As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, I’m a member of the Tuv Ha’aretz at the JCC on the Palisades in beautiful Tenafly, New Jersey. Our farm has been hit by the weather pretty hard this year: from the tomato blight to the torrential spring/early summer rains to the above tornado, not much has been growing. What we have gotten is amazing: local, tasty organic produce.  It’s a tension: we all want to support local farmers and preserve agricultural land in this corner of New Jersey. But we haven’t been getting as much as we expected and we’ve been getting a lot of summer squash.

Yesterday, we received a letter from our CSA coordinators that explained what had happened this summer and sharing the comments of many of our members. I am proud at how many people feel a stake in our farm and the fate of our farmers. Through weekly updates from Ted and Annemarie Stephens, and trips to visit the farm, we’ve built a connection to the people growing our food. We may be disappointed, but this summer has been financially devastating to the Stephens. Our CSA shares make a real difference. I also give our coordinators a lot of of credit both for being honest with us about how this summer has not always met up with our expectations and for reiterating their commitment to keeping this CSA going next year. I know I will be signing up again, and I hope many others do as well.

Read on after the jump for the letter!

Dear Tuv Ha’aretz Shareholders:

As TH co-coordinators, we have received many responses from members – during pickup, on the phone, and via email – and we wanted to share with you an overview from our perspective.

Rena Mayer recently wrote to the Stephens family and succinctly expressed the core philosophy of our project: “I’ve been a member of CSA farms for over 7 years. Although I have always loved the produce, I never felt a connection to the people, the farm nor the process. You have given me that bond. I feel I’m part of the very big picture. Thank you.”

Now, everyone’s expectations for this first year of Tuv Ha’aretz – the shareholders, JCC staff, and the Stephens family – were justifiably high and the excitement palpable, as all new ventures must surely be.  And while as our CSA is not yet midway through its first year, we all certainly bemoan the fact that this year the land has only produced a limited variety and quantity so far. As one member put it: ‘obviously we are all disappointed with our weekly share.  We cannot ignore this fact.  Everyone who signed up was looking forward to our bountiful bags of organic vegetables.  We hoped to replace the run-of-the-mill offerings from the supermarket with outstanding produce straight from the farm.  But if we are disappointed, one can only imagine the disappointment of the Stephens family.  They have literally put their sweat and tears into the land, but the land has not delivered in kind.”

There is so much of the agricultural process that is not in our – or our farmer’s – hands. Despite our understanding the risks of committing to a share, we’ve all had to accept the fact that the weather this year has been extremely uncooperative due to: the frosts and very cold weather; the torrential rain that continues to wreck havoc on the farm; and the limited amount of sunshine until just recently.  So, our farm’s crops – like other neighboring farms – have grown poorly.

When Steve visited the farm (as you saw in last week’s newsletter), he saw first hand the inexplicable fact that the beets did not grow, despite being planted in the best soil of that particular field.  Indeed, the other root crops – turnips, carrots and radishes – did not really produce.  So too the arugula, as well as the broccoli – which looks like it had some leaf disease which limited its growth.  Not to mention the horrible late blight that killed all of our tomatoes and those in neighboring Rockland County and throughout the Northeast.  Crestfallen, Ted brought us the few cherry tomatoes which were not completely rotting in the field even though they too were infected (if you left it on your counter to ripen, as we did, the blight overtook the little fellow overnight). We all sympathize with the Stephens who will now have to pull up all the myriad tomato plants and burn them.  What a great shame – so much painstaking care and tending going up in smoke.  Thankfully, the squash did much better, although the green zucchini harvest was only a fraction of what we would have had if the season were ‘normal’.  That goes for the first planting of cucumbers and string beans.  All in all, the spring/summer harvest has been a devastating experience for the Stephens family.

Carol Leslie wrote to us: “Ideologically, I joined the CSA because I wanted to help the small farmer succeed.  I joined the CSA because I felt that Ted and Annemarie Stephens truly cared about the quality of food that they brought to my table.  Because of this, I was willing to take the risk upfront.  Today, I have a greater appreciation of the immense and unpredictable challenges local growers like Stephens Farm face.  The experience this summer has only strengthened my resolve to support the local growers in our region. I wanted to let you know that I am proud to be a member of TH and I appreciate all your hard work.  The enthusiasm, guidance and education you provided added to this overall inspirational effort. Thank you, too, to Shelley Levy, Director of Special Services, and her amazing group of young men and women who did a perfect job packing our bags every week.  I look forward to our second half of the season.”

Aside from what the Stephens eat in their kitchen, all produce harvested on the farm this year has gone to our CSA; dreams of selling the leftover bounty in this year’s farmers markets are mere fancies.  Perhaps other CSAs in NJ and NY are experiencing different weekly distributions; that might be due to a barter/purchase method. In fact, most of the farms that we interviewed for our CSA do not grow all of their own crops, but purchase and barter to offer up a wide variety to their shareholders.  Likewise, the majority of those farms, like Joy’s Farm, are not certified organic like our farm which incurs higher costs in producing their yield.  We urge you to visit our farm so you can get an idea of the difficulty that we’ve been facing this year.

For the JCC’s part, we invested a lot of money and time into this project, and the less than 5 percent that we added on to the full-share price as an administrative fee did not cover our expenses. Notwithstanding, our community feels strongly that Tuv Ha’aretz is a crucial program to bring to Bergen County.  We are extremely proud of the hard work and success that we’ve had in grouping together to support local, sustainable agriculture, and will continue to develop this initiative despite the challenges to the budget.  For we feel the same about the CSA as do you and the other shareholders – the horrible weather and difficult travails that the land has experienced can’t take away from the fact that everyone who participates this year has made a huge contribution to sustainable agriculture.

Our TH Committee Chairperson, Toby Hirsch, commented that “she [had] spoke[n] to a fellow member last Friday who told me that when she picked up her weekly share last week she donated the entire bag to the Englewood CFA.  She doesn’t like Zucchini.  As she continued to speak I braced myself for both the criticism and sarcasm.  I was the one who had convinced her to sign-up for TH in the first place.  To my amazement, she told me she how glad she was to be supporting the Stephens Farm through these difficult times, and that she definitely intended to sign up for the 2010 season with TH.  I imagine there are many members of our CSA who feel the same way.”

In a normal year we may well have distributions that will provide more food than we can handle.  And if the current blossoms on the second planting of cucumbers, on the melons and on the beans can experience the right kind of weather for the rest of the summer, we will likely have huge quantities of a variety of vegetables for the fall harvest.  We are certain that you join us in praying for the success – in every way possible – of our farm.

With best wishes for a pleasant end-of-summer we remain

Sincerely,

Steve Golden and Shelley Levy, Tuv Ha’aretz Co-coordinators