Walking the Talk

A recent theme at the farm these days is, "How come no one can do what they say they're going to do?"

For example, 25 families are currently relying on me to supply them with a season's worth of vegetables, with a bonus sprinkling of fruit. I said that I would supply said items; my member families have entrusted me with their hard-earned money (or promise to work, for my worker shares). This is a covenant which I take very seriously. If I don't do what I say I'm going to do, 25 families go hungry.

Our frustration begins with my current greenhouse. This winter, I supplied them with a list of what I need grown and when, and included the seeds for each. They agreed. This agreement is vitally important, as I count on their "doing what they say they will do" for my 25 families!

For example, I need(ed) to put several hundred heads of lettuce in the ground on May 1st. So, on April 30th, I called and said, "as agreed, I'll be there tomorrow to pick up all of my May 1st plants. I assume (maybe that was my first problem!) that they are in the hardening-off area by now and are ready for me to plant." The response, ".... uhh.... maybe you shouldn't come until the end of the week." WHAT??? Apparently, my lettuce (and broccoli, cabbage, collards, kale and others) had died several weeks earlier, from lack of watering. They had just been replanted. Did they give me a call and say, "we've had a problem and need to push back our agreed-upon dates"? Nope. You could see the steam coming from my ears.

As farmers that sell produce grown all-naturally, without synthetic fertilizers or pesticides (a.k.a. organic), we plan all year for our farming business. We spread compost and cover crops on the gardens, we plant garlic in October, we water and weed our crops. We purchase seed and plant it. We do what we say we are going to do.

Is the word for this integrity? I'm not sure, but it's close.

I was recently discussing this with a long-time customer of mine and his comment was, "These days, if someone only does what they say what they are going to do, they will be wildly successful." This hit me hard. How did our expectations of eachother fall so short? In this day and age of technology and overbooking, is it so hard to say what you will do and do it? Makes me crazy.

Luck being kind, I had already planted most of my upper garden in spinach, arugula, mesclun and peas. These will be the mainstay of my early shares, as well as asparagus, rhubarb, mint, chives and lovage. My families will not go hungry.

Long and painful story short, I am currently at the mercy of my greenhouse growers. This is unacceptable to me and my business. Because of this, we have committed to purchase and install our own greenhouse to start all of our own transplants. Look for this development in the coming months.