Verena, Lewis, and I are at the Northeast Organic Farming Association of New York winter conference in Saratoga Springs this weekend. It has been great hearing presentations (got some ideas for on-farm events and for more efficient CSA distribution!), but the best part has been talking with other farmers one-on-one. Everyone is friendly, approachable, and helpful. The amount of support and cooperation we’re finding in the New York farming community is impressive. The NOFA conference is also inspiring because of how many other young/beginning farmers are here (we learned a lot at the Young Farmer’s Conference this year as well, but much of the information was much more basic – more for aspiring farmers than have-begun-farming farmers).
We seem to be running out of winter pretty quickly… Lewis has made budgets for the year, Verena has ordered seeds and made calendars, and I’ve already ordered bee hives and strawberry plants. There is a lot more planning and refining to do, but the shape of 2011 is already coming into focus. And it’s the shape of awesome.
