Saturday was the Harvest Dinner. We had around 75 people around that long table at the HUB. We invited all the farmers and the members who participated in our pilot year of CSA pickups.
Our CSA program is different than farm pickups in that farmers don’t always get to see their members throughout the season. So it was really great to see farmers and members meeting each other after interacting only through emails and boxes of produce all summer.If you missed it, Rolando and the crew cooked an amazing meal. Boston baked beans, cornbread, an incredible kale caesar, cranberry relish, sweet potato bars, and those huge Hubbard Squashes. We had a keg of Notch Valley Malt.
There was music from Luddy, who are fast becoming our house band, Rolando and I made a speech and announced plans for next year’s program and a Winter CSA (more on that soon). Finn and Heather, customers, found out it was my birthday, and brought me a jar of homemade jam. Neighbors and farmers and employees and kids were all meeting each other.
Ari (Lindentree Farm) met my mom, and she got to thank him for feeding me all summer. Sarah and Ryan (Red Fire Frm) joined us with their new baby, who didn’t exist when sign-ups first started, and they got to chat with our employees (Mark and Mary are all ready to come out and help them weed fields this spring). Signe, from Drumlin/Mass Audubon, brought 5 farmers. She wrote me a note this morning:
We all had such a great time at the Harvest Dinner. Thank you for putting it together! Social events are so important to building change, but as farmers we don’t have enough time to create them.
More pictures:
