Meet the Farmers

Yesterday I went, accompanied with my mother, to visit the farm where I will be interning this summer. When we arrived we met The Farmer and The Farmer's Wife and The Farmer's Kids #1 and 2 (2 years and 3 months old). The Farmer seemed a little frazzled. He began to tell us about his day where everything that could go wrong did go wrong, starting with a mishap with his percolator in the morning, which led to his current state of coffee deficiency. Next The Farmer realized that his refrigerator containing around $500 worth of lettuce for the CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) delivery the next day had broken.

While waiting for the repair man to arrive The Farmer took us around the back of his house where he haphazardly had his greenhouse and slightly run down animal yard. Chickens and ducks ran around freely scratching in the dirt and grass and a few goats nibbled some tall weeds on the side. He apologized for the state of his chicken coop explaining that it's not usually as unkempt and dirty as it was during our visit and mentioned that repairing the roosts was on his list of things to do. He took us through the greenhouse and even I could tell that it was being underutilized and could have been used more efficiently. He began to go over his evolving plan to fence the animals out of certain areas and I got my first glimpse into the mechanical workings of his mind.

Our tour was momentarily interrupted when the repair man arrived. My mom and I stood nearby while The Farmer described the problem with the fridge. He said something like, "I turned the thermostat too far and now I can't get it to turn back. I think it's broken." My mom and I looked at each other, knowing that in order to fix that it was as simple as removing the knob and turning it with a pair of pliers, which is exactly what the repair man suggested. "I never thought of that," marveled The Farmer. In the end the repair man found nothing wrong with his refrigerator and that all he needed was a new non-GFI outlet installed that would prevent the circuit breaker from tripping (or something like that, I'm no electrician myself). I don't have many electrical skills, but this was not such an advanced problem that my mom was unable to diagnose it.

While we waited for the repair man to install the new outlet we went inside to chat with The Farmer's Wife who makes all natural, mostly organic lip balms, moisturizers, body oils and other skin care products. She'd like to expand her line with homemade soap as well and I think I am going to be able to help her out. We sat around the kitchen and chatted while their 3 month old fell asleep in my moms arms and uncovered the root of the refrigerator problem. The Farmer had a cheap percolator that he rigged up to work by jamming a quarter somewhere to keep it from blowing the fuse or soemthing. This morning he forgot to put water in the percolator which caused the refrigerator to go down. My mom put two and two together and proposed it to The Farmer who was shocked at the chain of events but certain that she was right. Mechanically minded he is not. He may not be naturally business minded either. A little goofy and possibly absent minded, he reminds me of a farmer version of Amelia Bedelia. But he seems to know how to grow vegetables, is very friendly and generous, and able to live a simple and happy life.

About a 10 minute drive from the 'home site' is the 'garden site' where the actual gardening is done and where my housing was located as well. We checked out my new living space which is in a converted barn. There's a great 6 burner stove in the kitchen and a welcoming balcony on the 2nd floor. The bathroom is spacious with an elevated throne, there's a small common living space without much more than a couple of vinyl chairs in it, and a couple bedrooms. What will most likely be my room is less renovated and isn't much more than a barn stall. But it's got a window and 4-walls and a roof and when I look back at the different places I have been staying over the past 7 months I know I will be perfectly comfortable.

We strolled through the garden and sampled a couple fresh sugar snap peas that only had a few more days on the vine before they would be picked and processed for the CSA shares. More planting will happen in the next few weeks and the crops will really be in full swing when I start working there in July. There's no internet during the week and no traffic noise or artificial lights to bring me down, just resurrection of the soul starting with the soil.