Dear Farm Community -

Hi folks, it’s your newsletter-writing, farmer-communications girlie Carolyn here with a rare first-person dispatch from a different side of farm life.

I’d love to be writing to you from lush strawberry fields or blooming flower beds, but the truth is that this past month and a half has looked a lot more like a kitchen table and a computer screen. While the rest of our lovely, fantastic crew has been out in the dirt and the increasingly hot spring sun putting in that hard work, I’ve been focused on something a little less romantic but just as important: securing funding for the farm.

This Wednesday, we’ll submit our Value-Added Producer Grant application through the USDA ~ something that could be a real game changer for us, albeit a huge undertaking. I’ve done my best to keep up with what’s happening in the fields while buried in spreadsheets, budgets, and grant narratives, but as the page count tips over 200, the deadline approaches, and my sights narrow on the finish line, I’ll admit I’m a bit out of the loop.

And things don’t wait. The sun keeps shining (a little too much… where’s the rain!) and the plants keep growing. At the start of this process, we hadn’t harvested a single strawberry. Now there are berries upon berries, the peonies are beginning to open, and we’re deep in spring onions and fresh garlic.

It’s a good reminder that while farming can be as simple as soil, water, sunlight, and a seed, a thriving farm asks for much more. There are a lot of hats behind the scenes keeping it all moving, and we all wear different ones. That’s part of what makes our farm such a special and dynamic place. Isaac, Tommy, and Antho the carpenters, Anna the plumber/irrigation expert, Alex the flower economist and engineer, Antho the farm mechanic, Carter the one-billion-trick-pony (CEO, field-plan puzzle master, economist, accountant, business guy), Bekah the designer, Averi the coordination whiz, Marco the trucker, Emma the pack shed logistics boss, Reid and Josh the high tunnel construction crew… and on and on. Oh, and everyone still wears the farming hat, too!

Farmer Alex said it best: “You can bring any of your passions or skills to a farm. Are you an artist? an engineer? a mechanic? an athlete? an accountant? a scientist? If you are, you might be a farmer. If you’re not, work on a farm and you could be.”

After over a month steeped in USDA language, survey analytics, marketing plans, and way too many numbers, I’m more than ready to trade my laptop for a sunhat and get my hands back in the dirt. Fingers crossed this work comes back around to support the farm in a meaningful way. We’ll know in the fall, and you will too. This farm is a special place, and we have dreams to make it even more so.

Thanks for bearing with a less-than-fieldy update this week. Next week we’ll get back to our regularly scheduled programming ;-)

This week’s CSA shares contain an option of carrots or turnips. Hear me out ~ take the turnips for a spin! Hakurei turnips are small, tender Japanese turnips with crisp white flesh and a mild, slightly sweet flavor that’s nothing like the sharp bite of a “regular” turnip. They’re delicious added to a crudités platter and eaten raw, lightly sautéed, or roasted, and even their leafy tops are perfect for a quick cooked greens side dish. There’s also no rules agains eating them as a snack on your drive home. A farmer or two (or twenty) have been known to munch on them plain and simple. A perfectly buttery sweet little snack.

Enjoy that sunshine,
Diamond Hill Farmers