Main Menu
About PFP
City Seeds
Farmers' Market
FoodShare
CSA
Getting Involved
Membership
Events Calendar
Newsletters
Directions
Tours
Job Postings
|
March, 2004
Hello PFP friends and members,
Spring is coming! We are starting the greenhouse up this week (time to start
the onions!) and plans are all aflutter. We are excited to welcome back you
who have renewed your membership for another year at the Poughkeepsie Farm
Project and would like to encourage you who haven’t gotten to it yet
to sign up now. We do have quite a few memberships available right now, so
please help us with recruitment by signing up soon and telling others about
the Farm Project. There are also memberships available for those who would
like to support the project but are not prepared for a weekly onslaught of
vegetables.
It has been a year (only? already?!) since Asher and I came to the Poughkeepsie
Farm Project from a small CSA in New Hampshire. We have worked on a number
of CSAs in the past and love bringing the land, farmers, and the local community
together through food. Since we arrived at the Poughkeepsie Farm Project, we
have been trying to get a handle on just what this project is. We have been
astounded by the wonderful energy, learning, collaboration, and connections
that surround this project. Growing food is in itself a miraculous activity.
Nestle that activity in a community of people committed to health and justice,
and all sorts of possibilities are born. Most of you know that a harvest membership
means that you participate in the CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) which
includes a weekly pick-up of fresh vegetables grown on the farm with soil enhancing
methods and no synthetic pesticides or fertilizers. You may or may not know
that membership also means you are part of a project that is working to create
change in the local community and beyond. By operating this urban, college
based, member-supported farm which gives people a chance to connect to the
land and each other, we create many opportunities to work toward a healthy,
just, local food system in the Hudson Valley Region and beyond. Connections
are made between people and land, people and people, people and organizations,
our organization and other organizations.
The farm serves as a …
- source of nourishment to our members and recipients of food assistance
from local charities
- classroom to students and community members
- home for a community building organization
- change agent which sparks ideas, spreads the word about healthy alternatives
to chemical and corporate agriculture, and links people who want to make
a difference.
- source of meaningful work for all who contribute their time
- living experiment in community farming.
And much, much more.
So how do all those wonderful ideas translate into reality? There are lots
of plans at the PFP this year. Some current projects include:
- Teaching college students about farming and CSA through our farm internships
and by working with students through the Vassar field work office.
- Giving farm tours to educational and community groups that want to learn
more about sustainable farming and CSA. (If you know of a group that would
like to do this, please pass on information about the farm project to them.)
- Sharing the farm and our knowledge about community farming with teenagers
in Poughkeepsie through our collaboration with the Cooperative Extension’s
Green Teen program.
- Working to increase food justice by building relationships with local
charities and food justice organizations, supporting the Poughkeepsie Farmers
Market, and reserving 10% of our produce for low-income people and organizations
that serve them.
- Building a new deer fence at the PFP. Unfortunately the deer have gotten
too smart for our existing fence so we are looking at the alleged end all/be
all of options: the woven wire fence.
- Beginning to develop our meditation/memorial garden as a space for contemplation,
education, pick-your own crops, and group activities.
- Coming up with a fundraising plan for the future. Unfortunately vegetables
don’t generate much money (if they did, we wouldn’t have such
problems with the loss of farms and farmers today) and it is no different
at the PFP. We have discovered in examining our budget that our base price
for CSA shares pays for producing the vegetables, but not for all the other
projects that the PFP takes on. We ask you, our members, to help fund the
educational and outreach portions of our mission by paying an additional
amount above the base price, if you are able. We are aware that it is not
possible to fund all of our activities without outside assistance however,
and will be working on fundraising strategies in the coming year.
- Planning member events such as potlucks, events for children, and informational
events on topics related to food and farming.
- Continuing to grow good quality, healthy produce while enhancing the health
of our soil.
So! You can see that many of us have been and will be quite busy and we invite
you to join in wherever you are comfortable and able. Looking forward to good
people, good work, and good food!
Yours in the field (and behind the computer),
Wendy and Asher |