A Farmer's Perspective

Beautiful Gesture – Gift for All

What a beautiful gesture your donations were these last two weeks. Yesterday I dropped off 65 dozen eggs to the Barre Food Shelf.  That’s 780 eggs! And the look on their faces as they stood amidst the old bread and tired vegetables looking at our donation of extremely fresh eggs was amazing. Thank you for allowing me to be part of this gesture. Thank you for working with us to fulfill another part of our mission – to support ALL families in getting the freshest and cleanest food from local farms. So often quality food from local farms is labeled as a luxury and elitist, simply because it costs more to produce vital food consciously, ethically and cleanly. Figuring out a way where we all – families, farmers, and Farmers To You – can give families in need access to this food is an incredibly positive development. The cycle of poverty is a cruel one. One of the most insidious parts is that the food poorer families often have access to lacks the vitality and health components that they need most to give them the Herculean energy it takes to break out of the cycle of poverty.

Amazon and Whole Foods – where’s the farmer?

I wanted to share a recent article by a long time partner at Farmers To You, Otto Scharmer. Otto and his wife Katrin have been partners since the very beginnings of Farmers To You and I have always had deep respect for his perspective and work on matters of economics, organizations and community. The recent buy out of Whole Foods by Amazon is the latest step in the further consolidation and scaling of our industrial food system, and while many food industry experts are hailing it as a very positive move – I cannot agree. Otto does an amazing job articulating how this will most likely lead to a further degrading of our food system and even of the laudable if under-realized mission that Whole Foods has worked to fulfill over the years. In short most small to medium scale Organic farmers (the scale at which the best food for the planet and us is produced) cannot maintain a sustainable relationship with Whole Foods due to the mismatch in scale.  Amazon will make this even worse than it already is.

Solstice Intentions

Twice a year there is a complete reversal of the direction and flow of energy in the natural world. Think of it as the transition we feel in our own body every time we take a breath – from the in breathing (December 21^st – June 21^st) to the out breath (June 21^st to December 21^st). What has been happening during the in-breath period is a gathering of energy, fertility and forces that build in the soils, animals, seeds and trees and then during the out breath they yield their beautiful bounty and riches. While much of that bounty has already started to show – watch how it accelerates in the next few weeks to shower us with incredible food, sweetness and beauty.

Full Moon Choices

Tonight brings us the Strawberry Full Moon. The spring full moon that speeds up and encourages the burst of growth and germination of all the seeds and plants that have been lined out in the fields of our partner farmers. The moon is responsible for the massive movement of water in the oceans that result in the high and low tides each day. It exerts a powerful influence wherever water is present, and in plants water is significantly present. With all the rain we have had this will be a particularly active impulse.

You Are Amazing!

Does Leap Farm

When I wrote you all for help 6 weeks ago, I never could have predicted the outpouring of enthusiasm, sharing and passion so many of you have for what we have all created over the past 6 years. I am truly humbled.