Dear
CSA members,
Thank
you so much for being part of our farm this year. What a great year it is – the
field crops are growing well after a cold spring, and we’re enjoying an
incredible strawberry crop. Depending on which field you pick from, the
strawberries you pile into your quart containers were planted by either last
year’s apprentices (Ana, Chris, Avril, Zan, Emily and Matt) or
the year before (Willie, Mike, Emily,
Matt, and me). The farm’s apprenticeship crew (this year, Hilary, Sam, Jerahmy, Sue and myself) is
a critical part of this community farm, and a significant part of what the
North Amherst Community Farm’s (NACF) capital campaign aims to sustain. The campaign, now entering its final
stages, is to raise the funds needed to retire NACF’s mortgage loan and
complete the purchase of the farm. This
mortgage is secured by the critical 2-acre farmstead area, which includes the
farmhouse, some barns, and the community interface with North Pleasant Street.
This
campaign is especially meaningful to me as an apprentice, since the future of
the farm house hinges on the campaign’s success. The house (located next to the
entrance of the farm) has been occupied by the farm’s apprentice crew for
almost 10 years. I lived
here when I first started farming. After a season at another farm I’m back,
living with a whole new crew. I love this house. We eat lunch here together
every day, and stumble out to work together each morning at 6am. Living here is
an integral part of the learning experience; from my kitchen I can see our
herbs and early flowers. From my bedroom window I can see the fence charger
that keeps our livestock safe. If a cow gets out after hours and the farmers
need help, we put our boots back on and go out into the night to help. Early in
the morning (before first light in the spring and fall) we walk out to meet
Dave and Jeremy with our hot coffee or tea still in hand, and finish our cups
as we discuss the day ahead. After hot summer Fridays in the field we collapse
on the couch on our porch behind our trellised hops vines, and someone brings
out the cold beers.
We
work six days a week in the main season. The days are long and someone is
always on chores, going out onto the farm several times a day—every day—to take
care of the greenhouses and animals, keeping an eye on things. We notice
things, because we’re right here. If we had to commute to the farm, we could
not engage as deeply with the land and its complex working as we do now.
Without being able to offer us housing, Dave and Jeremy could not afford to
take on beginning farmers who want to learn from them. Instead, they would have
to hire fewer, more experienced crew and pay them by the hour. Living here
makes the apprentice program possible.
This
is critical to the future of the farm – now, and even more so to the next
generation of farmers who will someday work this land. Perhaps they will have
learned their craft from a farm apprenticeship. The farm land itself is permanently
preserved. It is my hope that the farm house and apprenticeship program will be
permanent too.
You
can help us. Find out more at nacfonline.org, or ask any of us .
Any contribution you can make toward this fund will ensure that others will be
able to come after me and learn and live and grow here.
-Caro
(Second-Year Apprentice)
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