6 months later...

...and the farm is still kickin'. although now instead of tank tops and chacos we pile on 10 layers of shirts and 2 layers of long underware as we spend our days harvesting and cleaning up the fields. the weather here has been unseasonally mild and pleasant, as you can see by the bountiful produce that still fills our stand! (thanks for the rad photo brad!)

Produce wasn't the only thing filling our stand the other week. with the omelets having finished for the season we found ourselves starving by 10am so naturally we settled for our local krispy kreme down the road! Ivors ridiculously adorable son even sported the hat.

Our most recent project on the farm has been constructing 2 big greenhouses up on the hill. It is quite the feat to be given a pile of pipes and a sheet of vague instructions and end up with a level green house on slightly uneven land. We even managed to secure a giant sheet of plastic on top during a stupidly windy afternoon. It only took us a few hours of screaming and airborn hilarity.

the first one above is done and planted!
Number 2 is on the way!


pretty soon the big greenhouses will be full of beautiful salad mix like the smaller hoop houses are.



Our monarch friends have been carefully monitored in the greenhouses this season.

I sure will miss ivor's specialty salad mix.

another project earlier this month was cracking and planting garlic that will be ready to harvest next spring. the remains were floating around the farm for quite a few weeks.

Ivor has also plowed up 2 more acres of fields to put into production next year. these "country club" fields are a mere 50 yards from the country club entrance.

It sure is strange to think about how different my reality will soon be as i get ready to head back to grand rapids in a few days. no more armfulls of fresh produce waiting outside my front door, ridiculous sing alongs and dance moves in the fields, and overwhelmingly delicious potlucks. I also can't imagine another job where your lunch break involves sitting around the living room listening to old records, eating gormet food and sipping on hot buttered run for an hour or so.

As wierd as it is to leave this place and say goodbye to those i have spent everyday with for the past 6 months, I am sure looking forward to some time off and a chance to relax with friends and family. Even though my bank account sure hasn't grown any, my passion for great food, and respect for local farmers sure has.

another muddy month.

As september rolled around so did cooler weather and a slight change of tasks. Although I lament the overwhelming presence of tomatoes filling our kitchen, I am not sad to see them dissapearing from the vines. Despite the slowing down of some crops, our September harvests for the market were some of our biggest yet reaching over 30 different types of veggies overflowing our stand.

September also brought with it an eagerly awaited visit from much loved pals on the weekend of my 22nd birthday. It is crazy to think that only one year ago I was roaming around Vienna. If someone would have told me then that for my next birthday I would be in Kentucky and my friends would be visiting me from their new home in Pittsburgh I wouldn't have believed it... but I am sure glad it is true.

My little neon spent many of it's september days in the auto repair shop and my computer was also out of commission for a while. Other than that, however, things are truckin along, and fantastic food is being grown and eaten all the time. It still rains an unusual amount and some days we layer up with giant rubber overalls, boots and jackets, and slide around in the mud all day.

I have slowly been exploring the many Wendell Berry books around the house. Here is just one of his wonderful poems...

"Sewing the seed,

my hand is one with the earth.

Wanting the seed to grow,

my mind is one with the light.

Hoeing the crop,

my hands are one with the rain.

Having cared for the plants,

my mind is one with the air.

Hungry and trusting,

my mind is one with the earth.

Eating the fruit,

my body is one with the earth."

away goes august.

So it is now September, but it sure doesn't feel like it as I sit in my kitchen in shorts and a tank top a bit sweaty from standing over the hot stove cooking up some sweet corn and yellow wax beans. I am still amazed by the gourmet food that ends up on my plate for lunch everyday and the new recipes i have all the time and food I could possibly want to try out. We are in the process of planting the fall crops so I spent the whole morning shoveling heavy wet chicken shit onto new beds waiting to be planted. I never knew the value this stuff could have, but as our only method of fertilizing it is placed in high regard. I tried to remember that as I spent all my will power trying not to gag. seriously... I was struggling. After lunch I then had a welcomed change of scenery as some of us ventured across the highway that runs next to our fields to the huge old estate of the Bullitt family. This family once owned 1000 acres which is now mostly leased out to the surrounding commercial area, some conventional corn and soybean fields, and us. The original estate and its many outbuildings and stables and slave quarters look for the most part the same as they did 200 years ago, only now they are kept up by a few ground takers and a historical society. After a few minutes of driving across the highway and through the corn fields and the estate and down the long tree lined driveway and out along the sears, kohl’s and old navy parking lots, we pulled up to another part of the bullet property…the oldest lived in house in Jefferson county. here next to this house and in between the sea of mall parking lots our farm takes care of a small patch of berry bushes and fruit trees. I felt like I was stuck between time as I munched on raspberries wearing my straw hat and dirty clothes next to the stone outbuilding of this 200 year old house while watching the business men take their smoke break 50 yards away outside the huge oppressive office buildings and life sucking parking lots. I often find myself stuck between realities here, but that is the beauty of an urban farm holding its own in the midst of county clubs, golf courses, highways and parking lots.

