It's a wrap! Another CSA season finishes strong

 

Lindsay, Farmer Noah, and Lindsay’s son, Carson, welcome CSA customers to our Seabright pick-up site.

As we approach another season of Thanksgiving, Common Roots is proud to have helped feed our community through another 22-week CSA cycle. Our Community Supported Agriculture program has distributed weekly fresh produce and flowers to 55 customers! Farmer Nina and the entire 2023 crew did a fantastic job growing over 20 varieties of food crops and at least as many flower varieties!

Community Supported Agriculture is a terrific way for people to support local farms. A CSA share allows customers to eat more healthily while contributing to climate change solutions. Food that doesn’t need to be transported great distances is not only more nutritious, but is also impacts our planet less. Every winter, Nina reviews new crop varieties and takes feedback from our CSA customers to determine what next year’s offerings will be. CSA shares go on sale in the spring so please watch our newsletter for updates.

Our mission is made real in the day-to-day participation of people with disabilities joining with others in this endeavor. As we wrap up our season and begin winter preparations, we want to thank all our amazing volunteers, donors, and staff for their shared accomplishments. On behalf of our Board and crew, we wish each of you a Happy Thanksgiving and many opportunities to get outside and enjoy our natural world during this change of seasons.

Farmer Nina gains national recognition!

As we shared previously, our Farm Manager, Nina, was chosen as a recipient of the American Farmland Trust’s Brighter Futures Fund. This story was recently published on the AGDAILY website and in it, Nina observes: “Our farm is unique in that we are a production farm that welcomes people with disabilities to participate in our growing operation. I am super interested in how we can farm ecologically, even regeneratively, on a human scale using mostly hand tools and lots of volunteers. This farm lets me integrate my health and ecological priorities with a social mission I support. We see a lot of disabilities here and we work within that human diversity to grow great food, give people purposeful work, and donate produce to local food programs.”

Everyone who works with Nina knows how fortunate we are to have their skills and commitment as part of our operation. Congratulations, Nina! We are delighted you are helping bring Common Roots Farm forward in the national discussion of farming for the future and how people with disabilities can be included.

Common Roots honored for employing people with disabilities

 

WorkAbility student, Juan, joins Heidi in accepting our award.	PVUSD WorkAbility students with their pepper harvest.

October was National Employment of People with Disabilities month. Common Roots was surprised to learn that we were one of 14 organizations honored by the Santa Cruz Committee for Employment of People with Disabilities. The committee recognizes honorees for being outstanding local employers who have put their commitment to workplace representation into practice by hiring employees with disabilities. This shout-out means a lot to us here at the farm! Thanks to support from the Miranda Lux Foundation, Common Roots has been able to expand the number of WorkAbility program students we train in small-scale agriculture. In addition to these students, Common Roots is an employment site for the state’s Paid Internship Program where we now are employing our fourth intern.

We are firm believers that small scale agriculture is a necessary part of repairing our fractured food system in the U.S., enhancing local food security, and implementing some of the best solutions to climate change through regenerative farming practices. Providing opportunities for people of all abilities to learn these skills and participate in such meaningful work is a privilege.

Thank you to our donors for your support of our mission, and to our young adults who work hard every time they are at Common Roots to learn, grow, and feed their community. We are proud of you all!