I am sad to announce that, due to a
combination of circumstances beyond my control, I have given up my urban farm
project in the City of Chicago and will be returning to Elgin to farm this
season in the same location I used 2013 and 2014. I am very sad that the
Chicago farm project didn’t work out—I had so desperately wanted to be an urban
farmer and to have a more convenient farm location—but sometimes things just
don’t happen as planned. In short, the Chicago property wasn’t ready in
time for me to get my main crops in the ground. By the third week of May the
property still had no water access and no information about when water would
become available. I didn’t feel comfortable putting plants in the ground with
no water. This combined with other
factors beyond my control lead to my decision to quit the Chicago project on
May 16th. I have managed to evade complete disaster due to luck that
the Elgin property was available and also the kindness of Chris and Marcy at
Troggs Hollow Farm who welcomed me back. If it hadn’t been available, I don’t
know what I would have done.
Leaving the Chicago project has cost me both
time and money. I had already invested money in the Chicago project. The move
back to Elgin has put me behind schedule another week. Thankfully I have
workers helping me prepare the Elgin property and get plants in the ground at a
record pace. First plants went in on Thursday May 21st. In three
days we had about ¼ the field planted and almost the whole field plowed up. I
had a great crop of seedlings this year and hope that they will start producing
harvest soon. Ultimately, things will be
fine, I know that. It’s just been a lot of farm crisis management, work, and
stress the past couple of weeks.
This whole ordeal only serves to highlight how difficult land access is for farmers. 2015 will be my fourth year of farming full time and I am no closer to finding a long term land solution than I saw as the beginning.
If you’d like to help, you can come to the
farm in Elgin and help plant seeds and seedlings. I’m happy to accept
volunteers almost any day of the week, but I’m also planning a “planting party”
on Sunday May 31st 2pm-5pm. Click the link below to an
event page.
Thanks to everyone for your words of support
and encouragement!
Farmer Jessica
Tomatoes and basil in the ground!
Elgin as of May 24th.
Farmer Nick plowing with the new Grillo and Berta Rotary Plow
on Tuesday we drove 4 hours into Wisconsin to pick up our new piece of farm machinery.
We took four truck loads of seedlings to the farm this week.
Farmer Jessica