Along with all the things I love about this farm and life here and the privilege of working and learning at such a unique farm for a wonderful farmer, I can’t help but long for the friendly bustling of neighborhoods, front porches, family and good friends. Maybe it is just my internal clock telling me it is time to start school again and have a schedule packed with things to do and places to go and people to see, but I do genuinely love and miss those very things. Hopefully the cooler weather and all the new sewing and craft projects I have started will boost my excitement as I look forward to the next 3 months.

picking squash next to the golfers with brad.

one of our weekly friday lunch feasts. ivor's special squash blossom fritatta plus much more.

sweet corn has arrived at last!

some of our many different heirloom tomato varieties.

56 jars of tomatoes and salsa we canned at a canning workshop!

JU-ly

Today I picked, weighed and sorted 342 pounds of summer squash and zucchini into boxes. Yep, summer crops are in full swing and extra tomatoes, squash and okra never cease to crowd our fridge. We are finally beginning to catch up on weeding and planting after an extremely rainy June and the place is looking pretty good. It has been wonderful showing off our hard work and sharing our fantastic meals with friends and family that have ventured down our way. June has also been full of workshops, fieldtrips to neighboring farms, explorations around the city, and an amazing chance to sit in on an intimate talk with wendell berry.

I have never eaten such amazing food, or had as much appreciation for the food that often so absentmindedly arrives at our dinner tables. The more I learn about our current food system in america the more disgusted I become. It is so frustrating to see the systems in place that have turned family farms into sprawling subdivisions or endless fields of corn, and stereotyped farmers as an uneducated and unecessary portion of our population. It has been extremely encouraging, however, to see so many farmers and organizations here fighting to make farming a profitable living once again, and something that can be done organically and locally all the while enhancing the health of the land, community and it's people. I am only beginning to learn the huge amount of knowledge necessary to run a successful farm and am continually amazed by the skills, stamina and energy of those I work with. Right now, however, I am proud and happily satisfied by an irrigation line successfully moved, a field of tomatoes tidily staked, a bed of chard neatly weeded, and the fall crops poking their heads out of the flats we just seeded.

squash and zucchini at the market.

garlic hanging to dry.

okra.

the hill field nice and weedless.sun gold tomatoes!
props to jenna sue for these last three photos... the riverfront downtown, dinner in the fields, and porch sittin at the farm house.

a kentucky june

Here it is! My new home... Field Day Family Farm in Louisville, Kentucky. The skies are huge and beautiful, the fields weedy yet bountiful, the people fun and welcoming, the food unbelievably delicious, the weather hot and humid, and the work exhuasting but fulfilling.

Each day is filled with new and different things to learn and do as we plant, irrigate, harvest, weed, till, hoe, pull, wash, snip, box and cook.Some days it storms and we load ourselves down with rubber rain gear and enter a sea of mud. Other days we lather on 50 spf sunscreen and straw hats to ward off the incredibly hot sun.

Every Tuesday we harvest, wash and box veggies for 60 people that buy a weekly share of produce.

Then every saturday morning we sell produce at a farmers market in town while enjoying coffee, omelets, music and fellow farmers.
At the end of the day we often sit on the porch and enjoy the sunset while trying to block out the ever present noise of the highway that runs next to the farm on one side, and the golfers riding by in their golf carts on the other side.

And a new addition to the farm! two chickens that were rescued off the side of the highway and lovingly adopted by us interns.

Usually we are still smiling at the end of the day. Here is everyone but the bossman... who was home watching his adorable kids for the day.