Ada here. A quick intro before an outro. As some of you may know, I’ve been helping Becky with this newsletter, but I’m passing the baton. I’m having a baby (woohoo!) and beginning to ramp down work in preparation for this next chapter.
I first met Becky when we worked together at a farm in Austin. She was boss-lady farm manager, and I worked in operations doing marketing. We didn’t work closely together but sorta friend-crushed each other from afar.
Fast forward to a few years later when Becky asked me if I wanted to start a business with her. What?! She thought I was that cool? And that capable? Enter the Club Home Made era. It truly was an important milestone in my development to ride alongside someone with an innate entrepreneurial spirit. I learned that yep!… you can bring creative ideas to life and they don’t just have to live in your brain under the “It would be cool if…” category.
Club Home Made was born out of an observation that eating seasonally - working your way through a CSA box of turnips and radishes - wasn’t always intuitive for the average consumer. We wanted to make sure folks learned how to free-style in the kitchen to make them better consumers of locally grown produce that rarely fits the potato-kale-carrot formula supermarkets have trained us to grow used to. (Hello to anyone reading this who came to a Club Home Made class!! The nostalgia for those crowded wooden prep tables is real.)
When Becky made the gigantic and brave LEAP to purchase land and equipment so that she could start VRDNT, she asked me if I’d offer a hand in the marketing department, mostly helping with the weekly newsletter. We tried to take our same learnings from years of working with CSA members to make a newsletter that was educational and very recipe-centric. We’re all here for the food, right? I hope these newsletters have helped to keep at least some of you inspired in the kitchen and grow more connected to the woman and business that grows your food.
Speaking of… before I go, let me gush on the work that VRDNT is doing.
I first got interested in farming through my obsession with food. The best food is made with fresh ingredients, and the very very best food is made with fresh ingredients grown by a farmer who farms with care and concern. The vegetables coming out of the VRDNT fields are this food.
There is an incredible amount of hard work, grit, ingenuity, and creative problem-solving that happens unseen, every day to make it happen. I work in agriculture, helping to support farmers, but I am not a farmer. I’ve worked in and around Texas ag for over a decade, but have only spent around 8 months working (part-time) doing field work… aka, actually pretending like I’m a farmer. Let me just say that physically and emotionally, the work is extremely difficult. I don’t think many of us could do it with much success (myself included) so want to take this moment to thank Becky and her crew for doing it all so that their community (aka.. you!) can eat wholly and nutritiously.
THANK Y’ALL!
Yes, Becky and the staff are paid for their time, but to me, the vocation is also an act of service because it’s just.that.hard. The mornings always come earlier than you’d like, the August sun is always devastating, and the rollercoaster of crop loss, from freeze or weeds or bugs or honest mistakes, is constant.
While you and I are living our lives, going about our day as employees or students or mothers or friends, Becky and the farm crew are working with the earth, the elements, the heat and the cold, the broken machinery and the heavy coolers full of fresh produce, to make a farm-to-table CSA experience possible. Diversified vegetable production that involves a variety of crops throughout 52 weeks of the year doesn’t just happen with good soil and seeds. Unfortunately for Texas farmers, we can grow here pretty much year-round. There is no true off-season. Vacations and time away from the farm isn’t easy. You’ve got to be really smart, really organized, heartily devoted, creative, mechanically minded, observant, adaptable, biologically minded, and environmentally intuitive just to grow the vegetables… not to mention all the other stuff that comes with running a small business (a good manager, a savvy marketer, a bookkeeper, etc., etc.)
I’m bragging on my dear friend… but y’all… Becky is so good at all of these things.
Those who know Becky well know how damn smart she is. I swear she could have been the president if she wanted, or an astronaut, or [insert something incredibly impressive], but she’s decided to use her gifts to create a small-scale farm run with integrity and love to grow the best possible vegetables in our region. If you’re reading this…. If you have access to her vegetables… it is a blessing. Supporting VRDNT is an easy right in a world filled with broken and damaging supply chains. Plus the vegetables are very delicious.
Becky’s concern for the environment, the health of her soil, the quality of her vegetables, and the well-being of her staff is genuine and serious.
I could keep going, partly because I’m sad for my “official” role with VRDNT to be ending, but I’ve got to get to my day job. I’ll always be VRDNT’s biggest cheerleader and look forward to watching the farm’s evolution. Join the CSA and become a part of the story, why don’t ya?
Stay in touch! You can find me on Instagram or watch my husband and I (mostly him) build our house. I work for Taste Profit Marketing and will be returning to work here sometime after baby in case you know a farmer that needs a website :)
As always, thanks for being here, and thanks for supporting local agriculture!
Love you, VRDNT!
-Ada Broussard
Ten Reasons to Support VRDNT:
1. Women-owned and operated.
2. Organically grown vegetables that are free from gross pesticides.
3. Delicious vegetables that taste better than their grocery store counterparts. Seriously…a/b test the vegetables. They’re better!
4. Low-impact (aka good for the soil, good for the environment) farming methods.
5. In the spring, Becky throws handfuls of flower seeds at the end of every row so that the native pollinators are extra-happy. And isn't that just lovely?
6. So much wildlife - from honeybees to deer to pileated woodpeckers - call this parcel of land home. Supporting the farm means protecting their environment, too.
7. The vegetables are affordable. Becky is pragmatic and is offering super high-quality produce for a steal-of-a-deal.
8. You’ll become a better cook… and probably end up eating more wholesome food, too. Cooking better food is just easier when you’re getting a weekly bag of fresh produce straight from a farm.
9. You can. I don’t live in Austin anymore, and the closest CSA pickup for me is probably an hour and a half away. Don’t take your access to high-quality produce for granted!
10. Being a small business owner or being a farmer doesn’t automatically mean you’re a good person. But, Becky is an incredibly good person. Support her dream, why don’t ya?