Italy!

We're heading off to Italy! There's not much to do around the farm during the winter, so us student farmers are headed to a farm near Siena to learn how the Italians do it. We just finished up a week of vacation (skiing! woo hoo!) and are packing feverishly before heading to Logan. We'll be back at the end of February so there might not be much blog-action happening between now and then.

See you all in March!

NOFA NY

Even though it was a while ago, I still want to write about the conference that we attended. Northeast Organic Farmers Association New York (also known as nofany) hosted a three day conference in Saratoga Springs. After a harrowing drive through yet another snowstorm (go subaru go!) we arrived around lunch time. I went to a lecture on brambles which was pretty interesting, especially learning about how the three farmers speaking set their pricing and how they decided wages. One of them paid health insurance, which is pretty rare, while another thought that enough fresh berries is all the health insurance you'd need. They had a variety of marketing strategies, including pick your own, farmers markets and CSAs.

A few of us went to Friday night services with Betsy at a local temple which was pretty great. The next morning I went to a presentation by Half Pint Farm near Burlington, VT. They seemed really happy with their farm and their life and gave me a lot of confidence in farming as not just a profession but a lifestyle.

I also went to a fascinating talk about cost of production tracking and farm records. Definitely makes me want to get a book on small farm business management since there seems to be lots and lots to learn.

Over all, it was an interesting, well done conference. Hopefully I'll be able to go back someday!

Housesitting

Don't get me wrong, we love living at the farm. The company is amazing and it's really fun to be living with so many different people. At the same time, when Kim and Reid mentioned they were going on vacation and needed someone to watch their house, we were more than happy. We just spent two weeks walking their dog, feeding their cat and watching movies on their huge TV. A wonderful, winter break from our normal farm lives.