The Pitts!

Two weeks ago I officially became a Pittsburgher. It is a transition I have been looking forward to and anticipating for some time now, and its execution has gone seamlessly! I am working at a natural foods store, getting to know my way around this ridiculously hilly and confusing city, and loving being reunited with all my best pals.

More on all that will come later... but for now here are some pictures from the last couple of days. Sunday and Monday were the first two days I had off from work since I moved, and were filled with birthday celebrations, a sunny trip to the phipps conservatory (including baby plant souvenirs), and time spent hanging out at Jennas place of employment... The Union Project. Conveniently located a few blocks from home, it has already become one my favorite places to spend time. We worked on grouting a big mosiac that was made on MLK day by kids from the community. Jenna then had to run off to teach little chillins ceramics while I stuck around for the weekly Zumba class. I have decided that dancing to latin/hip hop music with middle aged african american women is the best way to exercise ever. Jenna, Elisabeth, Ali and I are also taking a stained glass restoration class there once a week.

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.

bye bye budapizzle.

Jordan, Sam and I just got back from taking in our last sights of Budapest before we leave in five hours. I stole these pictures from google cus I didn't have my camera, they don't do the scene justice, but at least they are something. We walked along the river to the beautifully lit up chain bridge where we you can look around you and the buda caslte, gellert hill, parliament, st. stevens basilica, all lit up, with Buda and Pest on either side. We then walked up Gellert hill a ways to a hidden playground with huge slides going down the hill. It was so wonderful standing in this silent park looking out over the whole city, watching the yellow trams go by bellow, and admiring the christmas lights that line every street. I couldn't stop smiling thinking about how much i have come to love budapest and my four months living here. The great public transportation, the endless supply of new clubs and coffee shops, amazing buildings and churches all around, markets full of fresh produce, bridges to walk across, the smell of princess croissants floating down the metro escalader, the wonderfully friendly couple who own the coffee shop down our street, the delicious hot wine in the outdoor christmas market, the city lights, our jolly old deskie, the hungarian friends we have made, the crazy hungs lingo our group has created, strong coffee, late night street side gyro places, as well as the incredible history and culture filling this city, are just a few of the many things I will miss.

I am so utterly thankful for the chance to have come on this semester, and traveled to so many unique and impressive places. I really can't believe how fast these past four months have gone and that in a matter of hours I will be back in Grand Rapids... back to reality I suppose. As sad as I am for my time here to be up though, I get so ridiculously giddy thinking about seeing all my friends and family and spending christmas back home. It will be so nice to relax for a while after being so exhausted and continually on the go these past few days. Thanks so much for reading my blog and letting me share a part of this semester with all of you who managed to read it once and a while! See you soon!

our final weeks in budapest.

These past few weeks in Budapest have been so wonderful but also quite bittersweet. In the midst of studying for exams, writting papers, and finishing up projects, we have all been running around trying to see things we haven't gotten around to yet, and enjoy all that this amazing and unpretentious city has to offer. We have been spending alot of time at the Christmas market these days in the center of the city. Budapest sure knows how to do the holidays right, with beautiful streets lit up with lights and christmas markets strewn about the city. It is so fun to walk around while filling your mug up with delicious hot wine, eating steaming treats, and shopping for your friends back home.

Corwin organized a tour of parliament for us last week. The building is almost as impressive inside as it is on the oustide. One of the members of parliament who has some connections to Calvin took us around. We also got to talk to the minister of foreign affairs for a while, before they both had to run off to a meeting with the prime minister. Here is a kinda crapy picture of the famous hungarian crown with the crooked cross on top.

When ali's family was here I took a tour of the Jewish Synagogue with them. It is the second largest Synagogue in the world, next to the one in New York. It was so cold walking around that day that I stopped at the christmas market on my way home and bought some hand knit socks and a sweater at the store next door which I put on immediatly.

Yesterday some students threw us a farewell reception (which I unfortunately had to miss for class) and our final wednesday night dinner at Corwin and Marilyn's which was delicious as always. Some of our Hungarian friends came to dinner too, as well as my art history teacher, who I have really enjoyed having this semester.

These past few days we have spent quite a bit of time walking around, revisiting our favorite coffee shops, bars, restaurants and flee markets, as well as exploring some museums we hadn't managed to visit already. Tonight we are going to see the Nutcracker at the Opera House. It is so sad to think that my life here is almost over. Although I am stooked to come home for Christmas and see all the people I love, I don't think I am quite ready to be done traveling around this area, and enjoying this city.