Year One As Full Time Farmers
Donation protected
My name is Brittany Dooling and I have recently started a small-scale, diversified CSA, The Mad Radish CSA, in Chesterfield, NH. My partner, Michael Reardon, and I are ecstatic about small farming, raising healthy food, building healthy soils, and providing for our community. We have big dreams for this little property and are working hard to see them come to fruition.
I have been farming since the fall of 2010, and Michael has been involved in farming and environmental stewardship for several years. We have just recently begun our own farm (so so exciting!), where we have many plans for the season. We hope to make most of our cash from a vegetable CSA, from June to November. Additionally, we plan to raise animals on our pastures. Cattle, goats, chickens, sheep, and pigs will all have homes on our farm. We will sell vegetables, eggs and meat through two CSAs and attend several farmers' markets.
It is my dream and long-term goal to raise nearly all of the food for the people in my immediate community. Ultimately, I would prefer to focus on perennial cropping systems and incorporating practices that restore the health of our farm ecosystem in a more permanent way. This would include managing woods sustainably for timber, planting fruits, nuts and berries, beekeeping, producing medicine from wild and cultivated plants, and making maple syrup. These resources can be maintained and harvested each year with fewer inputs than annual vegetable cropping. In the meantime, however, I love farming and growing vegetables, and raising animals, with all of my heart and want to be able to provide them for the people living in my neighborhood.
I see so much potential in this land and would love the opportunity to be able to see this farm grow. We are struggling to make this our full-time occupation, although we believe that farmers should be able to farm full time, without having to get off-farm jobs. Hopefully, we can avoid that, but there is much work to be done. We need this money for a new heater in our greenhouse, seeds, marketing for our CSA, and truck and tractor repairs. These are large up-front costs that we simply cannot afford without some extra cash.
We need this money by the beginning of February so we can order seeds, get the greenhouse going, and start planting for our CSA. Some of it will be extremely important to cover unforeseen marketing costs for the CSA. Without this marketing, we are not sure we will be able to obtain the number of CSA members we need to make our budget work.
This is vital to the survival of our small farm business. We appreciate any level of assistance in this pursuit, but if you cannot donate, spreading the word to residents in Cheshire County NH would mean so much to us. We are aiming for many more CSA members and need as many mentions as possible. Thank you for taking the time to read this and for your support in our endeavor. We hope to see you at the farm, or wherever our paths cross, very soon!
madradishcsa.com
P.S. Any individual who donates $200 or more will receive 3 lbs of pastured, organically fed pork, lamb or beef.
I have been farming since the fall of 2010, and Michael has been involved in farming and environmental stewardship for several years. We have just recently begun our own farm (so so exciting!), where we have many plans for the season. We hope to make most of our cash from a vegetable CSA, from June to November. Additionally, we plan to raise animals on our pastures. Cattle, goats, chickens, sheep, and pigs will all have homes on our farm. We will sell vegetables, eggs and meat through two CSAs and attend several farmers' markets.
It is my dream and long-term goal to raise nearly all of the food for the people in my immediate community. Ultimately, I would prefer to focus on perennial cropping systems and incorporating practices that restore the health of our farm ecosystem in a more permanent way. This would include managing woods sustainably for timber, planting fruits, nuts and berries, beekeeping, producing medicine from wild and cultivated plants, and making maple syrup. These resources can be maintained and harvested each year with fewer inputs than annual vegetable cropping. In the meantime, however, I love farming and growing vegetables, and raising animals, with all of my heart and want to be able to provide them for the people living in my neighborhood.
I see so much potential in this land and would love the opportunity to be able to see this farm grow. We are struggling to make this our full-time occupation, although we believe that farmers should be able to farm full time, without having to get off-farm jobs. Hopefully, we can avoid that, but there is much work to be done. We need this money for a new heater in our greenhouse, seeds, marketing for our CSA, and truck and tractor repairs. These are large up-front costs that we simply cannot afford without some extra cash.
We need this money by the beginning of February so we can order seeds, get the greenhouse going, and start planting for our CSA. Some of it will be extremely important to cover unforeseen marketing costs for the CSA. Without this marketing, we are not sure we will be able to obtain the number of CSA members we need to make our budget work.
This is vital to the survival of our small farm business. We appreciate any level of assistance in this pursuit, but if you cannot donate, spreading the word to residents in Cheshire County NH would mean so much to us. We are aiming for many more CSA members and need as many mentions as possible. Thank you for taking the time to read this and for your support in our endeavor. We hope to see you at the farm, or wherever our paths cross, very soon!
madradishcsa.com
P.S. Any individual who donates $200 or more will receive 3 lbs of pastured, organically fed pork, lamb or beef.
Organizer
Brittany Dooling
Organizer
Chesterfield, NH