We are Stanley and Penny Gibson, followers of Christ, husband and wife of +21 years with 4 homeschooled children; Perry, Faithann, Mattaniah and Sarah. The children all contribute in various ways to the work here. Welcome to our farm.
With all the new customers we have been blessed with lately it seemed prudent to explain some things to y'all. First please understand that this farm is often displaced by my regular 8 to 5 job (ge-fanuc, formerly VMIC on South Parkway) as well as my duties as husband and father. You are all very patient and I appreciate that. Eventually my eldest son Perry, whom you probably know from the delivery, hopes to spur the farm onto a full fledge operation. Until then you are stuck with me.
We have been raising eggs and poultry for several years now and have a pretty good idea of how all that works. The market garden was more of a challenge. Experience has been a hard teacher. I had no idea of the space required to start all the seedlings. Nor of the importance of a good harvest/storage facility. The first time we got orders from eight of you for the lettuce was an eye opener. Do you know how much space 24 jumbo lettuce heads take up in the kitchen as they are washed, sorted and put in the (already filled with eggs!) refrigerator overnight? My wife Penny is truly a saint. Running a market garden is quite different from raising a garden for your family. So we are trying to grow into this as best as we can. A commercial quality stainless steel sink has really helped. We are planning a packing facility and small chilling room.
Our place on Green Mountain is small. We only have about 1/2 acre useable for garden and pasture. In the spring of 2009 we purchased a small farm about 20 minutes out of town. See it here. This will eventually support almost all of our farm activities. We should have a better supply of vegetables and poultry this fall and will likely have the poultry and garden in full swing by the spring of 2010. Once we get to that point we with either offer a garden subscription for the whole season - roughly 24-28 weeks or we will offer separate spring (8 weeks), summer (12 weeks) and fall (8 weeks) subscriptions. Here is a possible schedule:
Let me talk just a little about our goal. What we want to do is build a base of local people who care about the farm, and care about where their food is coming from. That is important to me as a farmer, because not only do you know where and how your food is grown, but I know who is eating it. It gives a different meaning to our operation when I know Lori made a birthday cake for Molly using our eggs or Mrs. Ball used our poultry to have a special Easter supper with their daughter and the daughter "had a fit" over it. (That means she really liked it) Or Charles tells me about the taste test with his wife. There are dozen of things ya'll have told me that make a connection. I know the food is not just grown and shipped off to some wholesaler in a vast food chain. This produces a sense of stewardship and accountability in me that cannot exist in the conventional system. You are not just an entry in a spreadsheet.
Thank you and May God Bless each of you,
Stanley Gibson