Bon Voyage Ainhoa - March 2nd, 2026

Foxtrot has operated with a pretty lean team in our first four - and our dear noa has been a pivotal part of our farm story. Though I  have only had the pleasure of  knowing noa for a little over a year, they have left a big mark on this operation and my heart!

noa approached me in January of 2025 about volunteering at Foxtrot 1-2 days a week to expand their knowledge of cut flower production while their own flower project was being incubated at Rock Steady Farm. I was sold from the start but invited them to do a working interview with me last spring, at which point there was no looking back! Having a payroll line item wasn’t apart of my initial budget for the year but Noa and I strategized and cobbled together enough money to turn their volunteer shifts into a paid apprenticeship at Foxtrot.

noa had the generous and patient task of being my first, day in, day out, employee - for this gift I will be forever grateful to them. Through their kindness and support they’ve been a guide and teacher to me as to how I, via Foxy, want to show up to be an ever upwards employer. Their commitment to Foxy this season has stretched my creative tension here, noting where we are, where we want to go, how we are going to get there.

But noa has also reminded me that farming can and should feel different. I was brought up in the farm school of stoic, do it yourself, unboundaried, don’t ask for help, you can do it better than anyone else, toxic masculinity. This school of thought has taken me to my physical and emotional edge. Noa sort of cosmically arrived in my life, it sometimes feels, reminding me about the power of collective vision. If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together,” as the African proverb I was reminded of last week by my collegues at Wildseed, goes.

Noa embodies so many things — they are  both heady & grounded, hardworking & boundaried, profound & hilarious, creative & pragmatic, ever curious & open to delight, adventurer & lover of rest, caretaker & teacher, world builder & sun lover, kind, thoughtful, reverent, supportive, dedicated, kind, focused. I will miss catching them hugging piles of flowers, talking  about horses as a form of escapism, admiring their incredible farm fashions and waiting for their  incredible smile to crack open, to name just a few.

They are on to big city adventures and big city jobs! This season Ainhoa is joining the team at Earth Matter on Governors Island. Earth Matter“seeks to reduce the organic waste misdirected into the garbage stream by encouraging neighbor participation and leadership in composting.”  I am so proud of them and can’t wait to see what's next!

Wether you had the pleasure of meeting noa or not, join with me in sending them good vibes & safe landings as they embark on this new chapter!

Remember noa, you already know so much more than you think you do. Thank you my friend.

Big Hairy Audacious Goals — February 19th, 2026

At long last, a week I've been waiting for has come. This Sunday I depart, on behalf of Foxtrot, to a week long business intensive with FARMpreneurs and the Ideagardennetwork.

Foxtrot was selected out of 140 applicants to this cohort alone because of our "outstanding leadership in planetary stewardship, community engagement, and systems-level innovation". I'll be joining 17 other farmers (several other Hudson Valley Farmers!!!) for a week long Strategic Sprint designed to help "unlock your growth potential to be leaders in the regenerative agricultural space that our world needs".

I am feeling all the things - humbled, terrified, excited, nervous, relieved (to name a few). It's been a strange thing to make plans for the growing season ahead, knowing so much may change this week. Each one of us applied with a "big hairy audacious goal"  for our business that we needed outside help to achieve. Foxy's BHAG?To leverage the business to allow us to pay at least a living wage to employees and owner.  

In a region renowned for its agriculture - working farm owners & farm workers are scraping by with extraordinarily high housing, food, & childcare costs. A living wage for a single person in the Hudson Valley is $25.85, if you have a child that goes up to $48.59. The minimum wage locally is $15.50. I see most farm wages coming in between $18-$22/hour, ourselves included. This feels simultaneously unacceptable and totally understandable given the financial circumstances working farms find themselves in.

