59. #changes
As Garden Variety Harvests closes the door on our fourth season of vegetable production on backyard plots, some big and exciting changes are afoot. We are in the due-diligence phases at what will be the new farm headquarters: creating cost estimates and opening new relationships toward accomplishing the work that’s ahead of us. The ink is not yet dry and therefore I’m not ready to share the specifics on where we’re moving to. But I think I can say a few things about the how, the why, the when and with whom we will be taking these next steps.
Most literally how we’ll move the farm is mostly with a pickup truck and occasionally a van. But ultimately the migration will be governed by a long and ever-changing to-do list that already has a couple items checked off. I’m a fiend for planning and executing efficiently. I’m painfully frustrated by re-dos and double-backs, so a lot of time has been and will continue to be spent on researching the best ways to accomplish the infrastructure goals we have for our new farm. Very little of how we actually grow the vegetables will change. With nature on our side, we’ll continue to produce chemical-free, high-quality leaves, roots, flowers and fruits using as regenerative techniques as we know how. Our bed size may jump from 24” to 30” wide and we’ll be upgrading to a BCS 2-wheel tractor to break ground. But the broadfork will continue to be my favorite tool as I seek to remain as minimal-tillage as possible. We’re scaling up for sure, but repeating the same steps more often in an effort to multiply the number of delicious carrots, lettuces, kales and okra GVH has become known for.
When will GVH be moving? Slowly, one day at a time, over the next couple years. Our new farm home is in Roanoke City, just a short drive outside of the current farm network. So we don’t have to move the farm in a weekend; we can make this transition at a comfortable rate over the seasons. We’ll do some vegetable growing at the new site in 2022, but it will be a year focused primarily on infrastructure building like greenhouses and fences and an expanded packing area. I’ll continue to manage a few yard plots as we leave large portions of the new farm in cover crops and under tarps. We might not have all the vegetable areas installed until 2024 or 2025, so continuing to farm yards is a crucial part of keeping the veggies coming to your plate.
The why of our transition toward a central headquarters is something I’ve written about in previous blogs: it all comes back to eliminating inefficiency. I have reached a bit of a ceiling on what a 1-man backyard vegetable farm is capable of in this city, but expanding the business and hiring farm crew isn’t feasible when the packroom is in the in-laws’ backyard but the nursery is 3 miles away and the farm office is in my personal home. The consolidation to a bonafide farm headquarters means I won’t have to farm alone any more, which means the amount of ground we can plant will expand greatly.
The move and expansion also means we can sell our food in a few new and exciting ways. Every great urban farm has a farmstand where products can be picked up by commuters and neighbors passing by, and we fully intend to take advantage of an excellent central location in that way. Having more land under cultivation means we can start to consider the possibility of a CSA program because our offerings will be more diverse and abundant. There is space to quintuple our current vegetable ground at our new farm, so I’m confident that eventually we can be consistent enough with a few products that they could be available in local grocery stores!
The “with whom” of this evolution is the really exciting part. From day one we’ve had homeowner clients, market customers, restaurateurs, fellow farmers and other organizations who have helped the farm grow in myriad ways. And that team that pushes us forward continues to grow as our acreage grows. The SWVA Agrarian Commons deserves so much credit for even believing that this transition was even possible in the first place, and for laying out the principles and procedures that continue to shape this work. Changing the way people think about agricultural land and land ownership is a process that takes persistence and steadfastness. There are few organizations in existence which operate with the foresight and expertise necessary to bend the curve of land loss and consolidation as the Commons does. They are working tirelessly to make land accessible for the next generation of farmers and I’m so very grateful to be among the ranks.
We’ll continue to sell at the LEAP Grandin Village Market, of course. And maybe we’ll add another farmers market at some point in the future. But we plan for the new farm to be a space for garden education and community-building. To that end, our list of partnering individuals and organizations on this land is growing steadily. The details of these relationships are still being worked out, so I’ll refrain from listing them here. You know who you are, and in due time so will everyone in our local food ecosystem.
Thank you for the role you have played and will continue to play in this maturation of our little urban farm. I don’t know much about raising children, but it sure does take a village to grow an urban farm.
