Thank You for Investing in Health and Local Agriculture!

Joining Us Along Our Journey

2012 marks our 3rd season offering Community Supported Agriculture Shares and we couldn’t be more excited.  Our farm is in many ways still in its infancy, although we have plenty of successes to celebrate from our first few seasons we are well aware that we have a long road ahead toward one of our primary goals of producing the best quality produce in our region.  Similar to a new pair of sneakers, we have laced up another winter season (however mild it was) of knowledge and are prepared to make terrific bounds along our path.

Each spring we begin our season from a new place, both metaphorically and physically.  Last February we had just begun a series of field sprays which included our renewed focus on bringing silica forces from Equiseteum (the horsetail plant) to our fields.  Cobalt and Molybdenum, two important trace minerals which test low on our soils had yet to be procured.  This February we are 12 months deeper in our focused efforts stewarding health and vitality within our soils.  This season’s focus on fertility includes the application of nearly 50 tons of rock dust to our soils which will provide a broad base of minerals to vitalize our soil biology and in turn crop health.

Our commitment to quality doesn’t stop when we pull out of the driveway.  This wintertime has been a particularly fruitful season for sharing knowledge and learning from others.  In early February we joined more than 130 farmers and gardeners at the First Churches in Northampton for the inaugural Soil & Nutrition event.  The crowd included the next generation of growers who are still seeking land to start their farm to respected elders like Jack Lazor of Butterworks Farm (who produces some of the best yogurt money can buy).  In addition, Steve and I offered workshops at the NOFAMass Winter Conference and we are halfway into a 2 session course I’m teaching for the Bionutrient Food Association at Skip Paul’s Farm in Little Compton.

Our success is judged not solely by the quality of our production, but also by the quality of our neighbors and colleagues.

Throughout this winter I’ve started using a phrase to describe our production techniques here at the farm…caring, honoring, and dignifying our biological systems. The work we undertaker as farmers today is built upon a sense of duty.  A mandate brought to us from future generations, which asks us to care for the land as the precious resource providing us life, to honor the complexity within the soil through full spectrum remineralization, and to dignify our natural environment through the abstention of chemical abuses.

The natural yield of this approach is bountiful harvests which continue to impress with flavor and quality and ultimately provide the nourishment at the core of a healthy diet.  As always, it is with tremendous gratitude that we share our thanks for investing in our farm, becoming part of the Brix Bounty CSA community, and providing us with opportunity to embrace work which we love.

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