Life on an organic farm is…builds character.

In the movie Holes, the boys have to dig a 5 ft by 5 ft hole everyday. They’re told this exercise is “building character,” when in reality it’s to look for an impressive amount of wealth stored in a trunk, buried in the ground. Anyways, in the beginning of the summer, Eric, Ellyn and I did a lot of digging. Not 5 foot holes, thank God, but thousands of little holes for transplants, and we’d always joke that we were “building character.” As I write, on my last night here at Maplewood, I think of all that I’ve gained this summer, all the life long skills I acquired over the past three months surprise me beyond belief, and it’s been more of an experience than I could have ever imagined. I have to say though, aside from building your mind, building your appreciation for the earth, healthy soil, the farmers that work harder than probably any other occupation, building muscles; life on an organic farmer truly does in fact, build character.

After 5 hours on the road, 3 bathroom breaks, one car swap, our crew of Hannah, Susie, Ellyn, Eric and I finally made it down to Amherst Massachusetts for the NOFA (Northeastern Organic Farming Association) conference at U MASS. The three day event featured two phenomenal key note speakers, a series of many diverse workshops, a fair, farmers market, and even a night of contra dancing! Friday’s keynote speaker….can’t remember his name…. spoke all about the wonderful world of mushrooms and fungi and their growing role and importance in rebuilding nutrient rich soils and even helping cure illnesses. Last nights speaker, Will Allen, is a farmer from Milwaukee. His strong build and impressively tall height gives him a powerful presence, his dark skin color stands out at a Northeastern Organic farming convention, and his work inspired us all. In the heart of Milwaukee, he started, Growing Power, a working farm and educational outreach program, which seems to have blossomed into an empire since it began about 20 years ago. He grows pretty much anywhere he can, has a staff of 35, all nationalities and all ages, works with inner city kids, teaching them where their food comes from, has brought his work to Kenya, teaching them to build up their soil, produces all his own soil through compost and red worms, and so much more! Clearly Will inspired at least one of his audience members.

I attended workshops on starting a campus garden at your college, water bath canning, sheep raising, baking no knead bread, engaging inner city youth with community gardens, becoming more self reliant during economic times…. Some more interesting than others, but all good! The fair, which took place on the campus green, yesterday afternoon, had all sorts of country fun! Cow’s pooped on grids, kids raced to eat corn on the cob off dangling string, adults raced to shove down expensive, organic pies, People spit watermelon seeds, cattle dogs rounded up ducks, and people made butter! Clearly, a wild and crazy time was had by all. ;)

So…it’s my last night. After living with the Noel’s, sharing one bathroom with 6 other people, weeding for hours in the field with a blazing sun beating down, weeding in the field with rain drops beating down, selling at successful markets, selling at not so successful markets, collecting and washing dozens upon dozens of chicken eggs, trying to keep Eric from killing Stewy, laughing hysterically with Ellyn over absolutely nothing, answering many questions asked by Maddy and Calvin, jarring sauerkraut (which is the only food here I won’t eat!), watching cows shipped away to the butcher, then eating the heart of “Pretty” unknowingly in a stew….it’s been one hell of a summer!

I can’t even begin to articulate back all that I’ve learned and gained from this experience…. I hope that I’ve inspired some of you readers to look into the food system more, learn where you receive their own food from… and all that jazz. But maybe more importantly, perhaps inspire you to simply, start a garden of your own; even if it’s just some pole beans and peas (which I would suggest, because they’re real easy), is a great way to start. Can with your family in the fall. For all you Central New Yorkers like myself, canning our wonderful apples in October would be a great way to taste the fall during those long cold winters! Cook meals with your family, housemates, or friends from scratch, visit a farm and see how the whole process works. Food connects us. All of us eat. It’s as simple as that, and in my opinion, it’s the best way to change direction our environmentally destructive world is heading in. We all need to eat, so if they way we obtain our food is done in a sustainable way for the planet and our bodies, I like to believe we’ll see how everything else connects and relates to all life on earth, and fix that whole mess too. But don’t just join a CSA or buy organic blueberries because it’s trendy or you want to “go green”, do it to become a part of natural cycle of food, and understand its value and importance.

But I’ll get off my soap box, and wrap up this final blog! It’s strange, knowing this life is coming to an end tomorrow morning. I’ll miss smelling tomatoes as I walk down their rows, looking for ripe ones to pick. I’ll miss watching the mist rise off the pasture on early mornings when I feed the chickens, miss getting hugs goodnight from Maddy and Calvin every night while I’m typing this blog, miss not having my cell phone on me all the time, and not having to wait for someone to finish texting before I can talk to them. I’ll miss Stewy, and calfy, those crazy harvesting morning, crusin’ in Ellyn’s Legacy listening to her old blues tapes, eating beans and peas right after I pick them, because those couple serve better in my stomach than a CSA member’s. I’ll miss jumping in the pond after a sweaty afternoon of weeding, racing Ellyn to the camper at night, and sleeping in it, we’ve made it quite homey believe it or not! But, guess it’s time to get back to my “other life”, and plus, I really miss my dog ha ha. So that’s it. That’s my organic summer. Hope you’ve enjoyed following the experience as much as I’ve enjoyed living it and writing about it. :)

Don’t be afraid to get your hands dirty and see what you can grow! There’s a whole bunch of un-used land out there, just waiting to grow delicious life from it, so why not bust out those action hoes and old ripped jeans, and go to town with your green thumb? Because what’s the worst that could happen? Even if a bug eats your kale before you get a chance, or your lettuce goes to seed because you waited too long to harvest it, at least you’ll build some character, right? ;)




My Suggestions on what to grow your in your first garden:

1. Sugar Snap Peas! They’re so delicious right off the plant and you don’t need to weed, because weeds support the plant!
2. Rattlesnake Pole Beans. So scrumptious, again, right off the plant. You’ll have a cool looking tee-pee in your yard, with beans growing on them, all your neighbors will be jealous.
3. Squash. Winter or summer, winter just takes a lot longer. The leaves get big, so it’s usually less weeding.
4. Heads of lettuce. Who does like a fresh salad with a summer dinner?
5. Kale and Swiss chard! You can cut their leaves pretty early into the growing season, or wait until the get really big! Just cut leaves off the stem and more will keep growing back throughout the summer!
6. Beets, carrots and radishes. Because they’re colorful and fun to find when you dig them up!


P.S. I have some more pictures to post, but the chord that connects my camera to my laptop seems to have run off on me, so hopefully they'll show up soon!