Progress Report: 11.27.21

Grasshopper Family,

A year ago this week I sent out pictures of Building 1. The exterior had just wrapped up. We did not have doors, windows, or even concrete poured inside. The property was all dirt. And it was glorious.

Today, we have two buildings, a pump house, a renovated barn, a residence, and 32 acres of developed outdoor grow space - of the 160 acres!

And it is even more glorious.

We started this week focused on the amount of work that remained before our migrant partners wrapped up. And we got it done!
You'll see in the pictures that the 32 acres are ready for spring. Everything has been cleaned up and will now wait for winter to pass. It is quite a sight!

Meanwhile, Adam has been working on trade sample packages and got them ready this past week. We will be using these trade samples with our retail partners as soon as the state testing is complete. They look great! Shawn, Andrew, and Adam also got additional samples ready for testing and marketing.

Last Tuesday when I was out in the field around noon, I noticed many of the workers running in for their lunch breaks. I was confused by the running but figured they were just cold. It was COLD. Then I realized they were running towards the parking lot. It turns out that they were running towards a food truck that has been bringing awesome Mexican food for sale. I guess it is so popular that they always run out, which is why they all raced to get there! I was pleasantly surprised to learn this because I had, unknowingly, booked the same food truck for a surprise celebration for the team the next day.

We decided to wrap up on Wednesday at 11:00am to do something really important - celebrate our migrant partners before they traveled to Mexico, Florida, and Georgia. We truly could not have done this without each of them - all 85 of them! We gave each of them a GHF Harvest 2021 t-shirt and provided a catered lunch from their favorite Mexican food truck!

It was hard to keep my emotions contained as I shook each hand and thanked them. They were all smiling and so grateful. Many asked when they could come back. March, I would say.

It was the perfect way to wrap up this chapter of Grasshopper Farms.

We then headed into our first four day weekend since the start of this amazing journey. It is a time for all of us to take a break and give thanks to all that has happened. To each person. To each plant. To the energy pushing us forward. To the things that happen that we used to call coincidence.

It isn't a coincidence. Life is happening for us.

I am extremely grateful for the GHF team and all of you who are reading this post.