The Shuttle A 15-Year Farm Journey that Started on Speaker Phone

Members Meet, Eat and Socialize in Fort Washington

by Karen Plourde, Editor Weavers Way Shuttle

About 150 members gathered at Germantown Academy in Fort Washington on May 13 to break bread, get the latest Weavers Way news and learn the results of this year’s Board of Directors election, as the Co-op convened its first indoor General Membership Meeting since the fall of 2019.

As part of the meeting pregame, attendees browsed at tables staffed by the Co-op’s Environment Committee and Global Women's Strike, looked over the latest Weavers Way merch and wrote love letters or left voice- mails to the Co-op while Jay Klales provided an instrumental guitar soundtrack. They then queued up for customized grain bowls with rice, grilled chicken or baked tofu and green goddess dressing along with salad and pudding for dessert. Prior to the meeting, they enjoyed a performance from the Precision Shopping Box Drill Team, which demonstrated a series of coordinated maneuvers with the Mt. Airy store’s signature gray shopping tubs.

Following an introduction by Board Vice President Cheryl Croxton, Board President Ether Wyss-Flamm kicked off the business portion of the afternoon by welcoming members and introducing the current board.

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by Nina Berryman, Outgoing Weavers Way Farm Manager

Iremember my phone interview for my farm apprenticeship at Weavers Way in the late winter of 2008, long before Zoom. I was in Vermont at the time, and the Farm Committee had me on speaker phone. Apparently, they were gathered around a table in 610 Carpenter, prior to that space becoming Across the Way. The quality of the phone was so bad, I had to answer their questions by saying, “I think you just asked me about my farming experience. If that’s the case, I can say ....”

I’ve been told that when I accepted, committee members jumped up and down and rejoiced. Given how little the team knew about me after one scratchy phone interview, I’m sure they were just relieved to have another pair of hands on the farm. At the time, we were only growing in two of the four fields that we now manage at Awbury, but no doubt the work was quickly mounting. That April, I took the train to Philadelphia with one suitcase and my bike and joined Nicole Sugerman, Dave Zelov and Dave Siller on the Mort Brooks Memorial Farm. One comedic colleague, who worked in the store at the time, said we should start a band called Sugerberry and the Daves.

A year later, Jess McAtamney, an agroecology teacher at W.B.Saul High in Roxborough, heard we were considering starting a second farm. She pretty much decided it was going to happen on her campus before we realized what was even happening. Being a member-owned organization that exists to serve the needs of its community, the Co-op has a habit of saying yes to grassroots initiatives.

Not long after starting the CSA at Saul, we realized we needed to do something with the extra produce that was left over after a Tuesday pickup.

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Construction has started!

Cinderblocks and plasterboard came down as construction on the Co-op's Germantown store began in May. The contractor for the project, Total Construction of Conshohocken, has been concentrating on finishing what's left of the demo work and cleanup.

photo courtesy of Total Construction Inc.