F26 (WK6): Admin Reveal!

Oct 5

Dear Farm Community,

We are nearly HALF WAY THROUGH our Fall CSA session! That’s bonkers!! If you’ve been a newsletter lurker and having a “will-they-won’t-they” relationship with our CSA, consider this a sweet and gentle nudge to try it out as we enter the very ecstatic fall veg season. Far from being too late in the game, with 7 weeks of CSA left this is actually an awesome time to join via our our weekly-pay subscription! We’re seeing that magical overlap of the seasons so unique to fall - summer veg still very much abounds and we’re enjoying cooler weather produce like leafy greens, root veggies, and brassicas like kale and soon-to-come broccoli and cauliflower. What a world of delight! There’s plenty of pickup and delivery options, and if you join today you’ll receive next week’s share :-)

A little special edition Know Your Farmer this week ~ I’m pulling back the curtain for an ADMIN REVEAL! It is me, your newsletter author, hello hello

What is your role on the farm?
I’m the Communications Manager for Diamond Hill Farm and one of our lead farmers. I wear a lot of different hats around here! I spend part of the week working in the fields, run our stand at the Freedom Farmers Market alongside our very talented and wonderful market helpers/"farmers market heroes", manage our website, create very fun and exciting content for Instagram (pls follow us), I write our weekly newsletter, pursue funding through writing nonprofit- and USDA-grants, and design our merch, signs, banners, flyers, and more. It is also my job to annoy our farmers by taking a million photos of them all the time. Basically, I get to juggle a bunch of different creative and farm-y things, which keeps the work very interesting! Over the years, I’ve farmed at both our Winterville and Athens properties and have worked with both vegetables and flowers. These days, I have the distinct pleasure of getting my fingernails dirty with the veg crew at our Morton Road location. :-)

Carolyn’s Farming Journey
From ages baby to 26, I was absolutely, completely, so very certain I was supposed to be a veterinarian. I spent over 10 years volunteering and working in the veterinary field, and after working in veterinary surgical research for a while, that’s where I thought I was headed long term. In 2021, my partner and I moved from Philadelphia, PA to Athens, GA for me to begin veterinary school at UGA. Before classes started, though, I had a real reckoning with that vision of my future and realized that, for many reasons, it wasn’t actually the direction I wanted my life to take. While trying to figure out what direction I did want to go in, I spent a lot of time talking with my chicken-and-mushroom-farmer sister, who had made her own major career change into farming after working as an assistant fire marshal. The more we talked, the more I realized farming might actually be a really good fit for me. I love being outside, caring for plants, getting dirty, doing physical work, and working farmers markets with her had always been so much fun. So I took the biggest, scariest leap of faith of my life and left veterinary medicine to start working at Diamond Hill Farm as a part time farmer. Almost FIVE years later, I’m still so happy to be part of this team. Best decision!

What makes you passionate about organic farming?
Over the last few years, as I’ve faced some health challenges, it’s become more and more apparent to me that food is the original medicine. So much begins with food, and unfortunately, we live in a society where most of us are deeply disconnected from where our food comes from. So much conventionally grown produce from the industrialized food system falls short when it comes to quality, nourishment, and what our bodies actually need, not to mention the environmental impact of those farming methods. At some point, I had this really clear realization that eating whole, organic, nourishing food is a major priority for me in life. That belief connects to so many other things I care about, including health, spirituality, our relationship with the earth, and the environment. All of those things come together to make me really passionate about organic farming. Plus, I just believe that if you really, really vibe with the people somewhere, it must be a sign of something good. Near and far, organic farmers seem to be some of the kindest, coolest, most grounded, passionate, funny, wonderful people I’ve ever met.

What do you like to do when you’re not at the farm?
So many things! I’m an artist of a million mediums, but most notably acrylic painting, fiber arts, and film photography. I love sewing quilts, mending clothes, and generally working with my hands on loads of projects, usually with half a dozen in progress at any given time. I’ve ridden horses since I was 7 and am lucky enough to ride with some friends every week out in the country ~ this English rider is learning to be a cowgirl! I also love day hiking, backpacking in the mountains, traveling far and wide, and gardening at my house. In the last few years, I’ve really fallen in love with meditation and spiritual practice. I meditate daily and spend a lot of time learning about the Dharma, especially through Theravada Buddhism and bhakti yoga. Yoga Asana has been a big part of my life for a while and I’ve recently started exploring qi gong. I’m also endlessly interested in the mind-body connection, herbalism, and all things healing. I cook almost every night, love the Grateful Dead with an intensity matched only by other Deadheads, and care a lot about spending time with friends and building community. I just love experiencing everything this life has to offer :-)

CAROLYN FUN FACT!
In 2018 I accidentally became an indentured servant for 3 months in rural Belgium.

