Why to grow slowly...

So many people ask us "If you have a long waiting list why don't you add more spots?"

We say that we are growing slowly and deliberately so we can be sure of the quality of what we give our members and can grow the amount that we need to provide fair, reasonable shares. We see growing slowly as a key to our long term success, although we could easily have taken 150-200 members this year (based on willingness of people to buy a share, not our ability to support that!) we are just around 35, which with also adding a farmers market will mean growing more then twice what we did last year.

Today I ran across this website for Covered Bridge Produce (please note, this is not the local Covered Bridge Farm.) They grew from 300 members in 2005 to 600 members in 2006 and were out of business before the end of the season, and sold their farm (one assumes from the site) in 2007.

We hope our farm will be sustainable for the long term. Embracing the triple bottom line; Planet (Environment), People (social), and Profits (Economic). We want to grow sustainable food, create a community around it, and support our family financially.

We do not want to be another story of a small farm that failed... Grow smart & grow slow until you know what you really can grow!