ADMITTING DEFEAT AND SAYING GOODBYE.

We made a hard decision this week to cut our fall CSA short. In September, we got about half of the members we'd hoped for going into it, and so I got a seasonal job cooking to make up for the loss in income.This job has been fun, and a lifesaver. It's kind of a treat to actually get paid for every hour I work for once (farming does not always oblige). And there have been many hours, but that also means lots of hours away from Bugtussle. We are living full-time at the new farm and have been commuting back and forth to pick veggies and drop off our CSA shares. Every Monday, we pack the family in the car, drive three hours, take care of business, harvest, go to market on Tuesday and then drive home late, only for me to have to wake up early on Wednesday to be at work and start all over again.When we originally planned this - which yes, as crazy as it sounds, was our plan - we expected a frost by now which would have helped with the pest damage. We expected some rain, too, which would have been nice. The deer have ravaged the garden, which we hadn't considered enough, but without Wendell there shouldn't be surprised by. They ate all the spinach, chard, and beets - gone! - and destroyed the carrot tops. And we simply didn't account for that much loss - we just didn't think about not being there to protect stuff.So with heavy hearts, we cut out fall CSA short, and collaterally, our time in Bowling Green. Next Tuesday will be out last at our beloved market.We will dearly miss our market and our CSA, but felt we are doing the right thing even if it's the hard thing. We feel guilty, but know we would feel even more guilt giving bad food.  We just don't have the quality of vegetables our CSA members purchased, and wouldn't feel right forcing them to just take what's left.This is the latest in a series of hard decisions which we hope are leading towards sanity on our new farm. We feel good about the new farm - great about it, really. The garlic is planted.  The compost arrived on Wednesday. We bought 60 blueberry plants on Monday. I ordered a bunch of trees for the spring on Tuesday. We have already talked to a couple restaurants about sales and are looking into a cool program called Bluegrass Harvest which could be Godsend for us, should it work out. So yeah, the new farm is coming along nicely.But we will always love and always cherish our Bowling Green family, which we wish we could just bring with us. Everywhere. You have been so good to us, and we love you all. We say it often, that there is always a lot of sacrifice in staring a farm, but that doesn't mean it's every easy. So thank you for everything. Thank you for making it hard to wanna leave.With love,Jesse (and Hannah and Further)