Before I start my letter, I wanted to give our CSA members a shout out! Thanksgiving donations alone totaled over 900 lbs of fresh produce!

Instead of postponing your delivery, so many of you donated your CSA share. These donations will help supply the Settlement Home and Safeplace with fresh produce for their clients year-round. We are sincerely thankful for your contributions! Community Supported Agriculture has never felt so communal.

Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Being the day after Thanksgiving, I thought it would be a perfect time to sit down and write out some thanks. After the last two years being riddled with floods, tornadoes, massive greenhouse destruction, and huge gullies washing away acres of the farm, I am so immensely grateful that this year we were spared from destruction (knock on wood, the year isn’t over yet!).

I am so thankful to have a team of employees that go above and beyond their call of duty day after day, week after week. The current JBG work family is probably the most solid team we’ve had yet. Our team of managers is seriously stellar, Ada, Tracy, Andrew, Lena, Mike... the list goes on. I have had a lot of folks who have been around since the advent of the farm and are seriously integral players to the inner-workings of JBG. I do not know where I would be without them. Vicente, Temo, Montana, Fawn, and Krishna... to name a few. It feels a little strange sometimes to think about these people who have stood by my side since the beginning.

Along with those who’ve been around for years, we’ve brought on some new employees that have been such an asset to the farm this year, two Cornell graduates: Kirby, our Greenhouse Manager, and Becky, our Farm Manager. Becky has essentially filled my position… it’s the first time that we have done that! In the past with Mike, Jason, and Charlotte, we hired them as Assistant Farm Managers. Becky has a degree in Agriculture and ten years of farm experience to boot, so we decided to offer her the Farm Manager job. I am really very grateful to have someone dedicated like her to help with the farm.

The farm has never looked better in the fall, and this is also reflected in our sales. In November we’ve already reached record sales in our Wholesale Department. Kudos to Mike and Pete for their hard work! I am also thankful we haven’t had our first freeze yet. The first freeze is usually around the second week in November, and here we are at the end of the month still able to have tomatoes and sweet peppers!

Photo by Scott David Gordon.

I want to continue my thank-you's by turning to you, the JBG community. I'm incredibly grateful to have the opportunity to be your farmer. As many of you know, organic farming was a long-time dream of mine, even as I was working as a government engineer for over a decade. JBG could never have gotten to be where we are today without the support of such an incredible community. From my backyard to a thriving farm east of town serving Texas, it's been an incredible journey. Being back in Alabama for the holidays looking for hard-to-find local produce, makes me remember how special our city is. It’s an anomaly to live in a town where local grocers care to stock up their aisles with the freshest produce from local farms. I ventured into Whole Foods last week before I left town to find so much of our produce on the shelves. The most there has ever been! Austin is such a wonderfully supportive enclave for farmers, it's truly something. On top of that, we are blessed with being in the midst of one of the top restaurant scenes in the country. I am so grateful to be backed by so many talented and creative chefs who are excited about whatever we have in season. This is a special place indeed.

Speaking of being in Alabama, I am also thankful to be with my Grandmother, Mama Nell, and my father this weekend. Nothing like soul-satiating time with family. I hope everyone has a love-filled and food-filled holiday. If JBG was a part of your Thanksgiving meal this year - send us some photos of what you made! We'd love to see what you're cooking with the season's bounty! Thanks for your continual support of our farm.

Sincerely, Brenton

Photo by Scott David Gordon.