Wrapping up 2021 and Rolling Out 2022!

By Farmer Richard

Rolling out row covers on the Strawberry Field!

Here we are, ushering in the final month of the year and wrapping up yet another bountiful CSA season.  We have already started working towards the next growing season and as we look ahead to 2022, it’s a promising outlook.  We have had a very busy, but very productive fall.  About 90% of our fields are going into winter with established cover crops.  We value cover crops greatly and rely on them to keep our soil in place over the winter while also building fertility for next year!  We are hopeful for next year’s garlic crop which was planted using very nice bulbs we selected from this year’s harvest.  We are confident we’ve given it a good start and we’re happy to report it already has 2 inches of roots protected under a nice layer of mulch!   We also have a nice field of spinach to overwinter for harvest next spring.  It is covered with a big field blanket for a little extra protection over the winter and we anxiously await that day in the spring when we can peel it back and look for that sweet, new growth!  Nearby we also have a very nice, new field of strawberries that we will harvest for the first time in only about 7 ½ short months!  That crop is also nicely mulched and all of these fields are surrounded by deer fencing to deter our four-legged friends from entering them over the winter!

Compost Temperature Reading

We’ve also spent a considerable amount of time doing some field and land maintenance in preparation for next year.  Earlier this year we had the opportunity to purchase a new piece of land that gained us a very nice 12-acre organic field.  Having a secure land base upon which to grow vegetables well into the future is always at the forefront of our minds.  As we go into next year we will be losing some land that we have leased for many years, but we also have some new land we’ll be leasing.  We’ve invested some time this fall into cleaning up the perimeters of some of these new parcels of land as well as making sure roads are accessible for the work we’re going to need to do early in the spring.  We did soil tests this fall and will use that valuable information to formulate a solid management plan we’ll implement next spring including applications of compost, minerals, etc.  On that note, Silvestre has been diligently managing our compost windrows this fall.  He’s closely monitored the temperatures and has been very timely in turning the rows to keep the piles “hot” to make some very nice compost.  These are just a few of the many things we’ve been working on in the luxury of this very nice, mild fall.  We know the snow will be flying soon, so we’re just trying to maximize every nice day!

Compost Turning

The pace of the farm is changing as we slowly say good-bye to our H2A visa crew.  We’re down to the final group of crewmembers who will help us put the finishing touches on this year with our final CSA deliveries before they return to their homes in Mexico for the winter.  We are hopeful that each and every one of them will be returning to work with us again next year.  Labor shortages are a very real struggle in the produce industry and have only become worse in recent years.  We hear stories about produce rotting in the field because there aren’t enough hands to pick it and we are even more grateful to have a skillful, experienced, longtime crew that is dependable and an overall joy to work with.

As we prepare for the new growing season, of course it’s time to also start signing up for the 2022 CSA Season!  This week our “Rollover” email will go out to all of our CSA members who pay through our monthly electronic withdrawal option.  If you are one of those individuals, watch for that email to land in your inbox!   As we put together our offerings for 2022, we are not making too many changes.  The majority of our CSA site hosts will be working with us again next year, however there are a few changes to our delivery sites.  We are also not making any changes to our Vegetable share offerings and a few minor changes to our meat share packages.  While most things will remain consistent with this year, we have decided to increase pricing for both our vegetable shares and meat shares for the 2022 growing season. This is the time of year that we have to assess profitability as we project (guess) what next year will hold.  It’s very difficult to set a price and make a one-year commitment to deliver on that price and it’s no secret that the cost of many things in our economy have increased, and in some cases may continue to rise.  In our business, we’ve seen significant increases in packaging costs this year, but also fuel, fertilizer, and the list goes on.  Just this week I saw reports coming from AgWeb that fertilizer costs are up 43% and seed cost is up 7%.  We don’t want to fuel inflation with increased prices, but we also want to remain profitable and viable so we can continue to feed families into the future.  

It is also worth mentioning that labor is almost half of our annual expenses.  I mentioned earlier how much we value our crew members and they deserve to earn a fair wage for the work they do.  Their wages are set by the government and have increased each year since 2018 with annual increases ranging from 2% to 6.3%.  The 2022 wage rates will be announced soon, but initial thoughts in the industry based on labor surveys are that we’ll see another significant wage increase of as much as 6% for 2022.  This next wage increase will take them over $15 per hour, plus with the H2A visa program we are also responsible for providing free housing, cover all their visa fees and transportation.  

