Exciting News at Roots!

Greetings friends of the farm -

For those of you who don't know me, I am Chris Lutz, the owner of Roots Farm and the (often) behind the scenes instigator of the CSA you have supported in the past. In case you haven't already heard, I wanted to make sure you all were aware of the exciting things happening out here at the Roots Farm.

First off, five weeks ago my beloved Tara Faragoza and I were blessed by the birth of our first child, Antonia Sabine. Things are going well, and, yes, we are even getting some sleep from time to time! The next generation of Roots Farmers is on her way to the strawberry patch....well, not quite yet.

Secondly, you should know about the exciting alliance we have made for this season with the folks from the Full Moon Farm. For many years now, Jason Mann and his crew have been operating Full Moon in the Athens area. They have been amongst our biggest allies and inspiration as we have grown Roots into what it is today. You may know Full Moon as the primary produce supplier to Farm 255 in Athens and also Jason's excellent new Farm Burger restaurants in Atlanta.

As it became clear that things in my life were changing I turned to Jason for advice on how I might change things around the farm to better suit the new reality around Roots. We quickly saw the benefits of joining forces to provide Full Moon Farm with a new and dynamic home and provide Roots with a capable and ambitious crew to operate the farm. Thus, our vision for a (slightly) new direction for Roots was born and I agreed to lease the farm to Jason to operate as Full Moon Farm.

I have been watching with excitement as Jack Mathews, the new farm manager, and his crew have been sowing seeds, turning the earth, and making big plans for this next year. I can tell already that this season will continue on in Root's fine tradition of honoring the earth's bounty and providing amazing, nourishing food to our community.

In additioon to letting all of you know about our new stewards, I also want to encourage all of you to continue to support the mission of the Roots Farm by signing up for another season of veggies through the Full Moon Farm's 2012 CSA program. I think this is an exciting opportunity for those of you have been long time members of our CSA. While the offerings from Full Moon will include many of the veggies you've come to love, there are bound to be new and exciting surprises in your box every week. The structure of the CSA hasn't really changed much and they will be offering both on farm (Winterville) pick up and an in town location on Fridays. For more information or to sign up for this season, please check out the Full Moon website at: http://www.fullmooncoop.org/csa/. Full Moon will also be representing at the Athens Farmers Markets on both Wednesday and Saturday. Please stop by to get some great veggies, meet farmer Jack, and support all of our wonderfull local farmers and business people.

If you are wondering what happened to farmer Sara, worry not, she's still here in Athens. Sara's taking a bit of time off of farming full time and devoting herself to her many and varied passions. She is doing a bit of farming this year, helping out our friends at Cedar Grove Farm. Rumor has it she'll be operating their booth at the mid-week Athens Farmers Market so stop by and say hello.

If you have any questions about this, please feel free to contact us at one of the emails below. Please DO NOT resond to this email as we aren't checking the old Roots email or phone number right now. The contacts below are the best way to keep in touch.

Chris = lutz_christopher@yahoo.com

Farm Manager Jack Mathews = jack.a.matthews@gmail.com

Thanks for keeping in touch and for your support of local foods!

Chris Lutz
Owner, Roots Farm