Fresh To Morrow

The year 2024 will be our 15th year that we have decided to order seeds, start seeds and grow food.  This year will look very different than 2009 when we only sold vegetables May - October and the only product we had was a prepaid $500 account and everyone received the same bag every week!  We did this and a few farmers markets and small private events for about 10 years. Our year begins very soon with an inventorying of the existing seeds and seed starting materials, placing orders for materials which will grow food for us for the entire year!  Most years we start some of our seeds sometime in early March and begin planting in our gardens in mid to late April.  We start seeds and plant them in our garden through September. In years prior to 2023 we would start hiring people in April and usually lay them off around the holidays.  It was definitely the least favorite part of our job.  In 2024 we enter the season with 3 full time or nearly full-time workers, ...

 Around this time of year we all (ourselves included) begin to look back and all around us and wonder about all of the many things to be thankful for.  And rightfully so!  In our lives we look at our full walk-in cooler, our garage full of winter squash, and many freezers full of the 2023 local harvest!  For farmers it is especially strong a feeling as we put many hours of planning, starting seeds, and hoeing, long before the harvest.  What we put into the process is trust and faith that if we put in the work like we have done so many times before there will be at least something to harvest at the end.  Thank God and for around 15 years in a row we have been able to go into the winter absolutely bursting at the seams with food and ready to SHARE! Most of the vegetables and berries we grow at our farm, but the beef and pork are locally sourced.  The other produce that we source locally is a wonderful feeling for us.  We know that we can have access...

Our intention with this post is to talk about how we hope to build Fresh To Morrow into a local food co-operative through first building good working relationships in the community. Our definition of community is likeminded people in Morrow and the immediately surrounding areas.  Ok so likeminded people would be people who wanted to know their neighbors, work together and help each other out, share resources, and generally be helpful to each other.  Ideally within this greater community, specifically also the people who loved nature, good food, good music, good art, good fellowship, gardening and plants and liked to keep learning from each other. Before defining food co-operative, we should share some sobering statistics.  The average age of the US farmer is 58.  Of the food grown in the US that could be eaten, only about 25-30% of that food is actually eaten by people, the rest is wasted in the field, the warehouses, in the store, and then in the refrigerator of the...

Farming and preparing food involve participating in beautiful cycles.  The year has 4 seasons, each of which grow different type of food and different amounts of food.  There are times in the year when we are very busy and times of the year when we are not.  Every week we prepare the food we have been blessed with, and every weekend we open.  We are hopeful that people will come down and eat our food and be pleased with their meal, pleased enough to come back and do it again! A few of our customers come to see us on a regular basis.  Regular enough that we know their names, their preferences for food, we know about their lives and often times we know their friends whom they bring along.  Most of the time they greet us with smiles and ask us how the business is doing or how the farm is doing.  Many of our regulars now ask us what we recommend they should eat, and we give our recommendation based upon their prior orders and known preferences.  Many ...

 If the year were a S that had fallen on its side, the winter solstice is the valley, while the summer solstice is the mountain top.  By the time the winter solstice rolls around, most of the year's crops have been brought in and the farming year is over.  It is cold outside and there is less light to work with.  So, we take the opportunity to rest, read, stretch, catch up with dear friends, do puzzles, play board games and dream about the future.  The hard knocks we took over the past year, we try to see those as learning opportunities and vow not to make the same mistakes again.  The good times we remember with fondness and vow to have more in the future.  It doesn't matter how difficult the challenges or how awesome the good times, we know that we will try to do better next year.  This natural rhythm is sacred to us, and we feel blessed to be alive and share this with others. We see a bright future for Fresh To Morrow (F2M) and for the Village ...