Farming During a Pandemic

Normally, March is a very slow month for us in sales. We spend it starting up the greenhouse, setting up the brooder, and enjoying the first warm days of spring. Not this year! Food is on everyone’s minds these days, and we are working hard to plan for safe food production in these challenging times, as well as sales and distribution in a time of social distancing. As is the case everywhere, the situation is changing rapidly, and we recognize that we may have to change our plans and protocols in response to a public health information. That said, we are actively working to educate ourselves and our staff about transmission risks and mitigation strategies. As we begin down the path of spring in this brave new world, we wanted to take a moment to communicate to all of our customers about what we plan to do to grow and deliver safe food, how covid-19 will and will not change our farm, and what all of you can do to keep getting our food, should you want it.

First and most importantly, while we work to develop protocols for our farm store, please do not use the self serve CSA invoicing option until further notice. If you want to purchase food from us before our Saturday farmstand reopens in May, please email us to set up a time when we can serve you.

Additionally, for the foreseeable future, we plan to keep a visitors log of all visitors to the farm. Should anyone connected with the farm contract covid19, this will allow us rapidly contact everyone with possible exposure so that they can get appropriate testing and, if necessary, self-isolate.

Our first employee, Julianna, will arrive this weekend to live and work here on the farm, and we have already asked her to self isolate for 14 days as a precautionary measure. In that time we will begin working with and training her, while maintaining social distance.

Food safety is about much more than avoiding covid19, and we already have protocols in place for hand-washing, clean harvesting, washing, and packing. We are in the process of expanding those directives to include sanitizing of customer contact surfaces. We have always encouraged our employees to rest and recuperate if they feel unwell; we are even more vigilant about employee health and safety today. We are working on a continuity of business plan so that, should Andrew or I become sick, the basic functions of the farm can continue. As always, we value transparency with our customers and invite you to ask about our systems and processes.

Though the format of farm sales may need to shift (we are prepared to transition to all pre-order and pre-pack if necessary), we are committed to providing food to our community at fair prices. To that end, anyone who has been a CSA customer of ours and who is feeling concerned about long term finances may join our summer CSA on a “pay-as-you-go” basis, thereby securing our 10% CSA discount without paying $500 in one chunk. We do ask that you sincerely plan to spend the full $500, provided you are able. As always, anyone may purchase from us at our regular prices. To those who feel able to join our CSA the normal way, we deeply appreciate your support.

In many ways, spring feels like spring to us, and that is a gift. We are happy to have purposeful work, and grateful that we can contribute in this crazy time by keeping people supplied with healthy, delicious food.