Author: Angela Smith

Today’s newsletter will be a little different than usual as I spent much of last week dressed up and advocating for small farms in Washington, D.C. I did bookend the trip with an asparagus harvest Tuesday morning before I got on the plane and a rhubarb harvest at Sogn Valley Farm on my way home Thursday night, but other than that not a whole lot of field work was done. I’ll include some photos of what’s happening in the field below, but I thought I would use most of my “Notes from the Field” space to share what happened on my trip. After all, the way that we eat – what is available and for how much – and how we use and care for the land has a lot to do with the policies that are crafted in our nation’s capital every five years when the Farm Bill is hashed out.

As you all know, this is the week when I join the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition and Land Stewardship Project in Washington, D.C. to meet with legislators and USDA staff to discuss Farm Bill reforms that would benefit farmers who are growing food sustainably and at a smaller-scale. This includes not only people like myself who live out in the country, but farmers who are growing in some urban areas where a fair number of people don’t have easy access to fresh, affordable produce even at the grocery store (if they even happen to have one nearby). Many, many years ago I did a graduate internship for former Senator Lincoln Chafee up on the Hill. Times have certainly changed in the halls of power since then, but it will be fun to go back and relive my youth just a little bit.

Welcome to Season 2, Week 1 of Middle Fork Farm’s Community Supported Agriculture (CSA)! It seems like just yesterday I was closing up the pack shed, putting away the tools, and latching the field gate for the last time before winter, and now I am gearing up to deliver your first CSA boxes of 2023. I am happy to leave behind the spreadsheet planning and seed ordering for the next few months and move into the field where I can once again marvel at the life flourishing around me. Just take a look at some of the photos of the farm that I took this morning and you’ll see just how much nature is thriving out there already.