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Adapting and Improving, one year at a time

The wintertime brings a host of shifting timescales and events. It’s the overlap of the New Year, and notably the less busy time for the majority of farmers and food producers (sorry livestock folks, I realize there’s still a hum of activity in your barns!). For many of us, there’s a January lull before the thaw kicks many activities into gear.

Along with my partner, I operate a small community farm in Canton called littleGrasse Foodworks that raises vegetables, herbs and flowers for “Free Choice Shares”. My partner is on the farm and I juggle farm tasks with another job. I reckon that rings true for many northern New York producers. We are entering our 13th season and I’ve gotten much better at not losing sleep worrying about every issue of our farm, but rather tackling a couple things at a time for incremental improvements that lead to a range of small and big impacts.

Picture of field at littleGrasse
One of the fields at littleGrasse

If you are looking for ideas, here are three easy ways to enact positive changes in your farm or food business in 2022.

Track time for one enterprise OR activity 

It’s true that we cannot understand our cost of production without accounting for how we spend our time. And it can be overwhelming to consider. For years, I felt the pressure to figure out how much time we were spending tending every one of our 50+ crops to see if any were too time consuming and adjust accordingly. It seemed daunting and I hesitated to take the plunge. And in reality, as a farm with shares, diversity is essential to the quality of our overall offering. We cannot decide to stop raising carrots on a CSA farm, but we can prioritize improving efficiencies in our processes. Anyhow, in your own business, I bet there are certain activities you’d like to get a better handle on and there are very simple ways to track activities, for example an online platform called Clockify.

I decided that instead of figuring out how long tending the carrots versus the cabbage took, it would be more useful to get a grasp on categories of activities. So in 2021, once per day I logged onto Clockify to enter my time spent on certain activities such as Accounting, Communications, Maintenance, Harvest, etc.

Example of using Clockify software
Screenshot of the Clockify software.

Logging my activities each day was easy and took around 5 minutes. Some days only included a couple hours of farm work and others included a long list of tasks.  Now we are planning for 2022 and with that investment of a couple minutes per day, I have a wealth of new information that I can choose to use in various ways. These options include but are not limited to: Read more Adapting and Improving, one year at a time

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Fruition Livestream: Summer Recap

In the past three months, those tuning into the Fruition Local Foods Livestream have gotten a significant taste of the north county’s food scene. This series gives viewers a chance to really get to know the people behind the businesses. Interviewees shared how and why they grow, cook, and sell the food and products that they do. Viewers have the chance to win prizes that are generously donated by the farmers and chefs on the program. Past viewers have walked away with a Thanksgiving Turkey, gift certificates, and fresh local honey, just to name a few. Celebrate the growers and makers in our community and tune in for the next showcase this Wednesday, August 18th from 7 to 8 pm.

Each month features three unique farmers or food entrepreneurs. Here are some of the tidbits we’ve enjoyed so far from each month. 

May Showcase 

During the first-ever local foods showcase the Livestream provided some insight into the culinary magic that is happening at Big Spoon Kitchen in Potsdam. Owner and chef Will Trithart shared how meals rotate weekly based on seasonally available items. 

Eight O’Clock Ranch has continued to provide their customers near and far, with a range of delicious and healthy meats. We heard from owner Kassandra about how their business model started off nearly 20 years ago with sales mainly by mail but has since shifted in the past few years to predominantly local sales. Read more Fruition Livestream: Summer Recap

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Farm to Table Podcast

Students from the class, Seeding Hope, taught by Rebecca Rivers at St. Lawrence University had a unique assignment last fall. Their course goals included, “shining a spotlight on existing projects that successfully unite diverse groups of people in grassroots efforts to protect and restore natural resources. We will focus on what we can learn from them about protecting the environment, sustaining human communities and increasing social justice.”

Three first-year students, Lydia Fedorowich, Sergey Avery, and Enith Alejandra Altamirano Salazar took on the task of identifying nearby organizations that play an active role in the north country food system. Their assignment was to create a podcast episode that included interviews with area people engaged in agriculture and food at the local level.

Click on the bar below to hear this episode. The guests include:

  • Extension Educator Flip Filippi,  Local Food Program Leader
  • Will Trithart Owner and Chef at Big Spoon Kitchen
  • Andy Peet, the General Manager of the Potsdam Food Co-op

Lauren grew up in neighboring Vermont exploring and loving the green mountains and vast landscapes. Her undergraduate degree made her appreciate the communities that surround local foods and a Master’s Certificate in Food Studies from the University of Southern Maine made her want to pursue a career in the food system. In 2021 and 2022, she was the Local Foods Marketing and Development Educator for Cornell Cooperative Extension of St. Lawrence County.