Last week our almost 14-year-old son Elliott started helping with packing CSA boxes on Tuesday and Thursday — and he was awesome! Then he helped with harvest two days this week, in addition to packing boxes. On Tuesday, his sister Aby joined in — and she killed it too! I really had fun with them, and they both do a phenomenal job at carefully packing and paying attention to details. It’s kind of wild that we harvest and pack so many unique shares for y’all each week — every single thing in your box we grew, tended, harvested, washed, packed, and delivered. There’s a lot of love in there.
I miss the days when we were able to chat with you at pickup. But back then we didn’t offer choice CSA shares and had about 50 members — a third of what we have now. And honestly, we were away from the farm three days a week for half the year — two market delivery days, 50 weeks a year, plus CSA pickups in Raleigh for 25 weeks. We barely had time to harvest, wash, and pack, much less tend to all the other aspects of the farm. Stepping back from that and focusing on offering a quality CSA experience to a larger membership has so improved our quality of life — for our family and for everyone working on the farm.
And because we’re focusing on CSA and marketing less, we’re able to do a better job at this whole sustainable farming thing. Sustainability in our growing and stewardship practices has always been front and center in how we farm — and now we’re finally able to work toward making it all sustainable for our bodies and minds and hearts too. And what’s better than a contented farmer growing beautiful food just for you? I love this new way of doing CSA too. So many of us are fortunate to know each other out and about in real life — and if we don’t, I hope we do sometime (come to the farm!). And I’m so glad I still get to know you through your veggie orders — even if I can’t ask you in real time what you’re going to do with those carrots, some of you share what you make and that makes us so happy. And, as always, we are so very thankful for your support. We like doing this community supported agriculture thing with you!
In Good Heart Farm 