We met Connie at the annual California Farm Academy tour and dinner hosted here for its students. Shortly after she finished up their courses, she came to work here, taking over our herbs. When Emily left, Connie moved into the position of CSA manager. It was a role she wasn’t fully comfortable taking on since she feels more at home out in the field, but she did, including managing all of the events. This is no simple task. There are many pieces to making sure everyone’s share, eggs and extras end up on the right truck on the right day. Seasons change, produce changes, egg production goes up and down, members come and go. There is just a lot, all the time.Yet, the biggest challenge Connie faced was doing much of this work on her own, during the worst of Nigel’s illness. We were gone so much of the time she was here, and I will never be able to thank her enough for the care and attention to detail she gave this job. Never did we have to worry about tasks getting done. Everything I asked of Connie, she did and did it without mistakes. She always asked what else she could do to help. During such a hard time in our lives, it was an enormous comfort knowing the CSA was in good hands.
With all of our CSA managers, one of the best things has been watching each one grow in their own special way. I know it was a stretch for Connie to take on the task of managing the events since she has always been a quiet person. The events are a pretty big deal here, but she did such a great job, all the way through our first big Sukkot on the Farm, with 300 people attending, and Nigel and I rushing off to the hospital. That says a lot about a person.
This coming weekend, Connie is packing up her car and moving back to the family farm in Illinois. I will miss her immensely. The farm made it through an incredibly challenging time because of her calm and steady way of handling things, and for that, I could never thank her enough. Thank you, Connie, we all wish you the best of luck, and truly hope you come back to visit!
P.S.: Connie was usually the one taking pictures, so I couldn’t find any good shots of her. Fortunately, while we were walking the farm last week I snapped this one!
