TROY, N.Y. — Every time we turn on the news or open social media, it seems it is always something related to COVID-19. Cornell Cooperative Extension offices all over the state are doing their best to provide updates, but we also want to give you a break from all things COVID-19.
This has impacted everyone in many different ways, but farmers all over the Capital District are doing their best to continue to provide for their community. Cornell Cooperative Extension of Rensselaer County would like to take the opportunity to highlight a few of the farms in our community who are also a part of Harvest Connection.
One of our educators sent a series of questions to a few of the farms in the Harvest Connection database about how all of this has affected their business and the community. Here are their responses:
Eva Moore with St. Croix Farm in Valley Falls
“We raise pastured proteins here on our farm and things have changed a lot for us over the last few weeks. The biggest change for us in all of this might just be having to curb our hospitality, in order to comply with social distancing guidelines. All but one of our restaurant customers have closed so that revenue stream has disappeared for us. However, due to the lack of meats on supermarket shelves during the beginning of this crisis we saw a short spike in individual sales; our most popular product, our ground beef – it is quick, versatile and delicious. People are genuinely panicked about where to source their food. This is not the scenario in which we would have liked to meet new customers, but we are glad to be able to bring them peace of mind and comfort in being able to take care of themselves and their families.”
(St. Croix Farm, photo provided)
Annie Metzger with Laughing Earth Farm in Cropseyville
“We have seen a huge increase in sales. We quickly pivoted to home delivery and on-farm self-service sales to really limit interactions with customers for ourselves, and also to limit customer interactions with each other. People are eager for chicken, eggs, veggies, and also pork, but mostly the cuts that people typically put in the crock-pot.
We feel lucky that we are close enough to our customers to be able to easily shift to home delivery and on-farm sales, so we feel like we are doing OK with this situation.”
Diane LaConte with Love Apple Farm in Ghent
“We are currently open 7 days a week with shortened hours from 8-5pm. We have lost a majority of our cafe business, but the produce/food market is doing well. We are struggling to get some of the basics–TP, rice, beans but we are doing the best we can.”
(Love Apple Farm, photo provided)
If people did not realize it before, they definitely are now- that no farms, equals no food. Harvest Connection is a farm to table initiative that connects consumers with farm fresh products. Consumers are able to use our website and app, search a specific product, and Harvest Connection presents a list of farms and farmers markets closest to them. We advise that all consumers call the location first to confirm what is available and any special measures they are taking to connect with consumers while following public health recommendations for distancing. If anyone has any questions about Harvest Connection or if there are any producers in the Capital District who would like to join, reach out to Kayela at kls342@cornell.edu.
–Kayela LeAnn Statom, Cornell Cooperative Extension, of Rensselaer County