Surely Foxtrot was accepted to the Strategic Spring for a host of reasons, but it is not lost on me that projects were likely accepted based on 1. plausibility and 2. scalability. With the help of Farmprenures & without illusions of grander -- Could we build a financial model to offer to other farmers to get out of this wage trap? Here's to hoping. It's worth trying. Wish us (all) luck.

xx Kate

The Common Freezer - February 9th, 2026

We turned our farmstand into a free freezer & supply pantry!

THE COMMON FREEZER

OPEN ALWAYS, Restocked for every 2nd and 4th Saturday of the month.

This schedule compliments our local food pantry’s schedule, Willow Roots. Now every Saturday in the greater Stanford/Pine area there is a place for our food insecure neighbors to get free food & basic supplies.  

Help us maintain this free community resource! There are two bi-weekly volunteer shifts available on our website - a shopper shift & a distribution shift!

Creature of Craft - February 2nd, 2026

On Friday I returned home from a three day flower growing conference in Portland, ME, only to start a two day basket weaving workshop, pleasantly sustained by soup from a friend’s pop-up. A week, a weekend, visiting with, learning from, in admiration of other craftsmen. I am home now, deeply sofa bound. I am  curious about what I would like to write to you in my new Sunday (now Monday)commitment/ritual/connection. Let’s see if I can pull this together.

For years I thought school was “real time”. Having now lived as a human with (ah! nearly!) as much time out of school as in, I can see that the many many many rooms of life that we exist within all operate in different time. There is no real time. In India I loved that if you asked the person attending a ticket kiosk, “What time is the next bus arriving?” They would reply “2,” while simultaneously nodding their head right to left (or was it left to right?) which meant, or could mean, “at 2, or before 2, or after 2, or when it arrives, or when it never arrives because I don’t subscribe to your perception of time”. More and more people I know have thrown the Gregorian calendar out the window. I know the earth and soul to operate in geologic time. We must remember the long arc of progress. Farming operates on seasonal time while existing (always) in future time.

“Farming” in the winter is a funny thing looking in from the outside (particularly when the snow is so high you can’t open the greenhouses and there are no melting events in sight). “What do you do in the Winter?” is a common refrain. So, so, so much, is the answer. For a time, winter smoothes and slows for much needed bodily rest, reset. That has been (for me, this year) internally glorious, though I know (and I have also been) other farmers who mentally, struggle deeply in this time. February 1st rolls around - calendar time says it still looks like winter, but mentally it feels like April, anxiety starts to wake me in the night.

Winter is about synthesising the learnings, reflections, inspirations of an entire growing season (or many) to make new improvements, goals, systems, plans. Attending a conference for growers adds to this download, for now I have many others learned experiences in mind as well. Now, or last month, or now and last month and now again, my wintertime task is to distill and implement from one year to the next, to tie the two, and endlessness, together.

I am a creature of craft. Which means (to me) that I am in the lifetime pursuit of greater craft(wo)menship. Greater practice, season after season, year after year. I stay skeptical of self-proclaimed experts - how boring! Let us always be learning! I long to know my companions more deeply, soil, seeds, stems, blooms, and you. I feel and crave stretching into my body's movements, my muscle’s memories, wondering what more is possible. Each new moment in time, an opportunity to literally and metaphorically, flower.

From this humble and curious state - I’d like to learn with you. What would you like to practice? I’d like to host more learning at Foxtrot this season, for me, for you. What do you want to learn in this time of life? What craftspeople are you inspired by? What can we provide space to know?  

xx - Kate

I am not as buoyant - January 25th, 2026

I am not buoyant today as when I last wrote. On this snowed in day, some places an ice storm (I mean that however you read that) I have been sitting with immense sorrow, fear, anger beyond belief. I don’t have words, but I’ll share some that I’ve been reading. I hope they are some medicine.

“This will not resolve quickly. The Long Dark will be with us for some time. Ritual, prayer, meditation, and creativity are the ways to foster an intimacy with the world of soul and the soul of the world.

