Editor’s Letter Summer 2025
Dear farmers and friends,
As we reflect on seasons past and plan ahead, how are we prepared to weather change?
If we’ve learned anything from recent history, our predictions can be wrong. Farmers weather change on a daily basis — anyone involved in farming, gardening, and agriculture knows that there’s nothing certain and nothing predictable.
Resilience as a concept is showing up everywhere, but it’s not new. I think of it as “how well do we bounce back” when we’re stuck, broadsided, or otherwise thrown off course. As farmers, this may be the rule and not the exception. Unexpected things come up at any moment, and call upon our creativity, persistence, and community to solve. What are the assets and resources that support you and your farm’s resilience to meet these surprises, bounce back, and continue toward your goals?
While our past practices have mostly gotten us through, part of being a resilient farmer is careful observation, back-up plans and trying new things.
One successful farmer told me that every year they try three new things. And as a farm, as a family, as a community, they look at those three new things to see if it helps them be more resilient in the face of change.
Here are my three new things for this season:
Write down weekly reflections on what went right and what went wrong since it is a blur by the end of the season.
Use more mulches to conserve water as we have seen hotter and drier summers.
Set my future self up for less stress at tax season by doing better with weekly record-keeping.
The Cornell Small Farms Program is also trying new things. We’re excited to share the launch of Small Farms Radio, our new monthly podcast. While doing farm chores, we invite you to listen to our first five episodes. And when you take a moment to sit and rest, you can also watch a short film and read in more detail about the story of Tom and Sea and the West Branch Commons.
Be well, we’re in this together.
Anu Rangarajan
Editor-in-Chief
Director of the Cornell Small Farms Program
