Lauren Reflecting

Lauren Harris is a longtime friend of the farm, having worked here on and off for a few years. Between worldly travels and quiet meditation or yoga retreats, she spent this summer in the farmstand and helping Cat with some educational tips and garden planning. Before she left we asked her to write us a little note on her time at the farm. Her reflections on the summer and on the farm were so touching that we’d like to share them with you. Enjoy!

I leave Cedar Circle Farm with an awakened passion about local food, feeling giddy and excited to be a part of a growing food revolution. Cedar Circle employs a wide variety of skilled and hard-working humans. These individuals unite due to a mutual passion for food, put their minds together and create. The daily ebb and flow at Cedar Circle is ever-active and ever evolving, the staff constantly developing and reevaluating systems of efficiency and productivity.

The communication and processes behind the final product, a gorgeous head of lettuce or bunch of beets, is impressive. Through working in the farmstand I have also come to see (and sample) that the fruits of this labor tastes incredible! And it is easy to see Cedar Circle cares about the dialogue that happens at the dinner table, hoping to inspire customers to think more deeply about their local economy and the ways in which they can create a lighter footprint on this Earth.

This commitment to education shines through in such events as the Heirloom Tomato Tasting and Dinner in the Field. These gatherings, as well as so many other programs at the farm, signaled to me the food revolution Cedar Circle is very actively creating. This is a revolution where our standard food system is reevaluated and where people begin to depend on and celebrate their local food traditions. Especially working with the education program, I see a farm-wide commitment to transparency and outreach. Cedar Circle is an important player in encouraging its community to become more self-sufficient by helping local gardeners grow their own food and educating young aspiring farmers through workshops, farm tours, and school visits. But the revolution is not centered around these special, annual dinners and events. Rather, it is born from the everyday occurrences in the field, the farmstand, the farmers’ market and the offices of Cedar Circle, where people simply support their local farmers and ask questions. At Cedar Circle Farm, every heirloom tomato starts a conversation and that is the precisely the type of dialogue we need to change our food system, one bite at a time.