Homegrown Happy Valley

Guest blogger Carolyne Meehan–a mom, former English teacher, and supporter of all things local–continues her diary of working on a local farm in exchange for fresh, local produce with Part Two: “You Know it’s Early When You Have to Wake The Farmer.” If you’re just joining in now, check out Part 1 here.

When I show up for the first Tuesday morning harvest of the season at 5 a.m., things are very quiet. And dark. It is so dark that I almost walk right into the electric fence that borders the fields.  The jolt surely would have been more powerful than that from my missed morning coffee, but I’m still thankful that I notice the wires in time. I am thinking that the farmer must be out here somewhere, so I look around a while, taking my steps more carefully.  I watch the swallows swoop in and out of the eaves of the old barn as the world begins to wake.  It is nice to soak in a few moments of the morning peace, but soon it’s twenty after and there’s still no sign of the farmer. I am left with no choice but to knock lightly on his door. A moment later he’s standing there, bleary eyed, in the doorway. “I thought it might be you,” he says. I stare back with a look of puzzlement as he explains that when the mornings are as cool as this one, we don’t have to start quite so early. “Good to know… would have been better to have known last night!” I joke. He takes a few minutes to brush his teeth; he throws on his boots; and I apologize for disturbing his beauty sleep as we get to work.

The fields are wet and muddy from a long night of thunderstorms. First comes the harvesting, our knives slicing through the kale before we load the dripping leaves into crates. Then comes the washing.  Even though the greens are super clean from all the rain and lack of spraying, we still need to plunge them into a cow-sized tub of hand-numbing water.  The farmer plans on using the washing machine spin cycle to dry the greens, but hasn’t put it in action yet.  I am learning that farmers are full of such innovative ideas.  As we are cleaning out the garage-size fridge that stores produce, we dig out at least five hefty bags of thick leafy greens – the remains of the failed broccoli crop. He hopes to find a recipe for the greens and include them in the shares. I try a bite and instantly shatter his hopes, as I all but gag at the super bitter taste.  The farmer struggles with letting these greens go to waste, or even to the compost pile. I try to help ease the pain a bit by taking some excess bags of wilting chicory and kohlrabi, even though I know I won’t be able to eat all of them.

When you become a member of a CSA, you agree to deal with some risk. Variables like weather, disease, bugs and simple human error can mean no spinach or pole beans for the season. In the case of the broccoli, the excessive rainy weather was to blame. The soggy soil delayed the plants from being transplanted into their intended beds. In the meantime, the broccoli began to flower while still in tiny pots in the greenhouse. Once put in the ground, the flowers never got much bigger than a tiny floret.  It is hard to see so much time and effort go to waste. It’s equally hard forgoing the crops that we can’t enjoy this growing season, like the asparagus that takes three years to deliver their delicious stalks.  The berry plants were also just put in this year–another reminder of the “slow food” concept. I will get through this year by dreaming of the tomatoes–and by  buying berries and asparagus at the farmers’ markets (this isn’t cheating; it’s making the most of our area’s bounty).

Chicks on the farm

Before leaving for the day, I stop to peak at the chicks that are beginning to look more like chickens each week. The chickens are housed in a mobile cage in an area of the field that will eventually be turned into planting beds. As the chickens peck at their feed, they aerate the soil, all the while fertilizing with their droppings.  This soil preparation is their secondary purpose, as the farmer has yet another plan for these birds:  a “slaughter-your-own-chicken” deal for the CSA members and the community.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009 at 12:09 pm and is filed under Eat Local Challenge, Farm, Food, Guest Blogger, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.