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Published: September 23rd 2010
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Hard to believe it has been ONE YEAR since I left Rhode Island on my US farm journey. ONE YEAR!
When I decided to leave my beloved Boston to embark on a solo journey around the United States I was scared and nervous but ready for everything and anything, unsure of where I would end up, but excited to be able to look back on it all a year later.. and here I am, doing just that. This has been a wild and rewarding year of travel, love, physical labor, mental/physical/psychological growth, education, new and old friends, discovering this beautiful country, sleeping on or in couches/futons/tents/beds/motels and growing/harvesting/eating delicious organic foods. I have traveled from Greene, Maine to Key West, Florida to San Diego, California to Vancouver, British Columbia to Minneapolis, Minnesota; I have put 10,000+ miles on my trusty Subaru and stayed in eight hotels, four campsites, seven farms and a whopping 26 different people's houses all over the United States over the course of 12 months.
As a result of my personal journal-keeping, photos and blog, I have come up with what I have found to be my most valuable reflections from a year on the
road, starting with mulch:
1.MULCH is the MOST IMPORTANT aspect of successful crop and soil cultivation. Use it often, use it liberally and when in doubt, use some more. I cannot begin to count the number of times I have experienced this firsthand and seen the truth behind it. Just mulch it.
2.Organically grown food is delicious, healthy, sustainable and necessary!! Grow it, buy it, eat it, support it!
3.I love goats and want to have my own some day. Especially goat babies. Serenity Acres in Pinetta, Florida did this to me, so blame them, but I love goats! Goats!
4.When you are open to letting people into your life, you will be richly rewarded. Letting down my guard and trusting strangers along the way has provided me with the most amazing experiences and connections. I will talk to everyone and anyone these days!
5.One can never be too patient. Patience and flexibility are absolutely key to getting along with people in any and all situations, especially ones where you find yourself living and working with people that drive you mad. Reminding myself to chill out has allowed me to learn from all sorts of people and personalities and
made me a better person as a result, (I hope!)
6.I could not have done this without the support of my family and friends all over the country. Whether you think this whole trip is a totally wacky or totally awesome, you are the ones that put me up, fed me, kept me awake via phone calls during long drives, entertained me and encouraged me along the way. Thank you a million times.
7.The United States is incredibly diverse geographically, economically and socially. I have seen some of the most incredible scenery along my trip, much of which I have posted on my blog. I have developed a new found respect for the United States on many levels and encourage everyone to get out and explore it before Walmart or McDonald's infiltrate.. oh wait...
Alright, that's it for corny reflections and such, on to the recent news.
Things at Garden Farme in Ramsey, Minnesota have been busy busy busy. Orders have been flowing in each week, averaging about ten per week. The garden continues to produce the most amazing things despite our lack of enough time for maintenance. The harvesting takes up most of our work hours,
while weeding, bed building and planting are squeezed in whenever we have an extra hour or two. The farm has seen an erratic flow of interns since July, some days we have ten people here helping in one way or another, while other days it will be one or two. Garlic planting has become an almost daily activity, with twenty beds of jumbo (!) bulbs planted so far while saving most of the smaller bulbs for household use during the rest of the year.
The past few weeks have seen a dozen or more beds of gone-to-seed crops pulled, beds reshaped and mulched and new crops planted such as arugula and mustard greens which are usually frost-hardy and will hopefully take us into early autumn. We have the most beautiful baby arugula and mustard mixes growing right now - they are such a pleasure to harvest and are a very welcome break from picking 40lbs of lettuce each week! Thanks to consistent and heavy mulching, the rhubarb is holding strong and tasting delicious, with anywhere from twenty to sixty pounds being delivered each week. Bruce recently busted out a five gallon bucket of 10-year old aged honey and has
been sampling it to friends and restaurants. It is dark brown and tastes like a cross between honey and molasses, yum.
Additionally, I have developed a love for chard and taken to maintaining the chard beds on a weekly basis and jumping at the chance to harvest it. Not only is chard delicious and nutrient packed, but I like that chard is reliable and beautiful (good qualities, right) - it does not go to seed quickly, it holds up in all sorts of weather (hail, even!), it responds well to being picked on a regular basis, bouncing back each week and it grows in the most amazing colors - red, orange, yellow and white. What more could you want from a veggie?
Besides the garden work, I have been taking the Friday afternoon deliveries into the Twin Cities and getting to see another side of the commercial farm business. Deliveries prove to be an interesting experience each week. It starts with loading all the produce in their bins into my car in a semi-reasonable fashion, then driving to each individual restaurant, finding their delivery door, unloading the goods, collecting the bins, chasing down a chef to sign the
order form and getting out of the kitchen before getting stepped on! Phew.
My friend Holly recently sent me the Tassajara Bread Book which has further inspired me to learn more about bread making and in the process, has produced some incredible bread. This book teaches you that bread making isn't just about mixing and kneading the ingredients and baking the bread, but it is about nurturing and caring for it along the way. I love kneading the dough with my hands then watching it rise into beautiful loaves, and of course, eating it! Ah bread. Thanks, Holly. More excellent bread news: a friend of the farm, Hans, brought me some of his 80-year old sour dough starter today (9/17)! Amazing! I see all sorts of sourdough bread in my future.
I continue to spend weekends in the cities with Pete and have recently joined a Sunday evening soccer team (hurray!). I am in the process of looking for jobs/lodging in San Francisco for the winter, with intentions of moving there in October and helping my friend Mark get his recently purchased land into shape for a farm. Thanks again for reading and so forth, keep on keepin'
on, xoxo.
Also, please read this article, regarding young transient farm workers, it describes not only what I have been doing for the past year, but just about every other intern I have worked with thus far:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/12/magazine/12food-t-000.html?_r=1&ref=dining
Thanks to Androscoggin Apple Co, farm stop #1 in Maine, I have carried around this recipe with me and amazed my friends and family with it. It has taken me this long to finally post it. It has never failed me, enjoy!
OATMEAL GOODNESS (good for breakfast or a snack)
4 Eggs
½ Cup Oil
2/3 Cup Sugar or honey (I do 50/50)
¾ Cup Flour
1 Tablespoon Baking Powder
1 Teaspoon Salt
2 Cups Oats
1 Cup Milk
1.Gently beat together eggs, oil and sugar
2.Mix in flour, baking powder and salt
3.Add oats, then milk
4.Pour into a square or round baking pan
5.Bake at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes until knife comes out mostly clean
Serve with whipped cream, fresh fruit, maple syrup or honey, if desired, enjoy!
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catherine milone
non-member comment
I was waiting for a blog entry...Here at last,it is just as delightful a read as the others! Good luck in your next travels! P.S I love swiss chard too...