For those of you who have come to our farmstore with business as usual, giving us a friendly wave or nod as you see us in the nursery or the shop—thank you. As farmers do in spring, we’ve been busy planting, working, seeding in the nursery, and planting some more. One of our colleagues, on social media, says that he’s been practicing social distancing for his entire life; farmers’ daily routines have been less disrupted than most. And, while distancing is not usually our strategy, it may be one of the reasons he’s one of the best growers I know: he’s hunkered, constantly experimenting and learning, with grit and tenacity. Of course, lately, we’ve been practicing distancing, along with frequent wipe downs of the farmstore, and generally washing our hands a lot.
We do this whole life, of growing food, and growing community with you, so it feels strange to not be gathering people together on the farm. Normally our farming and our people are tightly interwoven as a community, so some of this just all feels wrong. And, like farm equipment or lumber or steel, with things that are lying around, we make things and we build things from these dreams. We are all, constantly evolving. It’s really you that are our raw inspiration and material, and we couldn’t do this without you. We have many thoughts about all that we hope to share, but today we’re focused on a few key bits of news and actions for you:
We’ve posted a sign on our farm-store that notes our virus-related precautions, along with our cellphone numbers so you can call us if you’d like us to bring fresh produce or eggs out to your vehicle. If you are elderly or quarantined or just don’t feel safe, let us know if you want our offerings. We’re even piloting an option to have a volunteer help get our farm to your doorstep if leaving home is not an option.
We have opened a waitlist for 2020 farm memberships. We will be growing a lot of food this summer, and we are determined to get good food to our people. Adding space to our farm membership may be easiest and safest way to do that, especially if other regular sales outlets drop off. If space becomes available, we’ll notify people from the waitlist in order of registration.
Perhaps most new and exciting: this Saturday (tomorrow) our farmer-friend William, one of my mentors, and owner of Mother Fungi, will be delivering pre-ordered mushrooms for Bitterrooters to pick up at the farmstore. He will be here from 10-noon to share more about these delicious treats, but you can pick up you order from the farmstore anytime after 10 am on Saturday; we’ll keep labeled orders in our cooler fo you. We are planning on harvesting some fresh greens as well, available starting tomorrow morning.
As you all know, we don’t sell anything in our farmstore the we don’t grow ourselves, but when whopping 90% of William’s restaurant orders were canceled this week, along with the rest of the Missoula winter markets, we knew it was time for some creative collaboration, as he pivots to relying completely on direct to consumer sales. Customers can order directly from him though the link below, and he’ll bring your order to our farmstore for you to pick up at you convenience. William is a friend, mentor, an innovative and inspiring grower, and we vouch for his product’s quality, as well as his passion, grit, and dedication to local agriculture. We can also vouch for the delicious flavor, as he always brings some mushrooms whenever we share a meal! He’s offering some of his blue oyster and lion’s mane mushrooms for pickup at the farmstore, from tomorrow through Monday. At a time when we are all struggling with what we can do, buying good food from a local producer, especially to help them through sudden surprise changes, is an action that helps everyone, and gets a delicious new food opportunity to you.
In the coming weeks we’ll be sharing more of our thoughts on how we hope to not just weather, but grow from this difficult time, as a farm and as a community.
Members, watch for additional communications soon too—membership pickups start in just 6 weeks, and we promise we will find ways to adapt our member pickups to whatever the situation may be at that point. We’ll get you good food in the safest ways possible, and it will be delicious.
-Noah and Mary, SweetRoot Farm