January 2021….Anne has been at the desk nonstop with a myriad of tax forms for over a week: W-2,W-3, 941 plus three others I can’t even remember. I have been attending Zoom meetings(ugh…) in an effort to improve my farming skill-set. Seeds are pouring in and being inventoried, and we are spending as much time as possible in front of the woodstove on the grey days.
Caption should be “Old Geezer Spends Quality Time With Family” Truth is , Kevin and I find the grey cold of January a good time to hang out on a couch by the woodstove for both dog and catnaps…..
As time progresses, it is apparent that we should plan to go forward as we did last year. Regarding the pandemic, it seems at present that there will be shortages of vaccine in the near future. So for those of us currently scheduled for our shots at the end of February, it looks like the state will have run out long before that, forcing a postponement.. And then we’ll have to schedule another vaccination date. But after last year, we here at Edgewater are already set up with systems for masking, distancing, and spacing. We ironed out the bugs last season, so will likely proceed in 2021 as we did in 2020, in an effort to keep ourselves as well as our patrons safe.
One offshoot of the pandemic has been a discussion of the issue of local food security. There have been well-intentioned individuals and groups who have been talking about the vulnerability of local food systems for years, and patrons who are concerned as well. Last year’s food shortages were more likely a result of hoarding early on after the lockdowns were begun. Rice, beans and pasta were in very short supply (like toilet paper) because people panicked and filled up closet space with them, but for the most part there was a pretty solid supply of standard vegetables. There were always the basic vegetables available all the time at the places I shop. (By the way, the fact you can’t get blood oranges and persimmons in February doesn’t really qualify for a discussion of food security)
I have always thought that the greater discussion of food security was above my pay grade. My belief has been that we at the farm should continue to do what we have been doing, and that by remaining profitably viable, we were doing our part to contribute positively to local food security. But over the course of the summer, there were indications to me that there was some vulnerability for us in the northeast.
First indication was our CSA . For many years the CSA model for farms has seen a steep decline nationally in participation and membership numbers. This has been a result of many factors. First, there is a bit of inconvenience to the member, who needs to pick up a box of produce weekly. That selection of food needs some thought and management on the member’s part. We can put in a sheet with recommendation on how to prepare, use, or process what’s in the box. Jenny does this weekly, and does it really well, but the consumer then has to use that information translating it into actions. . It’s a bigger commitment than pulling a box of Blue Apron out of the refrigerator, or than just going to Applebee’s. That inconvenience ate into the membership numbers.
Secondly, there is inconvenience for the farm. Produce grows by the minute, and a farmers’ market or CSA box going out once or twice a week does not necessarily coordinate well with moving what is in the field and needing to be harvested. The next step for a small farm is usually to get into wholesaling or direct retailing through a roadside stand. It’s a natural progression, but it often abandons the CSA model along the way.
Our farm’s CSA programs saw a sharp rise in subscription this past year , such that we had to establish caps on the membership. Undoubtedly in 2020 this was pandemic related; fears of the disease itself but also the fact that people wanted that relationship with a local farm for a source of food. It had less to do with the ideology of supporting your local farm and more a fear of having no access. For the 2021 harvest we have set our caps, and it looks like we will be filling them quite early in the year. I think the public knows that nobody is going to starve, but perhaps this connection will not be abandoned when the Covid goes away. Perhaps people may start to give some serious thought to food security: what it is, what it means to our society, and what might be done about it.
Another component to local food security is the increasing demand for fresh produce through the food shelves. Since I left the board of directors of Willing Hands (www.willinghands.org) two years ago, the organization has experienced tremendous growth and product demand. When I was on the board, Willing Hands was a small collector and distributor of extra food (primarily produce) that might not have the cosmetic quality that local shore consumers prefer, but could be repurposed to feed local people in need. They established a program at local farms to come on site and glean crops that were past prime. They collected weekly from growers excess cooler product that was washed and packed but was not marketable for various reasons - low demand, low price, etc. They even actively grew produce on small parcels of land with the help of volunteers. It was a great repurposing of excess product for us, and they enabled us to make that donation to the community.
Since I have left the board, the organization has doubled in size. The number of active volunteers has doubled, their infrastructure has doubled, and their demand has eclipsed what the local farms and stores can supply. This is not entirely the result of the pandemic, but an ancillary result of the economic hardship that has hit the elderly and left the blue-collar workforce unemployed. There was government stimulus money given to food pantries to purchase food directly from the farms this past year to make sure lower-income folks could continue to have access, and to assist groups like Willing Hands in that mission. We actually sent product to a food shelf in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont. Willing Hands has developed relationships with the NH Food Bank and The Vermont Food Bank in an effort to pick up any slack in what the Upper Valley farming community and the stores can not provide. It does not translate, in my mind, to an acute food shortage. But it does signal a real and growing crack in area food supply. It is probably time we should look at this trend, as well as to how it relates to the costs of transportation, eating habits and climate change, expanding population…there are a lot of factors.
There are always crop failures, and this can play into food availability locally or on a larger stage. . Somewhere ,at any time, a farmer is having a crop failure. Maybe Killdeer Farm and Four Corners are ok, but perhaps Alex MacLennan and I get whacked and suffer weather damage. . Maybe the crop failure is in the Central Valley, maybe Norah Lake’s and John Cohen’s greens and lettuce supply get wiped out by deer, maybe the strawberry fields in Florida freeze up. . Some times it’s a significant financial hit on the farmer, sometimes it gets absorbed into the cost of doing business. We don’t talk about it, not because we are embarrassed….but because it’s a fact of life with farming. Harry Truman ‘s quote applies to farmers : “If you don’t like the heat, get out of the kitchen.” There was a pretty serious drought last year, and we were luckier on our end than many, but it really hamstrung many southern NH and seacoast growers. Because we are a small community, we picked up and helped Three Rivers Alliance with some of their shortfalls due to the drought. It’s only a matter of time before they return the favor to us. By the way, Three Rivers Alliance was originally founded with hopes to make a stab at solving the problem of food security. This year was a confirmation of the value of that mission.
I don’t really have any suggestions or solutions. I have already received two surveys this winter from well-intentioned luncheon groups, sounding a clarion alarm of imminent food insecurity. This is really unfortunate and a misdirection of energies, because for 20 years Vital Communities - www.vitalcommunities.org - has been working on these issues as well as a host of other local issues. My hope would be that it be wise for Americans, in a post-pandemic time, not to forget that what we are seeing right now are just a few hairline cracks in the armor. Perhaps we should not go back to eating out, playing golf, or buying our January blackberries from Mexico, without first at least considering the issues surrounding what food security , - what it might look like to us in the Upper Valley , it’s possible inevitability, and what we might be able to do to offset an unfortunate outcome.
We will continue, as will all my colleagues and buddies in the upper valley, to do what we do: get the crops in and keep an eye on them.
Sent from my iPad
On Jan 30, 2021, at 9:21 AM, Pooh Sprague <ps@edgewaterfarm.com> wrote:
<January 2021 blog.doc>
December pre Christmas dump….36-42 inches. Not a lot of fun, this storm….