Farming!

View from the back of the
truck on the way to a field

So, after Harvestival was over, and I said goodbye to my friends and Uncle Lew, gathered up my stuff and moved across the farm to the intern house and began my adventure as a WWOOFer on Grant Family Farms.  WWOOF stands for World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms.  The idea is that the volunteer gets an opportunity to work on and learn about organic farms as well as a place to live and food to eat and the farm gets the fruits (or vegetables) of your labor.

So, I got set up in my corner of one the bedrooms and was overjoyed when I saw the refrigerator overflowing with vegetables!  There were generally five other interns/wwoofers living in the house, (some came and went as during my two weeks there) .  Everyone was very nice and provided quite enjoyable company! 

Fridge of veggies!

The next day, I started my farming adventure.  We walked to the office and all piled into a pickup truck.  I gazed at the breathtaking beauty of the mountains in the morning sun as we made our way to the tomatoes.  We spent the morning picking tomatoes.  Crates and crates of tomatoes!  The next time you go to a grocery store and see a huge pile of beautiful tomatoes; be appreciative of how much work it took to get those perfect tomatoes to you!  I know I will!  After lunch, we moved on to bell peppers.  It turns out that I have a knack for picking peppers!  It’s easier to figure out if they are good or not just by touch and they don’t have thorns that bite you when you pick them!  We finished the day with eggplant, which do have thorns, but are fairly large, thus filling each crate rather quickly.  I must say, there is a certain satisfaction in being able to see the results of your labor all stacked up in crates at the end of the field!  By the end of the day, I was delightfully worn out. 

A field getting watered

Most days went along the same lines.  We generally harvested two to three types of vegetables a day.  Peppers (of all varieties) and potatoes were my favorite.  Tomatoes were probably my least favorite, probably because they were on the edge of not being good anymore and it took me a while to figure out which ones were okay and which ones weren’t.  I was a total failure at broccoli.  You have to cut the broccoli stalk with a knife, which I was not able to do with any level of efficiency.  As a result, I went up on this cart that gets pulled by a tractor.  The people cutting the broccoli throw it up onto the table on the cart.  Then, the people on the cart take two or three stalks and make a bouquet out of them.  Then, the broccoli bouquet gets shoved into this machine, a button gets pushed, and the bottom of the stalks get cut off so they are even and a rubber band gets put around the middle of the stalks.  Then, the person pulls the bundle out of the machine, puts a twist-tie with a label around the broccoli.    

A small pile of squash

The second week was a little more laid back.  The weather was cooler, so there were fewer vegetables we could harvest since many of them were damaged from the frost.  We cleaned up some fields and got them ready for winter.  We also got a chance to wash eggs for a little while one afternoon.  It was fun!  You feed the eggs into this machine that washes them, then you dry and sort them by color.  We also hauled around bales of hay, which made me rather itchy. . .I still have pieces of hay in my sweatshirt!

I also enjoyed taking a couple walks with Uncle Lew and Chip (his dog).  He showed me many crops and taught me so much about farming!  It was very interesting to learn just how much planning goes into having a successful farm!  Plus, it was most enjoyable to spend time with a totally delightful man!

Chicken buses 

There were some various adventures sprinkled throughout my two week farming career. The other interns and I ventured into town for an open mic night one day.  We also went to a coffee shop for a showing of Forks Over Knives, which was quite interesting and worth a watch if you’re into documentaries about food and health.  Andy, Lew’s son and the owner of the farm now, took us for sushi and beer as a send off celebration for two of the WOOFers that were leaving.  I went to church with Uncle Lew and his daughter Brenda.  Their church is made of up the nicest people ever!  Many of them came up to chat with me and one man even gave me tips as to which of the baked goods at the snack table were the best!

Caleb watching the sun rise
while we rode to the field
one morning

Overall, I had a most enjoyable week!  I learned a lot.  I worked hard.  I realized just how lame my upper body strength is.  I met many wonderful humans.  And, I gained a much deeper appreciation for how much work goes into getting good food to people’s tables!  I also am deeply grateful for the Grant family being willing to adopt me into their family for a little while!