A message from Janie Whiteford, Board President

As another fall season rolls around, we celebrate another successful production season. With Nina’s leadership and the help of many volunteers, beds are being cleared and prepped for cover crops. Even the laying hens have slowed down as the seasons change! Heidi tells me next year's strawberry beds will soon be built and another 1200 bare root plants set into the soil, offering a harbinger of next spring.

As the Board of Directors reflects on this year, we thank each of our supporters for helping in numerous ways to bring people with disabilities together with others to produce so many delicious and beautiful products. Well done!

Successful farm production means always thinking ahead. As we think about our 2023 season, if your budget allows, please consider making a donation to Common Roots Farm. We have seen so much growth this year. Our team remains so enthusiastic and committed to our mission, but we need resources to realize our dreams. Your year end gift matters to our farm and the people we include here.

Thank you. Wishing each of you a very Happy Thanksgiving and plenty of opportunity to enjoy the change of seasons where you live.

Farm team thanks customers and volunteers

Farmer Noah showing appreciation by potting up gift plants.

Our list of people and things to be thankful for keeps growing at Common Roots Farm. We had the opportunity to thank many of our CSA customers and our volunteers in person recently, during an appreciation event held last month. Our farm team enjoyed treating our guests to some farm goodies, including our strawberry shrub sparklers and our strawberry mimosas. We had a variety of delicious baked goodies, too, thanks to Jelena and Tonya. Yum! Attendees returned home with a potted herb grown from seed by people with disabilities, as well as a sample of some strawberry ice cream topping.

Our farm could not thrive without the support of our CSA customers who signed up in the spring to enjoy a weekly bag of fresh farm produce and cut flowers. Farmer Nina and her team successfully carried out a 22-week season for 52 customers!

The steady and loyal participation of our volunteers is what makes our production possible, keeps our fields fresh and alive, and adds to the health of our soil with our low till techniques. Three cheers for our generous volunteers who add so much to our farm operation! We hope you enjoyed our 2022 season and that, after a well-deserved rest, you will join us again for another year of growing healthy food and beautiful flowers together.

Wishing our customers and volunteers a happy fall as we thank you for your immeasurable contributions to our farm.

Shared Adventures wraps up this season

Volunteer Danny preparing flower bunches to take home.

After weekly sessions in Common Roots Farm’s Seed to Salad accessible garden, Shared Adventures held its final Garden Club session of the season in mid October. Participants had a chance to propagate seeds, transplant young plants, and tend raised planters filled with both annual and perennials. Watering, fertilizing, and harvesting were regular tasks that filled the hour-and-a-half sessions.

Thanks to a great group of Shared Adventures volunteers like Steve, Xander, and Danny, interested individuals with disabilities also had a chance to tend our farm’s new orchard. Small trees were planted, mulched, and fertilized so they are off to a healthy start.

Look for an announcement next spring when the garden club will re-start for another season. We have a few surprises in store for our Seed to Salad garden that should make the experience even better and more fun!

Thank you to all our participants and volunteers for making this a fun session to look forward to each week. We hope to see you next year!

Farmer Nina releases new products!

After another robust season of farming, our talented farm manager, Nina, has just released some new products in time for the giving season. We are very excited about these items and our growing enterprise of shelf-stable foods.

If you are local and want to savor a taste of Common Roots in the off season, or you follow us from a distance and would enjoy a bit of our farm in your pantry, we have you covered! Shelf-stable products made from our fruits and veggies offer another way to help Common Roots provide farm-based opportunities to those with disabilities in our community. Please visit our shop page today, knowing all proceeds go directly back into our farming operations.

As the holiday season approaches, we make it easy to give gifts that also embody our social mission. Your purchase helps us raise awareness about how people with disabilities can successfully grow organic foods and flowers sustainably. Customers can select on-farm pick up, or we can ship to you directly.

Find these items available for purchase on our website today: Strawberry vanilla jam, Strawberry raspberry jam, Strawberry sunrise marmalade, Strawberry vanilla shrub, Orange sweet pepper jam, Red sweet pepper jam, Pasta sauce, Shakshuka, Captain’s roasted tomatoes, Bloody Mary mix, Strawberry margarita mix, Strawberry syrup, and fresh lavender sachets.