2020 Fall CSA share box

The last time we increased our vegetable CSA share prices was in 2018.  Each year since then we’ve chosen to hold our price and instead focus on building efficiencies and increasing our membership so we can defer the overhead costs of operating a CSA program over more shares.  While we didn’t plan for a pandemic to be the catalyst that brought our CSA numbers back up to a sustainable level, it did make a huge difference in the profitability of the CSA portion of our business.  Unfortunately, we can’t absorb wage and input costs forever and still remain viable.  Thus, for the 2022 season we did increase our vegetable share prices by 5%.  While we haven’t finalized our meat share pricing for 2022 yet, we are planning to increase our meat prices as well.  We are thankful to have a dependable processor, but they raised their processing costs earlier this year and we anticipate we’ll see another increase after the first of the year.  

As we confidently move forward into another growing season, we acknowledge there is a big unknown on our shoulders.  We know the pandemic brought us many new customers and, thankfully, many of you stayed with us for a second season!  But the unknown we face is whether those members will come back for a second or third season.  Will people continue to value CSA as a safe, reliable way to source their food and recognize the value in sourcing locally or will a large percentage of individuals choose to go back to “business as usual?”  We also hope members will consider the actual value of produce packed in the boxes this year.  Based on our secret shopper pricing data to date, if you were to purchase the items in your CSA box at a local food co-op or a national natural food store, you would have paid an average of 32% more for the same quantity of food.  Of course, some items are not always available organic and there are some items we include in boxes that you will seldom to never find on a store shelf.    This is the nature of CSA—when there is bounty, members reap the benefits of a bountiful year by receiving full boxes packed with so much goodness!  Plus, you receive weekly communications, recipes, the opportunity to take advantage of special offers, and most importantly a connection with the source of your food.  This is a very precarious time for our business, but it is also a precarious time for our nation, our economy and our supply chain.  The pandemic has shown us the vulnerabilities in our supply chain and, at the same time, it has become even more evident that a local food system is a more sustainable and reliable system to support.

Gerardo packing CSA boxes 2021!

I suppose any conversation about a new growing season and a new year would not be complete with out mentioning COVID.  What will 2022 hold for us from the perspective of the pandemic?  It’s been a long and challenging two years for all of us.  As business owners, the amount of pandemic-induced decisions, considerations and costs has been overwhelming at times.  Thankfully, we have been able to move forward in good health and continue to do the best we can to make decisions that are in the best interest of our employees as well as our customers.  We’ve done due diligence in minimizing risks of exposure on the farm, but also at our CSA sites.  We know there are differing levels of comfort and opinions about what is necessary.  We continue to assess our practices on the farm as well as the protocols for our CSA sites.  We will be sending out a short survey within the next week or two and would value a few minutes of your time to gather your input.  We want to get your feedback about our COVID related protocols for CSA sites and what your opinions are about what is necessary moving forward into a new year.  

We know many of you would like to see the use of the plastic liner bag be discontinued.  We agree and hope we can resume our previous method of packing vegetables directly into the boxes with members doing a quick transfer of the contents to their own reusable bag, cooler, etc when they pick up their box.  Over the past two years we’ve received some emails from members who are concerned about the amount of plastic and packaging we use to pack our CSA shares.  Couple this with the worldwide use of single-use plastic due to the pandemic and we agree, we can do better.  Over the winter we will be looking at ways we can decrease plastic use in our CSA shares as well as other ways on our farm.  There are some new packaging products available now that are more eco-friendly and may be appropriate for packaging some items we now put in plastic.  One example is a new recyclable cardboard clamshell some growers are using to package small items like grape tomatoes and berries.   Of course, if you have suggestions for packaging vegetables in a CSA box, we’ll gladly consider your input!  

Every year holds a new set of opportunities and I am certain 2022 will not disappoint.  Regardless of what evolves with the pandemic, wage rates, the cost of fuel, etc, we plan to remain steadfast to our goal.  That is to produce the healthiest food we can for our community so all of you can continue to contribute to our world in positive ways.  We hope you enjoy the final deliveries of 2021 and we look forward to growing for you again in 2022!