fighting the good fight

July 15, 2010 in Letters from young farmers

many thanks to greenhorn Tim Quinn of Lost World Farm for his words and photos. He says of the Greenhorns, “Your group has been a large part of my inspiration, so I must of course say thank you all for your efforts in helping to jump start our efforts.

I really believe that we as a collective will make this right, at the very least I am going to die trying. Our field is 14 miles each direction from my home and at least 1 day a week I ride my bicycle to do my field work. It makes for a long day, but being tired in that way is so, so satisfying. Again, it has been and will continue to be a pleasure fighting the good fight.”  Right on, Tim.   Here’s a little blurb he wrote for us about his farm:

This is our first year operating a small CSA in Boulder County, Colorado. So far our experience has been incredible. We are 2 young farmers aged 35 and 38, both of us have been gardening in and around our city for years, and we felt it was time to step up our game.

Last summer we rolled the dice and placed a message on a land share message board. We were contacted in the autumn by an incredibly generous and helpful local land owner. Her only interest is in the land being farmed lovingly, so she gave us the green light. We were given a total of ½ acre spread over 3 fields. The soil has been farmed organically since 1990 and we are continuing the tradition.

Our commitment this year is 25 shares and we are now heading into our 7th week of distribution. This season we have distributed 8 different varieties of lettuce heads, carrots, broccoli, kale, radish, spinach and cauliflower.

It has been a beautiful experience, going from a simple message on a message board, to selling shares to our wonderful friends, onto preparing the fields and finally vegetable production and distribution. The feedback has been great and if we are able to procure more space, we have people waiting in the wings to snatch up the produce.

We want our friends, family and community to be healthy and productive and this is our contribution. As with most young farmers this is a labor of love. We plan on transitioning full time into food production for next season. Our goal is 100 shares.

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