RECAP WEEK 1

I’m sorry to say this entry may be a bit dry, but I’m sure some of you must be wondering how I’ve been spending my days here. So I present you with a day-by-day account of my first week on the farm:

Monday: Harvest Day!

6-8:30am Washing greens (baby kale, arugula, mizuna, mustard, spinach, and large curly kale)

8:30-9am Picnic breakfast in the field

9-12 Out in the fields harvesting peppers, lettuce and cucumbers

12-2pm Lunch at Morning Glory (e.g. my house)

2-5 Harvested beets and beans

5-6 Dinner

6-8 Washing up, relaxing and socializing

8 Watched an episode of Black Adder with everyone in the house

9 Bedtime

Tuesday: Harvest Day Round 2 (not necessarily the norm :)

6-8 Picked sweet corn in the rain in a field of mosquitoes

8-9 Breakfast (we harvested our own raspberries)

9-12 Picked tomatoes in the fields and the greenhouse

12-2 Lunch of aforementioned tomatoes and eggs from our chickens

2-5 Processing (e.g. putting what we’ve picked the past two days into CSA boxes that are delivered to customers tomorrow)

5-9 The evening followed much as the following day, but we played Apples to Apples instead of watching a show

Wednesday

7 Woke up, had breakfast, got ready

8-12 Harvested the last of the ripe tomatoes, removed dead/bad leaves from beds of Swiss chard

12-2 Surprise going away party for Kristine (one of the Germans) and Marianna, who’s moving to Madison to start school after living on the farm for two years

2-5 Picked onions and weeded some tomato beds

5-8 Ate dinner, played cards, went to bed early

Thursday

7 Up and at ‘em

8-12 Planted seed flats of lettuce and kohlrabi

12-2 Community lunch with everyone in the comm

unity center

2-5 Thinning mo

re Swiss chard in the garden

5-6 Dinner

6-8 Painting aprons for kindergartners with Christine

8-10 Watched a movie and bedtime

Friday: First day of milking!

5 Wake up (it is still pitch black out)

5:30-8:30 Milking in

the barn

9:30-12 Out in the fields after breakfast harvesting potatoes

12-2 Lunch

2-5 Weeding and hoeing the side garden

5-7 Downtime

7-8 Community potluck at the community center followed by a short cello performance by Arianna, a 9 yr old

9 Bed!

Saturday

5 Wake up

5:30-8:30 Milking – I got to bottle fee

d the calf

that was born last night :)

9:30-12 Out in the garden weeding one of the tomato beds and thinning Swiss chard

12-2 Lunch, laundry

2-4 Bike ride into town (~5 miles) to get a coffee and check out the library with three of the other girls that intern here

5-8 Head to the Franconia Sculpture Garden to listen to live music and look at the artwork

9-11 Try to figure out my plans for after the farm… Bedtime

Sunday: SLEEP IN!!!

7 Sleeping in was a failure, woke up unfortunately early, read in bed

11 Brunch of crepes with homemade apple-strawberry jam

1:30-4 Played tennis with Asher, Lilli, Johanna, Steven and Scott

5 Dinner

7-8:30 Played cards with Mary

9 Bed

Riveting, I’m sure, but actually quite a fun and learning-filled week. I’m really enjoying my time here, the people are great, and after a week am really getting into the swing of things. I’ll write back soon with something a little more exciting to read. CIAO.

BIENVENUES A LA FERME!

So after almost a year of inactivity during my AmeriCorps “sabbatical” (that was anything but relaxing) I have decided to resume my blogging activities. This time, instead of fish, the topic shall be farming. Yesterday I arrived at Community Homestead, a non-profit rural community that lives and works with people with special needs. My main duties for the next three months will focus mainly on gardening and milking, but I will also have the opportunity to try other things such as canning, making yogurt and baking bread.

So far, so good. I am living in Morning Glory, one of six houses on the farm, with the Elmquist family (they have four children, all but one that are out of the house), a German girl who is here for the summer, and four long-term residents. I have my own room, which after this past year is a dealmaker in and of itself. And the house has a resident cat, Kit-Kat, who is very sweet but is all skin-and-bones due to a case of intestinal worms that he is being treated for later this week. There are a plethora of other animals running around as well – mainly just dogs and cats, but chickens, too.

As for food, we have fresh, unpasteurized milk from their 30 dairy cows, completely organic. Most of the produce comes from the garden and orchards, but otherwise each house operates on a monthly budget for food and other household needs. To earn money, Community Homestead has a CSA and sells woodcrafts, fiber arts and anything else the residents produce. No one here has a salary and all money is communal.

This morning (Sunday) we attended the “Gathering”, which is a very informal version of church, if it can even be called that. Anyone from the community is welcome to attend, but it is not mandatory. We sat around in a circle, a few passages were read (not necessarily from the Bible), we sang a few songs (that change depending on the season), and then people just visited. All in all in took about 30 minutes.

This evening we went down to the river for a picnic dinner and some swimming. I’ll update everyone on the day-to-day runnings of the farm when I get more accustomed to the schedule. So far, all I know is that Mondays we start bright and early at 6am to start the week’s harvest! Otherwise, starting times each day are a bit more flexible.

A TOUT A L’HEURE!