Dearest farm community,

As I write this the night before Thanksgiving, I feel an overwhelming amount of gratitude to our volunteers this year. There is absolutely no way we could do what we do without the ceaseless and selfless support of our volunteers. I think pretty immediately to when Central Texas Food Bank came out with an arsenal of folks to save about 9,000 lbs of potatoes that we didn’t have the ability to harvest without them.

To be honest, we really don’t have a big crew at the farm… two people plant all the seeds on the farm, and about 16 to 18 folks harvest every vegetable on the farm, if you can believe it. However, every single day, we get tons of extra volunteer hands out in the fields at the Garfield farm, at the Hergotz barn, and in the greenhouse, and these folks really help the JBG world turn ‘round.

I am immensely thankful (and still crossing my fingers) that we haven’t had a year of devastation like 2015. If you don’t remember, a flood put a two-acre hole in the middle of the farm, followed promptly by tornadoes hitting the greenhouses. I am so grateful for a mild weather year.

I’m also grateful for the awesome group of employees that we have at the farm right now. We are a diverse and motley crew for sure, but we make a really good and solid team together. Despite our differences, everyone is really hard-working, even in the most adverse conditions. Year-round and round the clock, in the rain, cold, and heat, folks are working very hard to harvest crops and get them to your plates day after day.

More than anything, I’m psyched to be able to do a job that I love. I feel like I’m doing good work, and am positively contributing to the community. I’m massively lucky to have a job like that.

Brenton and the cauliflower. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Wishing everyone the best and safest Thanksgiving holiday, Brenton Johnson