The Complexities of a Year-Round, Truly Full-Diet, CSA with Mark & Kristen Kimball of Essex Farm

Mark and Kristen Kimball of Essex Farm in Essex, New York, have farmed for over 20 years together. Mark and Kristen are known for their year-round, free-choice, whole-diet CSA model on 130 acres, with 22 acres and vegetables and access to 1,100 acres per grazing, haymaking, and sugaring, producing everything from veggies, fruit, grains, meat, dairy, eggs, and more. They balance the complexities of a year-round whole diet CSA model and their approach to winter food in the form of not only storage crops, but through the animals they raise who harvest the sun's abundance in the form of grass, forbs, and legumes, and store it as nutrient-dense, protein, and fat. They believe that this is season extension too, and complementary to fresh vegetable production. A very insightful conversation… Mentioned in the show… Kristen’s books: Good Husbandry & The Dirty Life Check out the folks who make the show possible... RIMOL Greenhouses quality greenhouses and high-tunnels. Johnny's Selected Seeds vegetable, flower, and cover crop seeds. Visit the Growers Library for a wealth of growing resources. BCS America for two wheel tractors + implements. ... and, as always, our work is powered by the individual growers who support us every month over at patreon.com/notillgrowers. You can pick up a copy of The Living Soil Handbook if you don't have one already, as well as a No-Till Growers hat or other merch, check out our YouTube channel, and you can ask you questions or share your insights into ecological market gardening on our free growers forum at notillgrowers.community.chat