Hello all! For those of you who don’t know, at the conclusion of this year, my Assistant Manager for the past two years, the fabulous Ember Fleming, will be stepping into my role as Farm Manager at Stearns. I’m excited to move onto my new adventures, but I’m equally excited for Ember to take on the management role here. She is brilliant, thoughtful, talented, hard-working, beyond capable, and kind; it would be an understatement to say that you’ll be in good hands with her at the helm.

I have so many folks to thank for help and support during my three seasons here, (including all of you!), but I’ll save that for an end-of-the-calendar year email.

I truly hope you’ve enjoyed your share this season. As I’ve written before, weather-wise, this was by far the most challenging growing season I’ve experienced in 14 seasons of farming here in Massachusetts. Your kind words, generosity, and enthusiasm, AND popsicle and coffee deliveries helped to make my funky last season of professional vegetable growing so much more pleasant for me.

There are many of you that I’d love to stay in touch with. Don’t be shy about reaching out if you feel the same way! I know I’ll leave Stearns with at least a few long-term friendships. This job has already made my life so rich; what a gift to have made so many deep and meaningful connections in such a beautiful place.

And here I’ll give another plug for my knitting group, which I’ll be emailing about in the next week or two: if you are interested in at least occasionally dropping in on a weekly knitting/crocheting/fiber arts group, email me with the word “knitting’ in the subject line.

With gratitude and love,

Mel