What: Celebrate completion of our new Seed to Salad accessible garden and farm path. Come see our market farm where veggies, fruit, flowers and people flourish!

Who: Supporters of Common Roots Farm.

Please join us as we inaugurate our new garden area and wheelchair-accessible farm path. Come meet our team, see our sheep, tour our farm!

We wanted to take a moment to introduce you to Annabelle, who will be an integral part of our farm crew this year. Laura is arriving soon, so keep an eye out next month for her interview!

Annabelle describes herself as “a young, doe-eyed aspiring farmer from Los Angeles” whose foray into growing started with a plant nursery in Santa Monica and made its way to urban farms in Bangkok and Seoul. Now, she says “I‘m in Santa Cruz to fully immerse myself and learn more about inclusive farming.”

When asked what drew her to our farm, Annabelle noted “Common Roots is creating a space where everyone can partake and plant a future we all agree on. It’s a farm with a social mission that resonates with me and I’m super ecstatic to learn and grow this 2021 season!”

Annabelle says she is “especially excited to start grooving to the natural rhythm of farming and feel more confident in taking care of the little plant babies. I am interested in learning how to design a farm’s infrastructure and environment which prioritizes accessibility. I believe all farms should adopt and incorporate that. I am also excited to learn how to plan and maintain a larger-scale production farm through eco-friendly practices — from irrigation to seed-saving, the myriad of disciplines that farming encompasses keeps me on my toes and invigorated.”

She is also keenly aware that, as a young farmer, the reality of starting a farm seems insurmountable since more often than not, young people lack resources. Annabelle is hoping to learn more about the business and legal aspects of small scale farming. She thinks, and we agree, that farmers must inevitably learn in all these areas to start their own bountiful farm.

Gentle handling, or gentling, is a process by which an animal gradually becomes more comfortable around humans and can be cared for by different people without causing the animal stress. In the case of our babydoll lambs, working with them early in their lives means we can get them accustomed to wearing a halter, trusting their handler, and learning to take walks on the farm with a human companion.

Throughout her life, Joanna has worked with lots of animals, including horses, sheep, goats, chickens and dogs. She and Bela have a natural ease with our sheep. When we first got our lambs, they were quite shy and skittish. Now, after Joanna and Bela spend time with them multiple times each week, they are feeding from our hands, tolerating a halter and beginning to walk on lead.

All of this is in preparation for these animals becoming an integral part of the experiences people with disabilities can have on our farm. Imagine taking a walk with a sheep on a leash! Learning to care for animals, interact with them and enjoy them offers unique opportunities for everyone.

Our farm has just begun its fourth CSA season, and we are jazzed about it! We have steadily grown our CSA every year, and we are pleased to have 50 memberships this year.

CSA stands for “Community Supported Agriculture“ and is one of the best ways to support local farms and enjoy seasonal, local food. A CSA is a reciprocal partnership between a farm and its community. At Common Roots Farm, CSA members become active participants in our local food system by investing in a “share,” while providing opportunities for farmers living with developmental disabilities to grow their skills, too.

CSA members get a weekly share of in-season vegetables, fruit, and flowers. We are growing our skills as farmers, improving our methods each year, and trying a few new varieties each season. This year we’ll have some new summer squash, tomatoes, radishes, broccoli, cabbage, onions, lettuce — the list goes on! We have a return of some of our favorites, like melons (Lambkin and Ha’Ogen), along with our Albion strawberries, New Girl tomatoes, Jimmy Nardello’s sweet peppers, Carmen sweet peppers, Lunchbox peppers — can you tell we like peppers?! We are also excited to have a continuous supply of lettuce all season long (if all goes well!).

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