The circumstance of this season has been hard beyond imagine and highly disappointing for us all. The final nail in our coffin has come in the form of not being able to continue on the piece of land we've been working for the last few seasons. Our landowners have continued to share that our being there to farm is uncomfortable and have created a toxic situation in which we can no longer cultivate the community we crave along with crops. Land and water are the most important and hardest commodities for farmers to come by and after the severity of downfall in our relationship created by the landowners, Revive Gardens will not be a functional farm again for some time. With the shift of knowing that we are not wanted on that piece of land we had to make some hard decisions and change direction as for the completion of this season.
As mentioned in a past email, I've been working a full time job in a kitchen again in order to pay bills as the farm as been entirely unproductive and has continued to decline. I'm working a "normal" job in hopes that we can secure a more permanent land and water situation in the future. All of my farm time, which isn't much, has been split between trying to maintain the tomatoes and get a bumper crop out of them and turning a ten year plan around and finding a way to turn the growing space back into a pasture before the end of this season. In order to take the necessary steps to finish this season the way it's been demanded of us we were unable to carry out the lifespans of a lot of replanted crops (which were still struggling and limping along anyway).
As far as another distribution goes I just don't have the productivity to put one together. As much as I want the tomatoes to produce a huge amount all at once, I didn't grow for that back at the beginning of the year. I planned for variety and a number of crops being ready throughout this late summer and fall season. I just don't see it worth your time to come by for one or two tomatoes. I never planned for a single full scale distribution of just one or two crops and the plantings don't support that. The fall squash went into the ground as the soil began to fail and despite the extra push we gave them there just wasn't enough left for the demands of those plants.
Believe that I understand that this season has been disappointing. I am more sorry than you'll ever know but have done all I can. My deepest hope is that this season will not shape your vision of CSA for the future and that you will find another farmer and support them to share a community dream.