Farmer Profile: Jessica Sanford & Adam Hausmann of Adam’s Berry Farm
“Honestly, I don’t know if any farm can support more than one person right now, no matter the size, to bring in a stable income,” Jessica Sanford admits while walking through the farm she co-owns.
Adam Hausmann is in his 25th year working his own farm, Adam’s Berry Farm, a 57 acre Organic farm in Charlotte, around a 30 minute drive from UVM’s campus. He, alongside his wife Jessica own, manage, and operate the farm all year, and are joined by both migrant farm workers, and student work throughout the peak growing season. The farm produces primarily blueberries, strawberries, and raspberries, and works in collaboration with Pollen and Nectar, a business owned by Jessica, which began growing flowers in the past five years. Many familiar with Adam’s might know about their pick-your-own program, which provides only around 10% of the total sales on the farm. Jessica still feels it’s worth it “I think that’s one of the reasons we love having pick your own, is exposing people to local agriculture and local farms. There’s a lot of farms that you never get to step foot onto, so we can be a gateway into local food and local farming, and that feels important to us.” The bulk of their income comes from wholesale. Distributors like the Intervale Food Hub, ACORN, and Farmers to You, help keep their products within a mostly 30-mile radius. A few select businesses in Boston and New York also carry Adam’s products.
A typical day on the farm starts at 5:00am, getting up, planning for the day, and between 6:00 and 7:00 the crew is up and working as well. Their days usually run until 10:00pm.
The returning farm crew of Adam’s Berry Farm consists of three sets of brothers from Guatemala, who are on the farm from early May until November. Without these 6 gentleman, Sanford said, “This farm would not be possible.” The crew come to Adam’s through an H-2A visa, a temporary agricultural workers visa which had nearly 400,000 individuals participate last year nationwide.
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Jessica and Adam both emphasize their adoration for this line of work. “I think focusing on relationships, yeah you’re growing food, but it’s also how does that connect? Whether that be the chefs you work with, or the restaurants or the markets, and how do you reach people that way? I’ve been thinking about it a lot recently, and I love what I do. Where am I going to be in five years? I’m going to be here is the reality,” Adam shares while standing on the steps to the farm stand where customers can buy berries, popsicles, honey, and other local farm products.
While looking out over her fields Jessica mentions “it feels amazing to feed your community and be valued by your community. I think that is what feels so special about farming in Vermont. People really do appreciate what you do. They will never get how hard it is, or the sacrifices, but they do have a great appreciation for farmers.”
The life farming has brought this family brings joy, meaning, and gratitude, but it hasn’t been without trials. The changing climate has had big impacts on how and what they grow. Jessica noted the intensity as a key transformation she’s seen in the past 20 years. Springs are cooler, late frosts are more common, droughts and heatwaves last longer, “You never had days in the 90s or 100s here, like ever. Everything is more extreme.” Looking forward they are finding ways to mitigate these changes, along with the evolving economy. Inflation has been on the rise, which has been very noticeable to consumers, but also to producers. With skyrocketing costs of diesel, gas, fertilizer, and more, farmers are feeling the pressures just as much. Jessica explains the real struggle for farmers: people aren’t willing to pay $10 for a pint of strawberries, even though they should probably be more than that when you work out the costs of production “because at some point your product becomes unattainable to customers.” In recent years Jessica and Adam have invested in more machinery to help with costs, including a mechanical harvester which can harvest a row in about 10 minutes, compared to 40 hours of human labor. They also have a machine which sorts out twigs, green and bad fruits, and can pack 100 clamshell totes in 90 seconds. As they move forward, most of their plantings will be varieties that can be mechanically harvested which also provides insurance during climatic events, which require fruit to be taken off plants in very short windows to avoid loss.
Jessica also touched on what she thinks UVM students should know about what it means to be a farmer, work in Vermont, and to be involved in Agriculture. She has seen a lot of students say they want to be farmers, and feels like “everyone should work on a farm a little bit,” but people don’t realize how much work it really is. “You can’t have a 40 hour work week, your social life is nothing,” but it’s important to know the work that goes into everything we eat. She also emphasized how farming isn’t the only way to be involved in agriculture, saying “I feel like there’s so many other avenues that we farmers could use people in, we need people in ag policy to sort of change how things are. We need people in land conservation to help farmers find affordable land. We need people in market development. There’s so many ways to be involved in local farms and local agriculture that aren’t directly farming that can be super helpful.”
Farming isn’t easy, it is often and increasingly beyond difficult, however it means a lot to those who do it. As the sun set over Lake Champlain, Adam illustrated the joy he finds in the work. “There is a constant evolution of the farm, you’re continually humbled by the work because so much is out of your hands, you’re working with the natural world, which was challenging in the past, but is getting harder and harder, but it’s also what is so intriguing about it is that you are continually humbled. It’s what keeps it exciting and engaging, and the intellectual side of it all.”
Jessica echoed this “we’re money poor, but rich in many ways. We get to spend our days outside, we work with amazing people, people are excited about our product, our kids, this is where they get to grow up. It feels like the right fit for us.”
You can find Adam’s Berry Farm products at their farm-stand in Charlotte, City Market, Healthy Living, Middlebury Co-op, the Burlington Farmers Market (which runs until October 31st) and in dishes at most of the restaurants in Burlington!
