After more than two years of planning and
preparation, the Groundswell Incubator Farm is up and running!
We are pleased to introduce the very first Groundswell
Incubator Farmers, Damon Brangman and Surik Mehrabyan, who have been hard at
work on their quarter-acre plots since May. Both plan to grow their enterprises
at the Incubator over the next 3 years, before moving on to more permanent
sites. We thank them both for taking the plunge with us in this first year of
the Incubator Program!
Meet Damon Brangman
Damon grew up and went to college in Bermuda. His first
farming experience was working for his great-uncle, who owned a landscaping
business and farm. There Damon got lots of hands-on experience with small
livestock like goats and chickens, and with organic vegetables which they sold
through farmers’ markets. The time spent as a youth on his great-uncle’s farm
sparked Damon’s lifelong passion for growing good food – a passion which kept
him out several nights at the Incubator Farm this spring planting potatoes til
11 pm -- with a headlamp!
For the past several years Damon and his family have been
developing a beautiful homestead farm in Danby, including goats, vegetables,
and most recently a hoophouse. He and his wife Jackie Richardson have a mobile
juice business, Fruits & Roots Juice, which they operate seasonally at
venues around Ithaca and central New York. Damon wanted to start growing his
own vegetables for the juice business, but didn’t have enough space at home. So
he decided to expand his production at the Incubator Farm which will allow him
to supply the juice business and develop other markets as well.
Damon is a soft spoken community leader who plays many
different roles in Ithaca. He is a committed father to his 4 year-old
daughter Isana, a farm educator/mentor at the Ithaca Youth Farm, co-owner of
Fruits & Roots Juice, and most recently a Garden
Educator with Cornell Cooperative Extension of Tompkins County. He is just really excited about connecting people
with food, especially people who don’t have easy access to quality, fresh
foods. And with the experience he has gained here in Ithaca, he has some good
ideas for marketing his fresh produce to low-income shoppers who typically
don’t buy directly from farmers.
Many local CSA farms have tried discounting shares for
low-income households, but that doesn’t necessarily work out. Some farms have
had difficulty recruiting any low-income members. Instead of the typical CSA
model, Damon will offer a pay-as-you-go alternative that he thinks will attract
more people who currently don’t have access to farm-fresh foods. He plans to
offer shares as a weekly box that you pay for each week, rather than pre-buying
for the year. He also will have a drop-off in the Southside neighborhood, at
Congo Square Market and possibly other Ithaca neighborhoods. His goal is to
attract a group of customers who will be able to walk right down the street
once a week, and buy a box of fresh veggies just for the following week.
The produce that Damon grows will be marketed via the mobile
juice business in two ways. First, he will sell fresh produce directly to Fruit
& Roots Juice customers, and second, he will be able to supply some of the
root and leaf vegetables that go into the juices, reducing the need to purchase
them at the grocery store. Groundswell will be helping him to do a careful
analysis of costs and returns to see if it pays to grow his own organic produce
for juicing.
Because the deer fence at the Incubator wasn’t completed
early enough in the season, Damon was unable to grow beets and carrots for this
year’s juicing. Therefore many of his early crops are those that could
withstand the deer pressure, like potatoes - red, white & russet, onions, butternut squash and summer squash, which will
be sold as fresh produce. He is also planting a fall crop of beets for juicing.
