5 Years in the Books
What a Year Down River.
Thank You, Thank You, Thank You
Wow, everyone. I can’t begin to thank you all enough for the support you’ve given us this season. Our sales continue to grow every year we’ve been in operation considering we’ve been limited to the same 1.3 acres of production for our five years in operation! Yes, that’s right, since Year 1, our revenue has grown 5X. That’s a 400% increase with NO ADDED LAND and crazier yet, NO RELIABLE WATER SOURCE (our well runs dry in the summer and we have to truck in water for all of our water needs). The conventional attitude in farming is that the only way to make more money is to expand onto more land.
We’ve chosen a different approach. We’ve opted to go against the grain. To grow BETTER rather than BIGGER. To farm SMARTER rather than HARDER. And in all of my research, our farm is highly competitive with the best farms in the country in terms of revenue/acre. And if you consider our limited ability to irrigate, we are far surpassing other farms’ revenue per acre. We’re pretty excited about that. It’s been a long, winding road. But we couldn’t be more grateful.
It’s not all about the numbers.
Many people are skeptical about the ability to earn a living off the land. We, as a culture, are constantly told that farmers are poor and that there’s no money in farming (despite the fact that most conventional farmers are quite wealthy, but that’s a conversation for another time). Especially in the small farming space where people assume things about you when you say that you are a farmer who grows organically grown vegetables.
While money is not at the forefront of our work, and we are not making out like investment bankers (nor did we expect to), it is still the lifeblood of any business. And our culture’s fear of acknowledging that leads to a lot of misperceptions as to the reality of the world we live. It leads to an overromanticization of certain lifestyles or career paths. Which only leads to people being misinformed upon entering them for themselves. Only to realize it’s not what they thought and causing them to abandon it as a career. That certainly applies to farming but also to many other things.
It’s also one way to establish our worth to the community and our credibility as an organization just as a public company sends a letter to its shareholders stating its achievements, failures, and future plans. Because this farm is largely yours. We grow what you want us to grow. Constrained by obvious environmental and profitability factors, our main goal is for you to be happy with our products and services.
During the season I don’t have time to think about it much, but it’s pretty freakin’ special what we’ve created here. The numbers are one of many metrics by which we can measure the value we provide to the community and our customers.
2022 Down River Farm Veteran Field Crew; Fletcher, Kaitlyn, and Evan
The Most Important Metric
Perhaps the most important metric to me, personally, is our ability to constantly raise the bar for how we treat and compensate our employees. We’ve gotten the farm to a point where it can support highly competitive wages within this industry. Commensurate with the most successful small farms around the country. We’ve also been able to increase our end-of-year bonuses commensurate with wage increases and offer more PTO than years past. We’re still not where we want to be, this is a constant process. One of our next big goals is to be able to provide year round employment for multiple employees. But in the mean time, we’re keeping up with market-wide trends with the hopes to surpass them and pay our employees well for the skilled labor that they perform… We are unbelievable grateful for them.
A Personal Story
I started my farming career by volunteering on a farm in North Carolina on my off time from my job at the time. I then moved onto the farm and worked there for room and board while working my other job for money (shift work where I worked 8 days on and 6 days off). After I quit my job, I worked on the farm full time but they couldn’t pay me very much. I worked there for a couple months before realizing I couldn’t afford to work there anymore. It’s a common issue in the small farming space. As this farm grows, it’s of upmost importance that our employees receive the highest wages we can afford that are competitive with what the best, highest grossing small farms in the country. And just as important, they should be competitive with rest of the labor market.
The first two years I started the farm, I didn’t even pay myself. Everything the farm made went towards paying employees and reinvesting in the business. And this is not uncommon when starting a farm or any business. Since then, we’ve grown to be able to pay myself a modest salary and still earn business profits on top of that. This is so huge for me who not only sacrificed a lot to make this farm work, but also sacrificed a more secure career path, instead opting to work on farms that didn’t pay well in order to learn the skills to get the farm to where it is now. My story is similar to many other entrepreneurs’ stories.
The Farm Community
With hesitation, I share that story, because it is not and never was, about me. This farm’s mission has been to grow as much high quality, nutrient dense food for as many people as our limited acreage allows. And without the many people who have flocked to the farm, we wouldn’t have gotten as far as we have in that goal.
So a MASSIVE thanks to:
the employees who joined me our first year and all the years since
this past year’s employees, Kaitlyn and Fletcher, who have been instrumental in our growth
anyone who has volunteered over the years
anyone who provided support in other ways related to the farm business functioning
This is about Down River Farm and all of those who are a part of it, not Evan.
