May Farmer's Perspective: Sam
Do you ever feel like so much has happened but, in terms of progress, not much has happened at all? That’s how May has felt for me. Like a lot of small businesses and family-owned companies around the country, we’ve been experiencing the impact of staff shortages. Some of these outs have been planned (congrats on the baby, Tyler!) and some have not. Whatever the cause, it’s required our small team to really stretch our capacities in how much can be accomplished in a day. We’ve had to postpone some big projects, like preparing for tomato wholesale season, and getting winter squash plantings in the ground, in order to keep the more pressing tasks, like daily delivery driving, going strong. “When it rains it pours,” has been the saying around here as of late.
Artichoke flowers going out to New Seasons
Even with all the metaphorical ‘pouring,’ there have been some special rays of sunshine that always seem to find their way through. A couple of these bright moments for me have been some long overdue farm tours, the transplant sale, and seeing our farm’s story in the press. All these May highlights have required me to lift my head ‘out of the weeds’ and get to share with our community about all the hard work we’ve been putting in. For the farm tours, we got to host some new and growing wholesale partners: the entire Eat Local crew and New Seasons produce department managers. Being able to show them the farm and talk about this year’s new varieties was super rewarding. It was especially exciting to discuss the chance to sell our artichoke flowers to New Seasons next month! Of course, just when we thought artichoke season had ended…
The Spring Transplant Sale was a refreshing way to kickstart the crazy month and even allowed us to set up a rad farm stand in the pole barn for folks to come shopping- something we’ve been wanting to do more consistently at the new ranch. Our landlord (and, let’s be honest, great friend) Peter Van Dyke, even made some cuttings from his legendary caper trees to sell! Whether it’s via transplants, new supermarket partner’s produce, or caper tree cuttings, there’s more and more S&P products in homes around the bay. People love to hear the farm’s story which, of course, we also love to share. In May, both the Morgan Hill Times and the Gilroy Dispatch published articles on the history of the Van Dyke property and the new farmers (us). Being connected to the community and keeping the agricultural legacy alive in Santa Clara County is what it’s all about. And we’re grateful and proud that our local networks want to share our story!
Newest members of the farm
To tie up the month, we had a furry and loud arrival of our next flock of 200 chicks. This new group is from the Black Sexlink variety and we’re really grateful for the awesome work our Chicken Manager, Daniella has been putting in. Be on the lookout for eggs late summer! We’re keeping our chickens away from the new pepper plantings in the ground (especially my new favorite ‘espelette’ from French Basque Country), but they’ve been really loving the free range food scraps in the kale and cabbage beds. I mean, I don’t blame them, since sometimes I scavenge for leftover lunch in the field too…