carrots. So very many carrots...
After all, we were lucky enough to be members of the wonderful Chesapeake Farm to Table aggregator. Through Jack and Beckie's walk-in, Baltimore chefs and diners-out were more than capable of gobbling up all of our produce at the time. Besides, all the cool kids use Instagram anyway.
1,200 lbs of Napa cabbage, give or take, soon to be off to the great kimchi in the sky
Well, my have things been changing quickly! We have many new wonderful customers, including master kraut-heads HEX Ferments among other foodies, food trucks, small shops, and more. And they're buying as much produce as we could have reasonably dreamed last winter while we squinted at spreadsheets and sweated over budgets. And hopefully there will soon be many, many more. Like maybe you?
CS-Yay!
Our newest high tunnel, halfway prepped, with another one full of greens behind
That's probably the biggest change of all, a CSA! And we think we're ready for it. For our farm, this year has been all about experimentation. We have maintained a wholesale-focused model that has allowed us to succeed, fail and learn without letting down our customers. Maybe that red cabbage didn't do so hot, but chefs have been more than happy with the bumper crop of German butterball potatoes. As I'm fond of saying, "no one will know there weren't balloons."
A CSA takes a different level of commitment, though, and it's one we take very seriously. We've done our homework. We know what seed varieties do well, what systems work for us. We've even doubled (or tripled) down on some of them by building two new tunnels. If we don't have all the tools we need yet, we know which ones we want to buy and when. We will still be heavily invested in the wholesale side of our business, but we've decided that the best way forward is adding these new direct-to-consumer sales on top. Because we're good enough, we grow tasty enough food, and--gosh darnit--people like us!
Thus, the website. We'll be keeping up this site to reflect the ongoing details of the business and to post cute pics of the dogs (though the most up to date place to find pretty pictures will still be our Instagram.) It will be a centralized location for info about our CSA and a way to stay in touch with customers and prospective customers. This is the "News" page because sometimes the news is that we're too busy to keep up a blog. Archived CSA newsletters will always post here for posterity, though. We're very excited for the season (and thrilled to be done editing the website). Look forward to growing with you.
Keep in touch!
- Farmer Bryan