Social Entrepreneurship

Dear Community,

I’m circling back to the energy that sent me on my path toward farming. When I was 17 years old I started to articulate farming as the perfect metaphor to talk about how we could engage the environment in a healthier way. If we could grow nutritious food with sustainable methods, and provide that food universally to our communities, I thought we’d be on a positive road toward both environmental and social sustainability.

Nearing 20 years into my formal path as a farm business owner, I’m again feeling the rise of the environment in the base of my conversations. Climate change, a phrase in the past tense, is in front of us every day. I’m in the feeling part of me that is starting to rebuild my own urgency, as I learn how to re-engage the reality of our frighting environmental ethic through farming as a lens. When so many of our climate destructive actions having become the norm, I’m feeling really grateful to be waking up that uncomfortable itch of demanding change.

In full transparency, my relationship to farming has felt a little rocky over the past couple of years. I deeply love what I do, evidenced by an ambitious and very energy intensive move in 2018. But, the driving factors of my business have been built around a crop profile and pattern necessary to stay relevant in Maine’s farm and food culture. With that, I’ve tried to develop career minded positions for my staff and maintain my footing in our very competitive marketplace. I’ve lost a bit of me in the process.

I feel incredibly fortunate (and excited!) to be heading to Stone barns in New York next week for an entrepreneurial intensive with 14 other farmers from across the country. I’ll be with a new peer group to jump full on into an audacious and tight agenda of co-creating conversations to take our individual farms to the next level. Being in a room where I don’t have to explain the value of farming prior to working a business plan is incredibly valuable to me. I want to become the best social entrepreneur that I can, bringing together my love of farming and my concern for the environment and our community, in right relationship to who I am at this next phase of my career.

As always, I look forward to sharing more food and conversation with you in this new year ahead. Those of you who want to help support our winter work and significant pre-season preparatory cash outlay, can pre-buy market credit CSA shares today. In lieu of adding the extra 10% pre-buy bonus to your cards, this year I’m committing that value as donations to MOFGA. Additionally, there is a share purchase option to help support the thousands of dollars of food we’ve been donating to Preble St. each year.

Thank you for growing with us, standing with by our side as we take risks, and sharing in the awareness that healthy food, healthy communities, and healthy environment are truly one. I’m honored to do this work with you.

Sincerely,

Beth