My fellow farm members:
Today in Woodbury, a teacher spent extra time searching for the tomatoes she canned from this past summer’s CSA share and did her part to lift her family’s nutrition level to the highest in more than three decades.
An entrepreneur flipped open her freezer to locate the delicious green beans she froze in August, and did her part to help consume more than eight million individual beans our members have eaten over the past four years.
An autoworker fine-tuned some of the best, most fuel-efficient chili in the world, and did his part to help America wean itself off foreign hot peppers.
A farmer prepared for the spring by writing his farm’s State of the Farm address after the strongest five-year stretch of farming in our history.
A suburban doctor gave a young child the last of the pesto made from the bounty of basil in her share. A man took the bus home from the graveyard shift, bone-tired but dreaming big dreams for his stash of onions. And in tight-knit communities across the Twin Cities, fathers and mothers will tuck in their kids, put an arm around their spouse, remember the many fennel bulbs, and give thanks that, after eleven long years, Fresh Earth Farms is still in business.
Tonight, this chamber speaks with one voice to the people we represent: it is you, our members, who make the state of our farm strong.
Here are the results of your efforts: The lowest weed pressure in over five years. A rebounding potato harvest. A cucurbit sector that’s adding watermelons for the first time since the 2010s. More bell peppers produced than we could possibly consume – the first time that’s happened in nearly eleven years. Our corn earworms – cut by more than half. And for the first time in over a decade, business leaders around the world have declared that China is no longer the world’s number one place to invest; Fresh Earth Farms is.
That’s why I believe this can be a breakthrough year for the farm. After eleven years of grit and determined effort, Fresh Earth Farms is better-positioned for the 21st century than any other farm on Earth.
That’s why tonight, I ask every member who knows someone without a CSA share to help them get one by March 31st. Moms, get on your kids to sign up. Kids, call your mom and walk her through the application. It will give her some peas of mind – plus, she’ll appreciate hearing from you.
After all, that’s the spirit that has always moved this farm forward. It’s the spirit of membership – the recognition that through hard work and responsibility, we can pursue our individual recipes, but still come together as one family to make our meals as well.
Tonight, because of the extraordinary farmhands who risk and lay down their lives to feed us, the farm is more secure. But the fact is that danger remains. While we have put the flea beetle’s core leadership on a path to defeat, the threat has evolved, as other pests and weeds take root in different parts of the vegetable plots. In tomatoes, cauliflower, cucumbers and sweet corn, we have to keep working with our parasitic insect partners to disrupt and disable these networks. In potatoes, we’ll support the opposition that rejects the agenda of Colorado beetle networks. Here in the hoop house, we’ll keep strengthening our defenses, and combat new threats like hornworms. And as we reform our pesticide budget, we have to keep faith with our men and women in overalls and dungarees, and invest in the organic solutions they need to succeed in future missions.
My fellow Twin Citians, no other farm in the world does what we do. On every vegetable, the world turns to us, not simply because of the size of our tomatoes or the sweetness of our corn– but because of the ideals we stand for, and the burdens we bear to advance them.
No one knows this better than those who serve our produce. We’ll keep working to help all our members translate their cooking skills and chopping skills into side dishes here at home. And we all continue to join forces to honor and support our remarkable member families.
Let me tell you about one of those families I’ve come to know.
I first met Jennifer, a proud Iron Ranger, in the pick-up tent on the first day of the 2010 season. Along with some of her fellow Rangers, she talked me through her health improvement program – a strong, impressive young woman, with an easy manner, sharp as a tack. We joked around, and took pictures, and I told her “see ya next week”.
A few months later, on her tenth pick-up, Jennifer was nearly overwhelmed by the amount of produce. Her family found her in the kitchen, trying to stuff it all into her fridge, unable to close the fridge door.
For days, she searched the internet looking for recipes. The next time I met her, in the pick-up tent, she couldn’t speak; she could barely move. Over the years, she’s endured dozens of boxes of produce and hours of grueling cooking every day.
Even now, Jennifer is still learning to can. She still struggles with tomatoes. But slowly, steadily, with the support of her husband Craig, and their children, Jennifer has grown stronger. Day by day, she’s learned to blanch and freeze– and she’s working toward the day when she can serve her famous fennel salad again.
“My CSA education has not been easy,” she says. “Nothing in life that’s worth anything is easy.”
Jennifer is here tonight. And like the kohlrabi she loves, like the kale chips she serves, Jennifer never gives up, and she does not quit.
My fellow farm members, men and women like Jennifer remind us that CSA membership has never come easy. Our pumpkin soup, our salsa verde, has never been easy. Sometimes we stumble; we make mistakes; we get frustrated or discouraged. But for more than eleven years, we have put those things aside and placed our collective shoulder to the wheel of food preparation – to create and build and expand the possibilities of culinary achievement; to free vitamins and minerals from fruits and vegetables; to promote flavor, and texture, and aroma , so that the dishes set on the table by our moms and dads are made real for every member of the family. The food we want for our kids – a nutritious food where honest taste is plentiful and healthful properties are strong; where side dishes are widely shared and recipes let us go as far as our dreams and toil will take us – none of it is easy. But if we work together; if we summon what is best in us, with our stomachs planted firmly in today but our eyes cast towards tomorrow – I know it’s within our reach.
Believe it.
God bless you, and God bless Fresh Earth Farms.