Hello there, Eatwellians! For those of you who have joined the farm since last August, you will wonder who I am. The rest of you may remember that I worked as your CSA Manager from November 2006 until August 2010, when I passed the reins to Liz (who’s doing an amazing job, isn’t she?!). I asked Liz and Nigel if I could send out a little request to all of you concerning my current job, and they thought it would be a good idea for me to type up a little update on what I’m doing! That sounded pretty fun to me, so here we are.

My partner Sonny and I moved to Sonoma County last August, and I immediately started working part-time for Tierra Vegetables, an amazing farm in Santa Rosa. Eatwell shares a seed-cleaning machine with Tierra Vegetables, and some of you may remember the tomato sauce Nigel and Lorraine canned at the Tierra Vegetables commercial kitchen during the Great Med Fly Disaster of 2007. In any case, I worked at their farm stand and in the office during the fall, while taking a plethora of Small Business Management courses at Santa Rosa Junior College.

To my delight and surprise, California FarmLink hired me for a full-time position on January 3rd. Sonny (my partner) and I are now six weeks away from getting hitched, too, which has been exciting. It’s been a year of many changes.

California FarmLink, where I currently work, is a non-profit seeking to protect California family farms and farmland. We do this partly by connecting aspiring farmers with retiring farmers or landowners who would like to see their land in food production. We also assist with the transitions and agreements between those parties. Some of our other programs offer support and technical assistance to farmers seeking to beef up their business acumen and financial wherewithal. We have a loan program that is pretty unique and newly guaranteed by the Farm Services Agency (part of the USDA). Suffice it to say, we do a lot.

As the North Coast Regional Coordinator for California FarmLink, it’s my job to provide all these services to farmers in my region (everything from Marin to the Oregon border and along the coast). One of the most important sources of support for me is finding landowners to put in our system! I wondered if any of you have land that you might be interested in seeing farmed or ranched? It can be in any part of California, including urban areas. No piece is too big or too small. Or, if you know someone else who owns land, would you be willing to help spread the word?

If you’d like more information about what we do or if you have a piece of land you’d like to post on our listings, you can either visit our website or send me an email at molly@cafarmlink.org

I miss you all at Eatwell and am so happy to have a platform to connect with you again! Best of luck to all of you, and take good care.