Hi Everyone,
Winter is coming to an end, the days are getting longer, and spring crops are growing in the greenhouse. I'll be starting radishes, turnips, carrots, spinach, lettuce, arugula, beets, and many more things out in the field this week. It's a good sign that I'm getting the first field crops planted a few weeks earlier than last year.
As I enter my second season, I keep thinking about last year, one of the most challenging and rewarding years I can remember. As I reflect on the craziness of getting a farm set up, I have naturally been thinking a lot about all of the people who made it happen. Nothing would have been possible without the tremendous support I've received from so many of you.
Camp Riverlea & Joe Harris provided the land and equipment without which there would be no farm. Julia Fiore, my friend and the camp program director, put us together. Becca Wait of Little Sprout Farm and I worked hard to turn an open, un-plowed, un-irrigated field into a vibrant market garden.
Getting the field ready was only the beginning, and it's crazy remembering that at this time last year I didn't know where I would be selling any of these plants I planned to grow. I have incredible gratitude for the South Durham Farmers' Market, its board, the past manager Ben Filippo, and the present manager Elizabeth Zander, for all of their support. And beyond any reasonable generosity, John Wescott loaned me his truck, without which I would have had no way to get my plants to market.
I remember my first day at market, last April, and my perhaps irrational fear that maybe I wouldn't sell anything. I'd like to thank Kyle Painter, my very first customer (and since then consistently one of my best) for putting that fear to rest.
The list of people who have helped either with actual physical work on the farm, or who gave me supplies or shared their hard-won knowledge and experience is ridiculously long. John Mark Engle turned his critical eye to my website, and you can be confident anything that looks good has his fingerprints on it, and anything out of order is all me.
I got materials, support, or advice from Judy Thomson of Thomson Ranch, George O'Neal of Lil Farm, Will Cramer and Ever Laughter Farm, my Uncle Mike and Aunt Myra, Ross Cannard, Andy Downs, Fickle Creek Farm, David Owens and his wife Nicky, and South Durham Market customers Derek Treuer and David Clark.
The talented Katherine Molter worked hard on many iterations of my logo (I have a logo!!!). These great illustrations will be popping up in all kinds of places in the coming years.
So many people did physical work on the farm that I can't name everyone here, but two people deserve special thanks. Andy Downs, a South Durham Market customer, volunteered so much of his time last year that I am forever in his debt. His company helped keep me sane, and the bounty of my market table week in and week out last year owed much to his incredible help. He did everything from planting, trellising, and weeding, to starting fall seedlings and helping me construct my new greenhouse. My cousin, Aaron, also regularly helped with long harvests, whether in severe rain or extreme heat, and somehow remained cheerful through it all. He worked many markets for me, and also helped with the greenhouse.
Julia Sendor also deserves special thanks, for tending the greenhouse last winter, and working several markets by herself when I couldn't go.
Without the loyal support of the great customers at the South Durham Farmers’ Market, and my CSA, things would be very different. Many thanks go to my awesome friends Megan Fork and Anna Braswell, who helped spread the word about Dig It Farm and made my first CSA great.
May Reid-Marr gets special thanks for teaching me how to pick veggies and convincing me I can do this.
My entire family and all of my friends have been incredibly supportive.
My girlfriend, Blair, gets my biggest thanks of all, for being so supportive, for helping me harvest, go to market, build a greenhouse, take time off, and just for being her awesome self.
To all of my customers, my friends, and my supporters, near & far, I can’t adequately express my continued gratitude, and emphasize how much you’re a critical part of what I do, and what I am working to create. I hope to have an even more bountiful season this year and to continue to share more and more of the bounty of the farm.
THANK YOU.
David
