Seeing as it’s tradition in pop culture to do endless “Year in Reviews” come December 31, I thought it appropriate to take this time to reflect on our first year at Pachamama Farm.
Let me begin by mentioning that we have not yet lived at Pachamama Farm for a whole year; our one year anniversary of closing on the house and farm is coming up in a few weeks, on January 18. That being said, I do not think we could possibly have tackled more work, life changes, and life events in a single year, than we did in 2013. The short list is as follows: we bought a house and land, moved out of the city to the county, then christened it Pachamama Farm, and began our small business. We provided food to a 25-member CSA for 12 weeks and supplied four restaurants in Rochester with produce from July through November. All the while we were planning for a big event…our marriage on October 6! The big day was followed by a great honeymoon to NYC, one of the only off-weeks we shared this year. And then, upon returning home and cleaning up the field for the winter, we added a new member to our family, Tip, the amazing Border Collie we adopted in early November. So today, more than most New Year’s Eves, we breathe a welcome sigh of relief, for we made it through what felt like the biggest year of our lives thus far. I can only hope that 2014 will bring us such successes, yet I do wish for a slightly less busy year.
In reflecting more specifically on Pachamama Farm, I would venture to say that our first season was more fruitful that we initially imagined. It is difficult to determine exactly how much we produced in poundage, but we grew over 80 different varieties of vegetables, and harvested easily over five thousand pounds of produce. Let me remind you that this was all accomplished on a mere half-acre, and was done without mechanization beyond the initial use of a tractor in the spring to prepare the fields. From scything down the existing brush, to hand raking our permanent beds, to weeding, planting, and harvesting, we did all of this with just the help of a few friends occasionally, and a committed friend who worked with us a few days each week. Of course we are the first to admit that this work was at times grueling and painful, and yes, we often asked ourselves why we selected the life of manual labor over that of the mind, yet at the end of the year we feel a great sense of pride for what we have accomplished.
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- Scythe Work March 2013
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- Soil Samples March 2013
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- Breaking Earth Day April 2013
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- Planting our First Seeds May 2013
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- Planting in the Rain June 2013
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- First Harvest July 2013
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- CSA Carpool August 2013
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- Final CSA Share September 2013
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- Flowers for the Wedding October 2013
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- Planting Garlic November 2013
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- Heading to Market November 2013
We have plans for expansion in 2014— We will cultivate a full acre and expand our CSA to about 50 members. We are also looking to supply additional restaurants in the Rochester and Canandaigua regions. We are hoping to galvanize support through our CSA to add more volunteers to our weekly routine, by offering a discount to members who volunteer. And we are looking to get connected with Victor High School Environmental Studies students, as a source of volunteers and potential interns.
What began years ago as a dream has shaped itself into a reality in 2013. While our dream did not clearly foresee all the challenges we faced this year, from groundhogs to cabbage worms, and from sunburns to utter exhaustion, we continue to piece together the lingering images of the dream, and slowly we will persist in working towards that in 2014.
Pachamama Farm 