Cate Farm News: Late Winter 2023

The farm is currently cloaked in a blanket of snow, but since the winter solstice the days have been slowly lengthening and the change in light is palpable. You might notice more birds flitting about and the garlic or potatoes you saved from last year's harvest starting to sprout. While summer gardens full of juicy vegetables are still a distant concept, all living things are slowly making preparations for the approaching season of growth.


Like all living things, Flint has begun preparing for spring at the farm! He has seeded plants that are very slow to start. Ordered a mountain of potting soil, grafted greenhouse tomato plants,  and has been busy pouring over seed catalogs to make sure we will have all of our staple vegetable, herb and flower starts as well as any new trial varieties for this year's Plant Sales.

This is a wonderful time of year to start planning your home garden. Cozy up with a cup of tea and peruse a seed catalog to get the ideas flowing, check out the varieties we will be sure to have here and think back to last year's garden…did you plant enough zucchini? 

In case you haven’t heard, we’re excited to welcome Flint as he leads the farm, continuing to grow the highest quality plants and produce for our community, and congratulate Richard and Sally on their retirement!

Warmly,
Flint and the Team at Cate Farm

Late January 2023

  Hello Cate Farm Friends and Neighbors,

We are certain that we've mentioned this in a previous Newsletter, but for those that missed it; Richard and Sally are now officially retired!

We celebrate our great fortune to have had 41 years of  learning, growing and farming here at Cate Farm.

Cate Farm has provided us many years of gratifying, yet challenging work. It is work that we've loved and it has given us the opportunity to be a part of a wonderful, supportive community.

We feel fortunate to have raised our 3 children on the farm and 2 of whom continue to live here as neighbors!  Throughout the years they have each been an integral part of our family farm's success.

And, with that, we couldn't be more pleased to announce that it is time to hand over the reins (or John Deere?) to our youngest son, Flint!

Flint has been Cate Farm's Farm Manager for the past 6 years, so it will be a very smooth transition.  Beyond that, there are no significant changes planned because, 'if it ain't broke don't fix it!'   Please reach out to him with any and all farm questions at catefarmvt@gmail.com or, at 802-477-2741.

Many of you have asked what our plans are now that we are 'retired.' We are not so sure that word best describes this next phase of life for us. We are more inclined to use the Spanish definition of retirement which is, "jubalacion!" (jubilation!)

We hope to be spending lots of time grandparenting with the recent arrival of Otis, our daughter Kuenzi's baby!  You may very well see him at the seedling sales as Richard begins training him in customer service;). We'll be heading to Italy this April, which has been something unheard of in years past as Springtime has always been our busiest time of the year and we couldn't even think about going anywhere!

We send you all a heart felt thank you for all your support!

All the best to you and yours,

Sally & Richard