“To live in this world
you must be able
to do three things:
to love what is mortal;
to hold it
against your bones knowing
your own life depends on it;
and, when the time comes to let it go,
to let it go.”
you must be able
to do three things:
to love what is mortal;
to hold it
against your bones knowing
your own life depends on it;
and, when the time comes to let it go,
to let it go.”
-Mary Oliver
I am leaving Mud Creek Farm CSA. I am
choosing to be with my partner, who lives four hours away in the
Hudson Valley.
For several years now we've been doing
the long-distance thing, taking Amtrak back and forth every few weeks
across the state. It gets old! I am very much in love with this man. So I've decided to make the move to his
town, and I truly believe that I'm leaving Mud Creek Farm in very
capable hands. It will continue on without me, the Community
Supported Agriculture spirit quite alive in the dedication of the
members and the eager new farmers.
This was the hardest decision I've ever
made. The farm has been my everything for the past five
years. I had found my calling, followed my passion, sweat and
toiled-- and the community had embraced it, resulting in a hugely
successful operation. Mud Creek Farm has been in almost every local
publication, on TV, radio, etc. We were voted “Favorite Farm of
the Finger Lakes” in Edible Magazine this year.
I have never been so satisfied by my
job. So much gratitude from CSA members! What a feeling to be
feeding hundreds of families, many of whom I know well after years of
nourishing them. I've seen babies grow from pregnant mamas into
curious kids, wandering around looking wide-eyed at flowers and bugs
and tomatoes. I've seen people stumble awkwardly onto the farm in
early spring, and then leave strong and glowing with health at the
end of the summer, raving about kale and potato soup.
Playing the role of “Farmer Erin”
had become my primary identity, and I embraced it and loved it. What
an amazing gift to be able to do something I enjoy that people
appreciate so much. I truly feel that farming is in my blood, that growing food is something I need to do.
As I grew the CSA from 80 members to
400, I needed helpers. The first few years we relied solely on
volunteers, then I hired full-time interns, young folks who wanted to
learn how to farm. This year I hired an assistant manager, Ruth,
and a greenhouse manager, Jonny. The crew was absolutely amazing
this summer. I left for two weeks in August, and they hardly missed
a beat.
When I asked the crew mid-summer if
anyone wanted to return next season to work for Mud Creek Farm, three
of them said YES! Ruth, Jonny, and Josh. As I anticipated my
absence next year, I started thinking about what a great team they
would make.
Ruth has 5+ farming experience under
her belt, and her strengths lay in field operations, tractors, and
spirit. She worked for Peacework Farm, one of the very first CSAs in
the area. She was raised on an organic farm in Vermont, and her dad
runs a winter-storage vegetable operation. She is an incredible
person. It's kind of nice, too, that the business will stay
woman-run. She's ready for it.
Jonny managed his own small CSA last
year, and has leadership and organizational skills, and a great
attention to detail. He will be managing the greenhouse transplant
production, and harvest/washing of produce. His dedication to CSA
member satisfaction will ensure that the quality of the produce and
the experience remains the same great Mud Creek style!
Josh grew up with a hammer in his hand.
He knows how to work hard, has 8+ years experience in construction,
and he's decided farming is his true path now. He learns quickly,
and because of his focus and determination, he's become quite skilled
at tractor cultivation. We're very lucky to have him.
All three of these guys have an amazing
work ethic and devotion to the CSA's mission. As much as it saddens
me that I don't get to work with them anymore, they are totally
capable of running the farm without me. They have more than earned
my confidence, and proven again and again that they have what it
takes.
I've spent the summer training them in
on every detail of the operation, working closely with them
sometimes, and sometimes just letting them learn lessons on their
own. I've tried to be the best mentor I could be, guiding them into
their own confidence on tasks. Next year I will be a phone call away
if they need anything. But I feel like they are ready to take it and
run with it.
One challenge is that this shift in
management coincides with moving the farm location to new land.
(See the last blog post for details) Sure, it will be a lot of work to break in new fields, move sheds,
water lines, fences, etc. But this might give them a chance to claim
the project as their own, clean-slate. To put their hearts into the
physical building-up of the farm, like I did. They have a more ideal
land situation than I ever had-- a 5-year lease with long-term
potential, and they might even get a pond and a pole barn, things I
only dreamed of!
Sure, the farm's going to change. The
farmers' unique strengths and personalities affect everything about a
farm. But while Mud Creek's farmers are in charge of all the
planning, growing, and harvesting, the real heart of the CSA organism
is the members. Not only do they support the farm
financially, but they become a real type of community, one with its
own strengths and personalities.
It is my hope that the members of Mud
Creek Farm CSA continue to be the active and supportive heart of the
farm that they have been for these past five years.
Ruth, Jonny, and Josh are all committed
to keeping the mission of Mud Creek Farm alive – to
provide the highest quality vegetables to CSA members, produced as
sustainably as possible.
They
will carry on nourishing people in the community, both physically
through delicious healthy produce, and soulfully, through a positive
and hands-on experience of nature, sustainability, and abundance.
And
I will get to venture into the unknown, this time without a 5-year business
plan.
I will really value the friendships I've made with CSA members over the years, and I'll miss so many people! I hope to sustain these connections, even from afar. I will try to keep up the blog. Come visit me when you're in the eastern part of the state! I hope to visit the "new" Mud Creek Farm often, of course, too.
I will really value the friendships I've made with CSA members over the years, and I'll miss so many people! I hope to sustain these connections, even from afar. I will try to keep up the blog. Come visit me when you're in the eastern part of the state! I hope to visit the "new" Mud Creek Farm often, of course, too.
But during this sabbatical from farming I'll get to explore other sides of me, besides being "Farmer Erin". I know
that growing food will always be a part of my life, but now I get to
round out my experience a bit, adding new roles of family, domesticity, music, activism, maybe even
writing a book... Who knows?
The Real Work
It
may be that when we no longer know what to do
we have come to our real work,
and that when we no longer know which way to go
we have come to our real journey.
The mind that is not baffled is not employed.
The impeded stream is the one that sings.
we have come to our real work,
and that when we no longer know which way to go
we have come to our real journey.
The mind that is not baffled is not employed.
The impeded stream is the one that sings.
