Sutton's farmwork with us at WFCF combined blistering speed with incredible grace and precision. She can transplant and harvest faster than just about anyone on the farm, but she was never, ever sloppy-her time working at Dandelion Spring Farm taught her that beautiful produce is essential. If you've noticed some particularly lovely bunches in your share over the past two seasons, chances are they were made by Sutton. She picked up tractor work quickly at the beginning of the 2012 season, disking, cultivating, and making beds like a serious professional. She did a top-notch job managing our tricky Lyman Estate field this year, including installing a new irrigation system and manufacturing a rabbit-proof fence to guard our tomatoes against this season's giant crop of bunnies. Under her care, and with the new irrigation, the Lyman field grew at least $60,000 worth of produce this season, probably about $40,000 more than in any year since we started managing it in 2004. 

Sutton is also a smart farmer, with efficiency always on her mind and technological resources at her fingertips. Her smartphone became our go-to for in-the-field questions about the weather, pests and diseases, or the next best novel to read. She created a very useful harvest and share value tracking spreadsheet that takes about an hour of mind-numbing calculations off our plates each week. She was a mentor and inspiration to the 2012 and 2013 field crews, who admired her speed, intelligence, kind guidance, and patient explanations. Our in-the-field and lunchtime conversations about books, television shows, music and current events will be the poorer for Sutton's absence. Even her handwriting, which I'll miss on the signs in the CSA barn, exemplifies her particular combination of aesthetic awareness, intelligence, and speed. And, let's be honest, there were many times when we needed her just to reach things (the photo below speaks to this more than any words). 

Farm crews spend many hours in the field. With any group of people who work so closely together, it's hard to feel the impact of a departure until it actually happens. It will be so strange to go to the fields this morning without her, and so strange to finish the season without her excellent heart, hands, and mind. We'll miss her, and wish her the very, very best in her new work. 

Zannah, Sutton, Amanda, Dan and Erinn

Enjoy the harvest,

Amanda, for the farm staff