Farming, perhaps more than any other profession, is a delicate dance with the weather, the seasons, and the individualities of a piece of land. As farmers, we love the dance and we hate the dance all at the same time. We rejoice when the weather works in our favor, and duck our heads and start over when the elements bring us down. "Make hay while the sun shines," they say, but what do you do when the storms just won't let off?

This past Friday night, heavy winds and a massive storm dealt the farm a huge blow. Ripping through our farm, these winds flattened our four greenhouses, ripping off the poly covering and bending steel to the earth. This is a devastating loss for the farm, and we are again in awe at the power that the elements have over our livelihood.

"Before." Photo by Scott David Gordon

After Friday's storm. Photo by Scott David Gordon

It has just started to feel like we are catching up on the losses suffered with two major flooding events in 2015. We had a great, mild winter and good rains this spring, and so this blow comes during a very delicate recovery period. One thing that we have to be grateful for is that this destruction happened right a the end of a busy transplanting season. So now we have a small window of time to rebuild before we start seeding for our early Fall successions in June. At this point, we're just trying to salvage what we can from the ruins and start building. What else is there to do?

Our communities support is what helped us to make it through tough times last year. So again, we are swallowing our pride and asking you - our community - for help to get through this next hurdle.  After salvaging what we can, we're still looking at over $50,000 in materials and repairs to get these greenhouses back in working order.

Want to help?  Here are a couple of ways:

CSA Box Contents Week of May 3rd

Consider a Long-Term CSA Subscription.

The single most impactful way you can support the farm is to join as a long-term member. If you've been a member of our CSA for a while, and know that you'll be eating our veggies for the coming months, a 6- or 12-month subscription to our Community Supported Agriculture program would provide immeasurable support, providing capital upfront for us to rebuild and prepare for a bountiful Fall season.  Call the farm at 512-386-5273 if you'd like to make the switch to a long-term subscription and be sure to ask about the discount benefits you qualify for.

Plus, now is a great time to join our CSA! Spring and summer crops are both coming in these days, and during this overlap in seasons your shares are fuller than ever. Plenty of great crops are on the horizon - tomatoes, melons, peppers, cucumbers and more!

Photo by Scott David Gordon

Shop Your Local Farmers Market.

Luckily, our field crops were unaffected by the massive storm this past weekend. We've got bountiful market tables right now and every purchase you make from the farm is going to go directly towards rebuilding our greenhouses.  Thank you to all of our customers for choosing to spend your dollars locally at farmers markets - it makes a huge difference. See all of our weekly market locations at jbgorganic.com/markets to find one near you.

Got a friend who might want to shop with you? Our Gifts Page has Market Bucks and gift certificated for the farm as well. Mother's Day is this weekend, so why not cook mom a yummy, locally sourced meal?

Donate Materials.

If you have the means, and would like to help the farm in this effort in a more direct way, we are also accepting materials donations to rebuild these greenhouses. You can call the farm directly at 512-386-5273 or email at farm@jbgorganic.com to talk to Ada about what materials are currently needed.



As always, we want to thank all of our customers for their continued support of the farm. We have such an incredible community, and regardless of what obstacles the weather puts in our path, you awesome folks make it worth it - we truly love this work.  We are going to spend the next few months rebuilding, and with your help we will make it through this difficult period.