Many of the great myths began in times such as this. The land has become barren; the king, corrupted; the ways of peace, lost. It is in these conditions that a ripeness arises in the soul for deep-rooted change. Soul responds to crisis by awakening to a deeper sense of purpose, leaning into how it can contribute to the repair and renewal of the world…

Hidden invitations and initiations arise in a time of uncertainty. The soul recognizes the markers of descent —darkness, sorrow, anxiety—as requiring radical change. The conditions of trouble and uncertainty activate some profound movement towards alterations in the psychic landscape. These are the precise times when the possibility for shifts in the collective field occurs. We are in such a threshold time. We are being called to embody courage and humility. Everyone of us will be affected by the changes wrought by this difficult visitation. Carl Jung said that each of us is a makeweight in the affairs of the world. Never think that you have nothing to contribute to the shaping of our future. You are needed. You are necessary. It is time to become immense.”

Francis Weller, In the Absence of the Ordinary

It is time to become immense

I am not buoyant today as when I last wrote. On this snowed in day, some places an ice storm (I mean that however you read that) I have been sitting with immense sorrow, fear, anger beyond belief. I don’t have words, but I’ll share some that I’ve been reading. I hope they are some medicine.

“This will not resolve quickly. The Long Dark will be with us for some time. Ritual, prayer, meditation, and creativity are the ways to foster an intimacy with the world of soul and the soul of the world.

Many of the great myths began in times such as this. The land has become barren; the king, corrupted; the ways of peace, lost. It is in these conditions that a ripeness arises in the soul for deep-rooted change. Soul responds to crisis by awakening to a deeper sense of purpose, leaning into how it can contribute to the repair and renewal of the world…

Hidden invitations and initiations arise in a time of uncertainty. The soul recognizes the markers of descent —darkness, sorrow, anxiety—as requiring radical change. The conditions of trouble and uncertainty activate some profound movement towards alterations in the psychic landscape. These are the precise times when the possibility for shifts in the collective field occurs. We are in such a threshold time. We are being called to embody courage and humility. Everyone of us will be affected by the changes wrought by this difficult visitation. Carl Jung said that each of us is a makeweight in the affairs of the world. Never think that you have nothing to contribute to the shaping of our future. You are needed. You are necessary. It is time to become immense.”

- Francis Weller, In the Absence of the Ordinary

Trying something new...

Seeding started his past week beginning with lisianthus (that won't bloom until August?), some particularly pesky perennials (stratified, soaked, scarred in order to germinate) & VIOLAS.

There is a hilarious documentary Brian and I watched several years ago made by (I think?) The Rhinebeck Historical Society about the history of local violet growers. Some of the conclusions that were made in the film were WILD. Hilariously off the mark. And yet - I would still recommend you watch it if you can find the DVD at the Stanfordville Library. Then we can gab about the fascinating local history of what used to be the violet capital of the world and laugh about why these historians thought the violet industry died.  And yes, I know a viola isn’t a violet, but a violet is a viola, so bear with me.

I started growing violas at Foxtrot last season per the request of a friend whose flowers we arranged for her wedding! She wanted violas in her signature cocktails. Delight!  I interplanted these low growing cuties between our dahlias and soon, fell in love. Delicate & cheerful - these plants grew and grew and grew without a care in the world.

The aforementioned July wedding came and went and these plants were still going strong. When it was time to chop back our tunnel dahlias in late October, I couldn’t bear ripping the violas out, so they stayed. I was singing their praise to a friend who mentioned off hand that if you can grow them really close together, they make excellent cuts. Of course! The doc!

And now it’s January my friends. January! These little guys are still blooming, uncovered and unbothered in our tunnel. I’ve been harvesting them to sprinkle into - what I’m calling - the most beautiful greens mix in the world (catch it this spring). As often as I can I’ve been eating this mix with citrus, olive oil, chili flakes and flake salt, maybe parsley sprigs. It’s giving me life.

And just being with these little flowers, they’ve taught me how resilient they are! Through frost, snow, ice -  to be both as tender and hardy as a viola.
I guess it’s the little things that keep us going. xx Kate