One of our many Peoria Riverfront Market stands of the year
Fun Achievements
Before this e-mail starts to sound too much like a company’s letter to its shareholders, let’s highlight some of the more fun achievements of the year. This year, we:
Were blessed with a new beautiful website from the folks at Grindstone Group
Started a plant start enterprise that will continue to evolve
Revived our Mother’s Day Event on the farm after having taken the past two years off due to COVID
Hosted 5 dinners on the farm, all of which sold out; welcoming more than 275 guests to the farm
Began a partnership with Pumpkin Village Farms by selling their microgreens to some of our chef clients and at our Riverfront Market Stand
Spread over 75 cubic yards (over 82 tons, or 165,000 pounds!) of Better Earth Compost onto our 1.33 acre fields; completing the local Peoria nutrient cycle of our farm and providing our soil and plants the best nutrients around!
Provided an outlet for other farms to sell their crops through, including: Garden Spot Vegetable Farm, Henry’s Farm, Sunny Lane Farm, Kira’s Flowers, and Prairierth Farm
Reached 2000 followers on Instagram with no paid ads or even an emphasis on this platform - though I’m not sure this is an achievement?
Launched a new line of Farm Cards where people can purchase preloaded cards at a discounted price to use at market
Maintained consistent relationships with Ardor Bread and Provisions, Sous Chef, and Black Band Distillery, while looking to other restaurants/co-ops to potentially start a relationship with (Destihl and Green Top Grocery in Bloomington are promising leads!)
Packed and distributed more than 1500 CSA shares!
Attended and sold at 34 total markets throughout the year
Launched a new program with Peoria Grown called Mutual Aid which helps subsidize and distribute our food into areas of the community that wouldn’t normally be able to access it - reaching our goal of sending over $1,000 of vegetables their way!
OUR Achievements
Make no mistake, these achievements are not mine or the business’s, they are OURS. I don’t share them to brag but to show you exactly what YOUR SUPPORT has created! We absolutely could not do it without you and so, from the bottom of my heart, thank you all!
1920 Sears Roebuck Barn on the Farm in front of a Midwestern Sunset. Photo by Mouve Films
The Future
Moving forward, we have a lot of goals that cannot be realized on our current landbase. More winter production, perennial production to mitigate risk, year round employees, more hard labor-saving investments, and more food! We are looking to expand and find a more permanent location with which we can spread our roots and start chipping away at some of our more long term goals.
Other short-term changes you can expect:
Expanding our online store and home delivery services with products from other Peoria producers
Potentially purchasing a delivery vehicle to aid in this expansion
Making the leap to a tractor in anticipation of a larger acreage purchase in the future
Adding a subscription service for our CSA Members to an online database of recipes for every CSA item you might receive. The website subscription also provides other articles and videos as to how to fully take advantage of your CSA.
This is just a small list of changes we’d like to make next year, but many more to come!
The Cold, Hard Truth
In full transparency, I don’t know what the future holds. Farming where we farm currently has been very challenging. It has required me to dedicate every waking hour of my life to sustain it. Mostly because I have to spend hours each day just driving my truck to and from the water fill up station in order to keep everything watered properly. This feels like a massive waste of my time but also puts immense wear and tear (and miles) on my vehicle in an economy with higher fuel prices and more expensive used vehicles. Because we’re on rented land, we’ve also had to opt for time consuming, temporary, bootstrapped methods of growing. We are limited in changes we can make to improve overall resilience and efficiencies on the farm simply because we can’t invest in more permanent solutions.
This is not me complaining, I’m super grateful for all of it. And I still love this work, but I need to figure out how to make this operation work better for all of us; customers, employees, and myself alike. And I’m not certain I can do that where we are currently located.
I have considered taking a year off (or partially off) in order to look for land and make necessary changes to the operation to ensure its continued success. I REALLY would hate to do this and am trying to avoid it. But truthfully, even if we bought the perfect property tomorrow, I would have a hard time getting the soil ready to grow good quality vegetables starting this upcoming spring. Too many soil and infrastructure preparations would be needed.
Alternatively, I’ve also considered staying on the East Peoria farm and making more drastic changes to what we grow and how we sell it. All the infrastructure is up and there are at least a lot of knowns in opting for this route. I’m not jumping to conclusions, but want to be honest with you about what the future could hold. Who knows, we could keep many things the same next year, and make more subtle adjustments. This will all be determined after a more thorough combing through of our books, finishing up our taxes, and our year end crop review. And allowing me to sit still for a second and actually think long term in a way I haven’t before…
Spring Fields
Happy New Year!
On a happier note, HAPPY NEW YEAR! I hope you all get a little bit of time to enjoy the weekend and reflect on you and your family’s past years’ achievements and challenges. It’s important to take stock, if only for a moment, in order to redirect your path in the right direction. It can be hard to do that when we’re in the thick of the stress and action. Afterall, you get nowhere by staring at the map and walking; you’ve got to look up, see where you came from, what you overcame to get here, review the landmarks around you, potential obstacles to come, and allow it to inform how you get to the final destination. And sometimes the final destination itself… We’ll see you on the other side!
Thank you for your incredible support this year and have a safe, relaxing New Year! Cheers!
