A Cold Week Brings Our Organic Food Boxes to an End – SAD!
RECORD LOW TEMPERATURES END THE SEASON
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We 21 Acre farm subscribers were informed this week that freezing temperatures finally got the best of the crops and the growing season is officially over. This was sad news as we have become accustomed to the weekly organic food boxes we’ve been receiving since this June. Shopping for produce at the grocery store is going to be a bummer.
VISITING THE FARM IN WOODINVILLE
The greenhouse at 21 Acres
The greenhouse at 21 Acres
This Thursday I was fortunate to visit the farm and speak with Erik Gibson-Snyder who is one of the key farmers at 21 Acres. We talked about some of the huge challenges that face small, organic farmers these days and what the future holds for “community supported agriculture.” Both Erik and I agree that we are fortunate to have some extremely productive farm land in King and Snohomish Counties. If local farms continue to market to the growing number of food-conscious families here in the area, the movement toward locally grown food will continue to expand.
A frostbitten strawberry field
Winter frost hammers the crops
I asked Eric how successful Growing Washington has done over the last couple of years. Basically, this year the farm broke-even financially. This was due, in large part, to the huge increase in the number of subscribes which went from 60 in 2008 to 220 this year! One of these days, Eric believes there will be 5000 subscribers which illustrates just how committed Growing Washington is to the production of good, local food.
Right now, Growing Washington is in search of new farmland and it looks as if there are some good prospects in the Issaquah area for next summer. So, stay tuned as I will be communicating with Growing Washington throughout the winter and spring to find out what next year is going to look like.
For those of you who don’t know what community supported agriculture (subscription farming) is, I encourage you to visit the Growing Washington website. Also, if you want to see what a season’s subscription buys, check out my blog post entitled: 18 Reasons to Get Involved in Community Supported Agriculture.
