This letter was written by farmer and CSA operator Pete Talliaferro BEFORE the early snowstorm we had. That really set everyone back even more.

Taliaferro Farms
A Letter From Your Farmer: 10-23-11

Dear CSA Members,

I know many of you have been waiting and wondering what the status of the farm is in the aftermath of hurricane Irene, tropical storm Lee and the persistent rains. I actually began to write this letter September 1st only to have stalled a bit while coping with the hurricanes damage. Before I could get back to the letter we began to deal with the rains of tropical storm Lee. It seemed every time I was ready to start writing again some other negative weather issue held me up and changed my thinking. Well I finally have been force by the constraints of time to sit down and write.

Keep in mind farming is predominantly made up of five things. Agronomy (soil science), horticulture (plant science), animal husbandry (raising and caring for farm animals), entomology (insects and their life cycles) and risk management (the business part of farming), these five things are what it is all about. Here is the synopsis of what happen, what has been going on and where we are at. For those of you that don’t know we don’t grow all of our vegetables on the land that we own at 187 Plains Rd. where you come and pick up your CSA share. The Home Farm as we call it (187 Plains Rd. New Paltz NY) where our home is (where you pick up your CSA share) consists of 32 acres of land. Only 19 of those 32 acres are planted. The remaining acres are made up of roads, buildings, and infrastructure that support the farm. The lion share of the vegetables that we produce are grown on land that we rent. The land we rent is ¼ mile north of us on Plains Rd. The land is owned by Plains Rd. property owners (Robert Walsh, Guy Gardener & David Roehrs). The land (a total of 21 acres) is situated between Plains Rd. and the Wallkill River. The land, given the location, is known as river bottom land. River bottom land more often than not has great soils. The soils of this particular location are Teal and Hamlin soils, both rich in natural organic nutrients. All along we have known that this location is prone to flooding (predominately spring). But we worked our planting management to incorporate that feature of this piece of land and the location. When we put together our growing schedule each season we always make sure that we plant the rented bottom land last. We do this because historically it is prone to spring floods every 2 or 5 or 7 years. The chance of a catastrophic fall flood on that land in the fall is one in ten thousand or more, considering a season with relatively typical weather patterns. To have a hurricane reach out and touch us this far inland and bring that kind of weather is more than rare. No farmer would even have considered putting a weather event like Irene in their risk management plan.

Now that I have given you a bit of back ground, I will now tell how we put together the farms planting schedule, specifically planting the rented land. We plant our spring and summer crops on the home farm. We do this because the soils on the home farm are gravelly. The gravelly soil drains more readily and the small stones in the gravel hold on to the suns heat which allows the soil to stay warmer after a cold spring night. The better drainage allows us to get on the soils earlier for planting. The increased soil temperature results in better seed germination and plant growth. One of the negative aspects of gravelly soil is that it takes more work to maintain soil fertility because of the stony airy nature of the soil. The fields on the land that we rent are wetter and cooler longer because of the lack of small stones and airy nature. Clay and silt particles are a predominant part of these river bottom soils. Positive aspects of these soils are they hold on to and distribute nutrients efficiently and are less prone to draught. We don’t begin planting these fields until very late spring or early summer. Reflecting on the fact that historically a fall flood is very very rare on this river bottom land the majority of our fall crops are planted on these rented fields. The weather event that occurred on August 28th (hurricane Irene) along with the equally devastating rains of the week of the 5th – 8th of September (tropical storm Lee), were both over the top. We have seen the river bottom land flood in the spring before and it is typically 8-12 inches deep and may stand in the field for 6-12 hours and is gone. During these two flood events the water reached a depth of 5 ½-6 ft deep and stayed 4ft deep for 36 hours or more. The vegetables could not survive this duration under water once let alone twice. The crops that fell victim to the flooding were potatoes, sweet red peppers, green beans, romano beans, head lettuce, escarole, red beets, arugula, kale, dandelion, basil, squash, leeks, tomatoes, spinach, swiss chard, cilantro, Mesclun lettuce, melons and broccoli raab. A total of 14 planted acres was a 100% loss. The farm had an 80-90 thousand dollar investment in plants, seeds, labor, agricultural materials, fuel and tractor time. 80% of our fall vegetables would have come from that land and 80% of that 80% was to be designated for CSA distribution. At this point we knew our wholesale program for the fall was done. We also knew that we had to close the farm stand and suspend the CSA distribution until further notice while we wrestled with solution options. We took a look at what we had left in the way of produce in the fields at the home farm and what land and how much land was available to plant / replant at the home farm. How could we possibly begin to rebound from this disaster? This was our objective, figure out how and put a plan into action. Our wholesale program has been our cash cow every fall and that was gone. We were down to less than 30% of our normal production and finances were going to be more than tight. We had to let 80% of our full time local seasonal labor go and all of our local part time labor. We also had 40 % of the remaining labor converted to part time. The only way to generate money so we could continue to operate was to work with our farmers markets. Keep in mind what produce we need for the farmers market’s is 10% or less than what is needed to supply the CSA. Example, it takes 20-30lbs of Mesclun to have enough to sell at a farmers market where as it takes 250-350lbs to do the CSA distribution. We can always scratch around and put together 20-30lbs of Mesclun but 250-350lbs would be out of the question in this type of situation. This is the case for all of the vegetables that go to market verses what’s needed for the CSA. So at the farmers market may look like a sort of cornucopia of produce but in reality it is a handful of well arranged bits and pieces. The money from the farmers markets would allow us to cover payroll, so as to keep our core group of employees working and keep the wolves (accounts payable) at bay until we could somehow settle up at the season’s end. With our core group of labor intact we should be able to harvest what might be available and also plant. We had planned on planting so we had young plants in our green houses to work with. We also had a reserve of seeds that could be used to direct seed in the fields for late fall crops. There are vegetables that will mature if planted in the first week of September. These are cold hardy crops such as oriental salad greens (hon sai tai, red mustard, mizuna, honvit & tat soi), pac choy, chinese broccoli, napa cabbage, mesclun lettuces, spinach, collard greens & arugula. We were off and running with the objective of getting the CSA going before season’s end. Although getting the CSA going again before the end of the 2011 season is the upfront objective under all of this is the fact that as a farmer you can’t ignore planning for next year. While dealing all the disaster issues and recovering work have kept right on planning and planting for the 2012 season. This is one of the things with this business, you can’t stop or you will fall behind to the point where you can’t recover. We have already invested 7-10 thousand dollars in crops for next year. The garlic seed alone was three thousand dollars. You also have the expense of prepping the fields and planting. We have also planted crops for overwintering that will be available in spring , carrots, spinach and onions. We also have put a cover crop on 30% of our acreage. Well our ability to persist is going to pay off although not as bountiful as we would like. The persistent rains all through September and into October (with the exception of that one gorgeous week) compromised many of the plants and seeds that we planted and our yields and variety aren’t what we were shooting for but, we still have got enough to get going. We want to thank each and everyone both CSA members and friends in our community for their incredible show of positive support, sending comforting words in letters & emails, offering to volunteer to help, bringing us food treats and just plain letting us know that you are all there for us. I want to give a special thanks to our friends Don & Lisa Kerr for being there at a moment’s notice without hesitation to capture this devastating event on video to let the community know and see firsthand what really happened. We put our backsides on the line every season to grow food and it is great to know that someone (the community) has our back.

God bless you all.
Most Sincerely,
Pete, Robin, Peter, Ian & Delaney (the family that farms)