By now you should have received a letter about our campaign to invest in a high-efficiency heater for the greenhouse. If you missed it, you can read the full text below. We have a monetary goal–about $6,000–but even more important is our goal of 100% participation from our community. If each of us gives, even a small amount, we can support the farm that we cherish and uphold our commitment to farming sustainably and preserving agricultural land. Thank you for your support. 

Dear Stearns Farm Community,

As an organization, we’ve been having conversations for the past two years about how to diversify our streams of revenue to ensure the long-term sustainability of Stearns Farm and decrease the stress on our tiny 1.8 acres of beautiful soil.

We are excited to announce the most crucial step in achieving these long-term goals—investing in a high-efficiency greenhouse heater. This is a big infrastructure improvement, and we need your help!

Heated greenhouses are standard in small farms, but we don’t have one. After careful consideration, we have decided to install a high-efficiency greenhouse heater before the 2018 growing season.

What will a high-efficiency greenhouse heater do for Stearns Farm?

  • Allow us to get into the propagation greenhouse a full month later than we currently do, freeing up the farmers to do other important work in late winter and early spring.
  • Grow healthier starts. The heater is typically used ONLY between early March and mid-May, to keep the greenhouse temperatures above freezing and, later, to keep tomatoes and other nightshades at temperatures above 50 degrees. This minimal use of fuel can have a huge positive impact on the health of our starts.
  • Increase the farmers’ quality of life. Have you ever lost several nights of sleep because you are miles away and worried about your tomato seedlings freezing because it is late April and 15 degrees outside? It’s not fun!
  • Enable us to grow many more, and higher quality plants that we can sell in an expanded May Plant Sale and Spring Celebration! This is a critical part of the plan to diversify our revenue without stressing the land. We are planning a fun weekend event around the plant sale, to which we can invite the broader community. (Stay tuned for details!)

Installing a greenhouse heater costs approximately $6000. We are asking you, our community members, to contribute what you can to our Greenhouse Fund. Our goal for this campaign is to get support from all of our community members and every gift, of every size, makes a difference! Please give by 12/31/17 and play an important part in ensuring Stearns Farm’s future.

Questions? Please reach out to Mel (farmer@stearnsfarmcsa.org), for answers.

With gratitude,

Mel Hardy, Farm Manager, and Nomi Sofer, President, Board of Directors