Meet Kate!
Kate’s big smile is infectious, and it matches her can-do attitude. Working together on vegetable production this spring has been so fun.
Kate Zoeller joined our small team in early May: our first-ever employee. Kate works as the Market Garden Assistant, about 25 hours a week, and crushes to-do lists. As we continue to grow our operation and manage the needs of young kiddos, I realized last fall that I needed to find someone for the season who had some significant experience, who could tackle projects both alone and with me, and keep the ball rolling (i.e. the carrots weeded, the herbs harvested, the tomatoes pruned…) while I manage many other daily goings-on. I was ruminating on how I’d find someone. Then, one day in January, I got an email from a young woman: “any room for an employee in 2024?”
Kate has a bunch of experience working on larger vegetable farm operations, and wanted to work at Boneyard Farm to learn more about a smaller scale, a diversified farm that includes livestock, and how it is to run two businesses and a young family. She said she was inspired by our lifestyle, with John and I both being self-employed and our family’s bustling dynamic—we are ALWAYS busy, but we set the schedule and we decide on the tasks. She loves harvest mornings, trellising and pruning high tunnel crops, and checking in with chickens and pigs at the end of her day. Kate’s tasks here include pretty much all aspects of vegetable production: seeding, bed preparation, planting, watering, weeding, harvesting, washing, packaging, and cleaning out beds for the next crop. Every day is a little different, and she’s always up for the task.
Outside of Boneyard, Kate has another job—she works the register at a natural foods store. She lives in a tiny house, recently bought land with her partner (moving the house there as soon as possible), and she likes going for walks, reading/listening to murder mysteries, and fishing. Her cat Magpie is a frequent topic of conversation. Kate is originally from New York, went to UVM for Environmental Studies, and became enamored with the Vermont agriculture scene.
When I asked Dimitri (3) for any more tidbits that he knew about Kate, he thought and replied, “Her loves me!”—which seems to be true. She tolerates (enjoys?!) both of our kids about six inches from her whenever possible, asking her questions, showing her things, and telling her about their adventures.
In short, I feel like we hit the jackpot when Kate came and sat down at our kitchen table this winter. The vegetable season is off to a great start in large part because of the big move to hire someone, and the fortunate fact that this someone is Kate. This year it feels like our operation is bigger than just us, and this community keeps on growing.
Kate started here before summertime childcare did— so Dimitri has been a consistent coworker. Here they are, bagging lettuce mix together. We all work together, but the kids usually choose Team Kate over Team Mom, when they have the option.