We’ve decid­ed that we’re not con­tin­u­ing Black Brook Farm Grow­ers this year. It was a very dif­fi­cult deci­sion, but as much as we’ve enjoyed the last two years on the farm, Dave and I both feel as if we’re not ready to com­mit 100% to an agrar­i­an lifestyle quite yet. Because so much plan­ning in farm­ing is very long term (you don’t see the results from your efforts until many years down the road) in order to real­ly cre­ate a eco­nom­i­cal­ly and eco­log­i­cal­ly viable farm we would have to com­mit to stay­ing here for a long time. Dave and I are still young, and we still want the oppor­tu­ni­ty to trav­el and exper­i­ment with dif­fer­ent career paths, and we feel as if this exper­i­men­ta­tion would­n’t be pos­si­ble while main­tain­ing this farm in Carlisle.

 

So, we’ve moved back down to New York City and left all the beau­ty the farm has to offer behind. Dav­e’s work­ing in film, and I’ve con­tin­ued to work in restau­rants and also been doing some work with Slow Food USA, which is based in Brook­lyn. If pos­si­ble, our dream is to take a road trip across the Unit­ed States vis­it­ing and work­ing at dif­fer­ent farms through the WWOOF pro­gram (World Wide Oppor­tu­ni­ties on Organ­ic Farms). Where ever we are, we hope to keep learn­ing about farm­ing and food. My mom has also had an excit­ing cou­ple of months, but you’ll have to ask her about that.

 

We start­ed Black Brook Farm Grow­ers because we want­ed to learn about farm­ing, and because we want­ed to get this beau­ti­ful, nutri­ent-rich land back into pro­duc­tion. Well, we’ve def­i­nite­ly learned a TON, not just about farm­ing, but also about our­selves. We’ve become stronger, men­tal­ly and phys­i­cal­ly, and we’ve moved back down to New York City with more con­fi­dence, a stronger com­mit­ment to local food and the envi­ron­ment, and a much more sol­id rela­tion­ship with each oth­er and with our fam­i­lies. As far as get­ting the land back into pro­duc­tion, we’ve found a cou­ple women in the area that are inter­est­ed in keep­ing the gar­den going, so it’s so the land will still be used, now under the name Danc­ing Toma­to Farm. Vis­it their web­site for infor­ma­tion about where to buy their veg­eta­bles. If you’re inter­est­ed in a CSA share, our friend Andrew Rogers is start­ing a CSA over at Clark Farm and I’m sure it’s going to be great. You can get more infor­ma­tion at the Clark Farm web­site.

 

If you have any ques­tions about our deci­sion feel free to email us. Thank you to every­one who sup­port­ed us these past cou­ple of years. It’s been an amaz­ing experience.

 

Hap­py Spring!

Gal­lagher