As we reflect and plan for next season with our farm team, we’ve realized several important lessons from this farming season.
What’s predictable? The weather will be unpredictable. From a wetter, earlier spring to a drier, warmer autumn, our weather continuously strays from the norms we once knew. The cues we once watched regarding crop readiness or weather are changing. Often, we are no longer waiting for a frost to harvest autumn brassicas or cold temperatures to turn off the irrigation wells. At times, it feels like we’re learning to farm anew!
We must bend or we’ll break. We started the farming season with planting plans and crop and cover crop rotations planned from spring through fall. But early rains and warmer-than-average weather meant early fields best suited for what was planned, and we threw the plans out the proverbial window! In the end, almost no crops were planted where we had initially planned this year. Vegetable crop rotations, cover crop rotations, and even grazing rotation plans constantly evolved due to factors outside our control. Our organic certification process and record keeping became more complicated than ever because of the constant state of planning, replanning, and documenting all of the changes along the way. However, evolving systems, tools, and our team allowed us to evolve, which meant we were building our resilience in real time. While exhausting, we did not break because we developed a more flexible style of farming as adaptability became our norm.
Where experiences start isn’t where experiences will end. Jeff also sees students grow, change, and engage differently with the farm throughout the growing season. Their body language gives it all away. Instead of standing in the background as they did in August, they are leaning into soil while seeding, planting, and engaging with the work in November. From the hundreds of students we’ve worked with at the farm this year, we are constantly reminded to leave our assumptions at the door and engage with the students where they are on that day, at that moment, and with their level of readiness. Standing shoulder-to-shoulder with students in the field builds their competence in working with land, confidence in themselves and leaves them more willing (and excited) to engage with our environment.
Sharing the product and the process. After farming for 19 years, it is easy for us to get caught in our food production tunnel vision. For years, we’ve worked extremely hard to grow organic food well, and we are trained to view the work (or food) as the reward. More recently, however, we’ve begun to view the reward as the impact we’re making on others. Your emails, stories, feedback, and our conversations with you recharge us. We are also rewarded with conversations with students about their interests in studying the natural world. These interactions are a reminder of why we do what we do. Engaging with our community lifts our heads and asks us to share the process along the way, reminding us of the large life lessons that can learned from agriculture and the environment.
Gratitude for a flexible team. Our farm team is an essential part of the farm’s tapestry. Cleto, David, Anacleto and Miguel are positive people who are open, willing to take on anything, and always there to be supportive. After three years of working together, our trust (and comedy) level is high. Jeff and I could not do what we do without this team. In less than two weeks, they will return home to their families in Mexico for a much deserved break. We are already looking forward to their return for our fourth season farming together next March.
From left to right: Cleto, Nancy, David, Saul, Karen W., Jeff, Jen, Anacleto, Karen K., Miguel (not pictured: Penny, Patrick, Margie)
By valuing local food and the farmers who grow it, you are making a measurable and important impact on our natural world and the lives of many. Thank you to this community for supporting local agriculture and choosing us as your farmers. Onwards to growing together!
Your farmers,
Jeff, Jen, David, Cleto, Anacleto, Miguel, Saul, and the Liberty Prairie team