What’s something you’ve done on the farm that you are proud of?
I am SO proud of the general VIBE that has sprung out of my creative work for the farm. I love knowing that people really connect with the farm through the way it is shared online, and through the visual language of our flyers, posts, merch, market displays, newsletters, etc. This farm is a living organism full of love, hard work, sweat hours, laughter, the fruits of our labor, friendships, and more - being able to translate that wonderfully nebulous ecosystem into something that people can feel a part of makes me feel like I'm doing something important.

What is a small thing on the farm that you are grateful for?
I am grateful for "Wonder About It Wednesday" (no googling allowed) and "Find Out Friday" (googling encouraged).

In your opinion, what’s the best season and why?
Fall!!!!!! We finally get relief from the oppressive Georgia summer heat, and the amount of veggies growing is insane. EVERYTHING IS POSSIBLE! Tomatoes! Squash! Beets! Sweet potatoes! Turnips! Arugula! Peppers! Cucumbers! Beans! Ginger! Greens are back! Agriculturally speaking, Fall in Georgia is a wild time to be alive and eating local. And we all get absolutely bonkers euphoric that first breezy 65-degree day on the farm.

What’s your favorite way to pass the time weeding with other farmers?
Talkin' nonsense, listening to other farmers talkin' nonsense, talkin’ nonsense back and forth, getting so far down a rabbit hole talkin’ nonsense that you come up somewhere strange and unusual.

You’ve got a week off and no budget limit! Where are you going?
I’ve recently had a tug in my heart to go to Bodh Gaya in Northern India and see the Bodhi tree, a descendent of the Bodhi tree that the Buddha sat under when he became enlightened 2600 years ago.

We’re all in the pack shed finishing up a big market harvest and you’re handed the AUX. What do you play?
Surely everybody would love listening to the iconic 3.5 hour Grateful Dead Live Album Sunshine Daydream from Veneta, Oregon 8/27/1972.

What is your favorite DHF memory?
Farmer Emma and I once wrote an entire song called "Lettuce Jail" which is about when you have to harvest and wash 200+ heads of lettuce. The song has a renaissance fair kind of vibe. Then we wrote a song called "Kale Jail" which is about when you have to harvest and wash 100+ bunches of kale. That one is more of a Johnny Cash vibe. I also loved when our former farm manager Eli told us that “it’s not jail it's called harvesting"

What is your favorite thing about Diamond Hill Farm?
I love that as Diamond Hill has grown and evolved, the heart of our work has stayed the same: the love of farming, the love of community, and our love of stopping to look at frogs and little bugs while we’re out in the field. I love that the farm has become such a hub for community. It seems to hold a really special place in the network of young townies in Athens, a place where people connect through farming and where those connections often endure far beyond the fields. And at Freedom Farmers Market, we get to be part of another kind of community in Atlanta. There are so many people I’ve come to know there over the years, and we get to come together every weekend. I’ve gotten to know customers and vendors, watched children be born and start to grow up, seen people discover new favorite foods, delight in running into a friend, get excited about being in community, and thank us for feeding them. It’s just such a special thing to see the farm become so much more than the sum of its parts. It has a real heart and soul that reaches beyond the fields and into the lives of the people around it, and that is probably my favorite thing about it. :-)

For the full Know Your Farmer experience, head to our instagram page to see the post - all set to the sweet sounds of the Grateful Dead.

CSA shares this week have everything that’s good! You might look sideways at the bunched greens in your share, but worry not! Those are BROCCOLI GREENSand they are delicious! Broccoli greens are the big, sturdy leaves that grow on the broccoli plant before, during, and after that head of broccoli pops up. They have the familiar broccoli flavor, but cook up more like kale or collards. They’re hearty, earthy, and especially good with garlic, olive oil, something salty, and a little acid. You can use them anywhere you’d use another sturdy cooking green like kale or collards.

Try these simple Garlicky Sautéed Broccoli Leaves with olive oil, garlic, and a squeeze of lemon; turn them into a bright, savory Broccoli Leaf Pesto for pasta, sandwiches, or pizza… swap broccoli greens for the kale in this cozy White Bean + Greens Pasta, or explore this whole collection of 8 Ways to Cook with Broccoli Leaves if you want extra credit :-)

We hope you enjoy getting acquainted with this gift from the broccoli field. One of our favorite parts of CSA is getting to share these less common veg delights, we hope you love it too!

Happy Eating!
Diamond Hill Farmers

This cuffing season, consider settling down with some good local produce:

join our CSA