Blog revival, end of salad greens
This year marks another big change in the evolution of the farm. Reading the first couple of posts that were shared just after starting the farm four years ago, navigating big changes seems to be the consistent theme. We went into 2024 feeling confident in our crop plan, our budget, and our revenue plan. We had the best year to date in sales with bigger projections for 2025. We bought three new mules, and our two year old mare Lena began learning how to wear a harness and go along with the team. We planted more garlic than ever and felt great about our new fertility and cultivation schedule. We instituted “work night Wednesdays” where friends could come help out with a task and then we could all eat dinner together.
Harvesting garlic on a Wednesday night with friends
The farm was growing with possibilities and we worked so hard to keep up. Working 12 hour days and still feeling behind left us with the realization that the farm might be bigger than just the two of us can handle. The burn-out at the end of the season was real. We were wind-chapped, exhausted, down-trodden after experiencing some garlic loss, desperate for any help we could get, and feeling financially strapped because we still were unable to adequately pay ourselves. We’re behind in infrastructure development because building is slow and expensive when you’re trying to farm at the same time.
We lease the farm ground and we rent our home. We love living in Wallowa County and our goal is to stay. We can’t develop a home on-site due to zoning constraints, and so as we try to buy a house in town we’re left with little choice but to generate more income off-farm. I’m telling this story because I’m constantly screening other farmer’s stories for how they make it work. How have they succeeded in this endeavor that feels so difficult to pencil out? Did they win a massive amount of grants? Do they have a very lucrative side hustle that pays the bills? Did they have a farm passed down to them? Was there already a home on site? To be a successful small farmer one has to have some sort of edge.
Despite all the challenges, I don’t regret starting the farm. We’re just having to be more realistic about where we’re at and what is possible there. We started a farm with zero infrastructure on land we don’t own. We don’t have lucrative side hustles. We have won a couple grants. We have had massive help from family, friends and our community. But it’s not enough to keep growing at the rate we envisioned. This year we have made the tough decision to drop wholesale salad greens from the operation. We had to think in frustrating circles about this decision, if it was the right thing to do, if it would lead to more stability to get us closer to our goals. We just spent a lot of money and energy and time on all the stuff to make it possible to produce hundreds of pounds of leafy greens every single week.
Successions of leafy greens that made up our salad mix
We’re constantly assessing, asking questions and re-evaluating how to make the dream work. Navigating hurdle after hurdle really makes you question everything. Why are we doing something so hard, so risky? Simplest answer: we believe in it. It brings joy. Food is life and life is thrilling to observe, take care of, grow alongside. And so, we’ll carry on, but things will look different this year. We are shifting our focus to wholesale garlic. We have the next generation of working stock to train up this year, and we need to fine tune our garlic operation so that it generates the revenue we need it to from all of the work we put into it. There are only so many hours in a day, and we have to continue to support ourselves financially. We will still be growing a micro-farm’s worth of vegetables and probably have some variety of produce available. We’re not sure what that looks like yet so stay tuned to social media for updates.
Some goals for this season:
-Update the blog more regularly
-Get Lena started, let Charlie retire
-Sell ALL of the garlic
-Trust the process
Thanks for reading.
