We first encountered Brenda Ostrom when we spotted “Brenda’s Eggs” at the local grocery in Mariposa, CA. Since 2000, Mountain Meadow Farms has delivered a CSA share every Tuesday to: Bootjack, Darrah, Lushmeadows, Mariposa, Midpines, El Portal, Yosemite Valley, and Tuolumne and Hodgdon Meadows communities.
Driving through the park every week, said Brenda, allowed her to see the evolution of seasons in the park, and notice the simple beauty in noticing the light change on this landscape through the year. In addition to the farm, Brenda also works as a transportation consultant with the Pacific Northwest Region of the National Park Service. She worked on the Mariposa Grove project, to consolidate parking at the South entrance of Yosemite. And having conducted transportation studies, she shared one big reason a shuttle was never implemented. In a park the size of Rhode Island, the estimated operating cost came in at $50 million per year, aka too much.
Even as visitation goes up, Brenda remains positive about the future. Visitors, traffic, flow - for Brenda it’s a big puzzle she’s eager to solve. And while the park is not discussing options yet, Brenda hopes her research will set the stage for intelligent changes when the time is right. To learn more about Mountain Meadow Farm, visit their website.
