As we close our 20th year, I’m reflecting on what a great growing season this has been. Many of you may remember the sad state of some crops (beets and carrots in particular) to too much rain. This year, conditions were good, and the proof is in the pudding, as it were: the beets are huge, the carrots are fat and sweet, the kale has looked fantastic and the spinach -- WOW the spinach! Like many of you, I’ve been enjoying these vegetables all season… and thanks to our high tunnels and winter growing, I will be enjoying them over the winter months too. (That’s 46 weeks of fresh, locally grown vegetables. What a bounty!)
I am grateful for this rare opportunity to eat off the land I work on for so many months of the year. (I am grateful, too, for the global economy that allows me to buy pineapples and plantains over the winter.)
I am grateful, hugely grateful for the relative peace of mind that comes with not having to scramble -- after a long, hot, exhausting season -- to find winter work. I remember that anxiety well.
I am grateful for a job that makes me feel alive every day; a job that feels good, even when it hurts.
I am grateful for all the little moments of connection I’ve had with so many of you: hearing about your travels and your trials in the kitchen, sharing secret grins as your children sneak leaves of kale or devour whole tomatoes raw in the middle of the distribution tent, watching you discover turnips or fall in love with beets or try pickling for the first time.
I am grateful to all of you who waited patiently at 3:03 on a Tuesday in July for me to finish writing the board.
I am grateful to anyone who has ever helped catch a bin of carrots (or peppers or turnips) from tumbling; who jumped in to help unload the truck or carry boxes of fruit; who offered to help fix our tractor joystick or the A/C unit in our vegetable cooler or the broken scale at distribution.
I am grateful to all of you -- from CSA members to middle-school students to baseball players -- who responded to my urgent pleas for last-minute help to donate produce; to tackle an urgent, looming weeding project; to clear out the tomatoes or to get carrots out of the ground before a freeze.
I am grateful to anyone who has been willing to stay an extra ten minutes in the field to finish a job. (Oh the satisfaction of a job complete! That long, weed-free row!)
I am so grateful to all of you who say thank you -- whether in words, in notes, in grape muffins or surprise crockpots of soup on cold days.
And so, I’d like to take this opportunity to share my gratitude for you, your participation and support. I do this both on behalf of Poughkeepsie Farm Project, because we couldn’t do this without you… but also personally, because I don’t think I could do this without you. You make being here better. Thank you.