Addison Wagner

I moved from Colorado to Maine in June of 2020 to pursue regenerative vegetable farming as my primary career. I had worked part-time on farms in Boulder and Ohio and had done a few months of WWOOFING in Greece, but wanted to take the plunge farming full-time in a place with an amazing network of organic farmers. I've been happily working at Whatley Farm since moving here, in addition to some part-time work at Wolfe's Neck in 2020 and a short-term winter/spring at Stonecipher Farm in 2020-2021. I'm now entering my fifth season farming with the Whatleys full-time. Working on their farm year-round has been a tremendous learning experience for me, with the added benefits of getting to know the people and participate in the farm business's growth and improvement over the years. I work with a small and tight-knit crew, and have experience jumping into most jobs on the farm including harvest, wash/pack, market, seedling start-up, direct seeding and transplanting, cultivation and other field tasks. While we all move between roles somewhat freely, I am currently the Field Manager at the farm and take the lead on turning over, preparing and maintaining our low-till permanent beds, as well as other tasks related to managing weeds, building soil health and improving the farm's systems around various field tasks.

I've recently completed the UMaine Cooperative Extension Business Planning for Producers course and have attached the current iteration of my business plan below. Here is a short excerpt that gives an overview of our vision for the business: Shade & Light Farm is a small farm focused on growing mixed organic vegetables for a 35 member Vegetable & Print CSA in Portland, Maine. We are committed to using no-till, human-scaled growing practices that build soil health, sequester carbon and increase biodiversity on the land that we steward. In our first year, we plan on using regenerative practices to grow around 30 different vegetable and herb crops on just under a 1/2 an acre of leased land. CSA members will receive 24 weekly shares during the season, with 6-8 seasonal vegetables and one handmade print in each share. The Vegetable & Print CSA is a collaboration with my partner Ana Inciardi, who owns her own successful printmaking business, Inciardi Prints LLC in Portland, Maine. She will be carving and printing the exclusive prints for the first three weeks worth of shares of every month. We will be featuring the work of another rotating local printmaker on the fourth week of each month. The other important vision for the Shade & Light Farm Vegetable & Print CSA is its community-supported food and art access fund inspired by the work of Rock Steady Farm in Hudson Valley, New York. It is a personal goal to make a percentage of the CSA shares available at no-cost to low-income members of the Portland community. While we recognize that this does not get at the root of the countless systemic inequities that make fresh, organic produce primarily accessible and affordable to people who are wealthy and often white, we feel that this food access fund is something small we can do in the short-term for people who want fresh produce yet do not have the means to purchase it. And although art exists in a different tier of "usefulness", we believe that having access to art has the potential to heal and inspire, feeding us in more intangible ways. When it comes time to market our CSA, we plan on putting out a call for applicants for these no-cost shares in different pockets of the Portland community. The funding for these no-cost shares will come from monthly on-farm events offered to all members of the CSA on a sliding-scale, pay-what-you-can basis. Depending on the outcome of our first season, I hope to gradually scale our CSA membership up, increasing the number of shares by about 65% each year. Additionally, I would like to supplement our CSA revenue with a handful of local wholesale accounts as I gain confidence as a grower. My ultimate goal with the farm is to remain under 2 acres, and gain yields through efficient, lean practices rather than by increasing our amount of growing space.

I do not have experience using a tractor or BCS for tillage and bed forming. Although I am planning on using human-scaled, no-till practices, I will likely need assistance executing a couple of rounds of subsoiling and tillage to convert the land out of its natural perennial growth, as well as some mechanical help forming my permanent beds. Fortunately if everything goes well, this will be a one-time request for assistance. I may also try to seek out some additional tractor and BCS training in this upcoming year.