The Discomforts of Farming

Today we had our first really hot day. I’m not actually sure how hot it got; the weather gods on the internet said it would get into the upper 80’s or even 90. It never felt quite that hot to me but it did feel, well, hot. I spent an hour or two after lunch planting onion seedlings, and if we had been doing that for all eight hours of our day I probably would have been pretty miserable by the end of it. But I spent the morning up on the cultivating tractor, weeding a last bed of beets and six beds of carrots. The carrots at this point are very small, thin, wispy fellows, and I had to take extra care to keep the wire baskets from going too deep and throwing soil on top of the little plants. I had a little elevation on the tractor so I caught a bit of breeze, and it wasn’t terribly strenuous, it just took a certain amount of focus and care.

I spent the last couple hours of the day with Eric mending fences. Our larger field, called Patch field, has an electric fence around it (so does the other field, called Underhill, after our friend Frodo Baggins I like to think) to keep the deer from eating up all our food. Many of the wooden posts holding the wires up were broken, split or splintered, and we were tasked with removing them. This took a lot of messing around and disagreeable contortions of the hands with a pair of pliers and wire cutters, resulting in several minor scrapes, blisters or small areas of pinched flesh, as well as general fatigue to the muscles in my hands.

There are plenty of discomforts in this job. None of them has been particularly overwhelming thus far, certainly not enough to counterbalance the positive experience I’m having learning about farming, spending time outside in a beautiful setting, working with other good, interesting people and working hard at something I believe in. But they are there. Kneeling, bending over, repetitive tasks in strange positions, sunburn, windburn, cold weather (we’ve had little enough of that so far), wet socks, grimy, beyond grimy hands and face, filthy clothes, hot, sweaty days, etc. I’m paying particular attention to taking care of my hands, keeping them moisturized whenever possible but mostly just trying to be mindful and careful with them anytime I’m using them in a way that could possibly injure them. This job doesn’t really seem to have many opportunities for major harm (with a reasonable amount of care and common sense) to the hands but they get a lot of hard, physical use. I’m making sure to strum my guitar or pick up my violin regularly to keep them limber and keep tabs on them.

It’s too early to tell yet whether I’ll get more used to the various discomforts of this sort as the season goes on or whether, really, I just ain’t seen nothin’ yet.

I’m starting to get very excited for the vegetables we’ll eventually be harvesting. It’ll still be awhile, but I had a conversation today discussing what stuff the respective we’s were most excited for, and I realized I’m excited for most of it. I suppose if forced to pick something I’ll say: hot chiles! I’m going to make hot sauce. Also, I can’t wait for good tomatoes and fresh oregano for the best greek salads ever in high summer (consult Chez Panisse Vegetables for the formula). And garlic, I’m really excited for that as well. Another high summer treat I’m looking forward to making is salsa, pico gallo in particular, if we have chiles, tomatoes, garlic, cilantro and onions up at the same time. The onions might come a little later, I’m not sure. If I have to buy an onion at the store it won’t kill me, but my guess is we’ll have one of the varieties up in the summer, or I can use scallions or shallots.

Until next time.

Potatoes, scallions, beets, spinach, carrots...

Today we did some more…potato planting. One’s first week on a new job is by definition going to be a series of brand new tasks, with little opportunity to get bored or tired. But of course many of our tasks we will do over and over again. Seeding, transplanting, weeding, harvesting…these chores will occupy much of our time this season. Of course, with all the different kinds of vegetables we grow, the process is a little different for each one. However, with onions and potatoes, which take some time to grow and that are all planted around the same time (instead of in succession), it becomes a pretty big project to get them all in the ground over the course of a week or two.

It sounds like I’m complaining, but I’m not. Or not much. It wasn’t a thrill a minute, but I find myself kind of interested in the learning process, even with fairly basic, repetitive tasks. The way I slowly figured out the best rhythm for pushing the potato into the ground and following with a sweep of the other hand to cover with soil. Figuring that when dropping potatoes into the furrows I can stand and drop instead of bending over, and that I have better accuracy if I sort of toss them with a bit of overhand instead of just letting them roll out of my hand. Or when watering the greenhouse, how much more efficient it is to start at one end instead of the other, and to use the spray adjustment to reach more trays from one location instead of moving all over the place. Simple things, but finding little ways to do things more efficiently or better makes the time go quicker and keeps me mindful of my task. The key is to stop and think for a minute or so when something about what you’re doing is irritating you; often just a bit of thought will provide you with a solution.

I got up on the tractor again today, the G, to seed more spinach, carrots (tiny little seeds), and beets, that fancy Italian candy-striped variety called chioggia. That was fun, and after that I went over to join the group of folks transplanting scallions. For this, we had trays of scallions that had got their start in the greenhouse and were in small bunches maybe 6 inches high or so. A tractor had gone over the beds, putting small dimples into the soil. We would remove a plug of scallions from a tray and push it into the dimple and then cover with soil. I found myself a little excited by this, for the simple reason that I really like scallions. In salads, eggs, and stir-fries especially. I think my favorite flavor of omelet is with mushrooms, scallions and swiss cheese.

Anyway, so begins week two of my new life on the farm. Tomorrow I believe we are supposed to get some rain, and as I write this the skies are darkening and the wind is picking up.

So long!