LOCALadk Magazine
Issue link: https://localadkmagazine.uberflip.com/i/212613
LOCALadk | Sustainable Essex Farm Story By Bethany Garretson Photos By Andy Johnstone The late summer sky is beginning to lighten a soft orange over the Champlain Valley. Fall is on the way. You can smell it. The air is cool and goosebumps raise on my arms. I huddle in my sweatshirt as I make my way to the morning meeting. A rooster crows in the distance as headlights bounce down the gravel driveway. Essex Farm is waking up. A batch of raspberry oatmeal is on the stove as workers navigate around the small cooking area to fill their mugs with coffee. Whiteboards line the walls of the single-wide trailer that functions as an office, listing off and mapping out important slaughter, harvest and delivery days. Mark Kimball, founder of the farm, is seated at the end of a long table, looking over the weather forecast for the next couple of days. "Thursday, low of 34," he announces. The faces in the room grimace. They all feel and fear it approaching—the first frost. There's so much to do before it arrives. The meeting starts at 6 AM. All the chairs and counter spaces are now occupied by farmers in their twenties. They wear waterproof boots, flannel shirts and jeans darkened with soil. Yellow Rite-in-the-Rain's jut out from their pockets and are grasped by calloused hands. They are muscular and fit with toned arms and sun-kissed faces. It looks like a cast from Survivor, or America's Next Top Farmer. "Alright, rate where you're at. Ten highest, one lowest," Mark says. He explains it's good to start the day knowing where everyone is mentally and physically. The groups goes around, sharing names and numbers ranging from seven to ten. Events for the day are rattled off. Pigs need to be slaughtered, baby chicks are being delivered, hay needs to be harvested, tomatoes are ripe and need to be picked and livestock needs to be moved to new pastures. There is more to do than can be done in a single day. The events are prioritized and designated. Those that can wait are slated for another day. At 6:23 the meeting is over and the group files out of the single-wide and makes a circle in the parking area. Mark assigns Matt to lead the morning stretching session. Multiple requests are made he