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Welcome Matt Strom!
Matt is our new Farming Assistant. He joined the farm a little over a month ago and we are very excited to have him.
Matt is originally from Minnesota and moved to the Bay Area about 2 years ago. He’d had it with the freezing winters and looked to the Golden State for respite and opportunity. Through his sister, he landed
a job as a driver with County Line Harvest, an organic vegetable farm based in Petaluma. The experience of watching the food he was eating grow in the soil around him was transformative for Matt. He’s been bitten by the beneficial insect known as the agriculture bug, and has decided his path is in farming.
Farmer Al and Matt met through that wonderful place of good food, human interface, and community – the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market. They began trading vegetables for fruit and struck up a great connection. Farmer Al has been interested in finding a young farmer to work with and mentor. Matt, relatively new to agriculture, is eager to build his knowledge base in production practices and business operation. Knowing that Farmer Al is one of the premier fruit growers in the country, Matt found the opportunity to learn and farm under him, too tempting to pass up.
Come harvest season Matt will be working with our Tree Team to help manage the harvest. He’ll work with our crew to oversee quality control in harvest, post harvest handling, and pack. For those of you that follow Happy CSA on Facebook, you’ll have gotten a sneak peak into our plan of dabbling in vegetable production as an option for CSA members. Right now Matt has a quarter acre experimental plot into which he’s planted a little lettuce, some radishes, and winter greens to see how they do in the Brentwood climate. Farmer Al is investigating options for increasing acreage for vegetable production adjacent to the orchard. Very exciting!
Matt hasn’t experienced a full growing season at the farm yet, but so far his favorite fruit is the Warren Pear. He’s really looking forward to trying the cherries and biting into each and every variety of fruit that we grow. Look for Matt’s pictures and thoughts on the farm on our Frog Hollow Farm CSA Facebook page. For those of you who make your way to the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market, be sure stop by our stand and say hi to Matt. He’d love to meet you!
