Sunday, May 16, 2010

Musings

So. I've been at Ferme Juniper Farm for two weeks. It's a bit more intense than at Wheelbarrow farm - start at 7:30, work til 12, then again from 2 til 5:30. They don't really go in for tea breaks, so the morning seems really long - but the work is good.

So far, I have helped to: seed lots of things into trays, germinate squash using aluminium foil pie trays, kitchen roll, and a turned-off freezer with a 60W lightbulb in (works really well - it keeps the seeds at the right humidity and temperature. Also, it means you only plant the good seeds!); I have helped to build a pigsty, plant 8,000 onions and 6,000 leeks, as well as harvesting radishes from the polytunnels.

I'm living in a huuuge tent, and we three interns share a small cabin with woodburner and lean-to kitchen, with outdoor shower. It snowed one night, and it's been sub-zero a couple of times - pretty chilly! Sleeping with a sleeping bag, blanket, duvet, long-johns and a warm hat on is great, though, and the birds are amazing in the mornings.

The best thing is that we eat food from the ground, every day. They have done a big bulk food order for us too which is great, but the best thing is the fresh spinach, leeks, radishes and rocket; and the promise of all the stuff we are seeding and planting out right now.

Last weekend we had an adventure collecting two piglets which we will raise to just under 100Kg and then (gulp) slaughter. I'm still pretty sure I won't eat them - it just seems wrong.

Note to all would-be pig herders: don't let your new piglets out into their enclosure, just put them in the sty for a few days to acclimatise and calm down after the traumatic journey to your farm! Ours bolted straight at, and under and out of, the newly placed electric fence. One did, anyway. Three times. We had fun chasing her.

My fellow interns, Lyndsay and Jen, as well as Alex and Juniper - the owners of the farm - are great. Lovely lovely people all, with great visions, experience and ideals. It's fantastic to feel like a family so quickly. We eat lunch together at Alex & Juniper's house three times a week, and dinner once, so community really is there. It feels doable. I'm thinking about co-ownership of land - how that might work out.

Just one other family, perhaps, on a 100-acre plot? Or 5-6 families, each with 10-15 acres, eating communally but working their own dreams on their plot? Sharing tools, labour and dreams?

So, the 4 of us working full time on the farm (Juniper works when she can, but her baby boy Shilo takes up much of her time and energy!) will be pretty much providing food for 75 CSA shares, plus two markets a week. Maybe enough for 200 people? 1:50 farmers to rest of population seems pretty good!

Still, I feel drawn to focussing less on just food production for us humies, and more biodiversity for all living things. Perhaps we can grow a few things for cash, and then leave large swathes of lightly-managed forest, wildflower meadows and so on, to be a haven for insects, lizards, and so on.

Farming is certainly hard work, but I'm settling in to it very happily. It feels right to be doing it. I'm loving Juniper farm, but really looking forward to getting a place of my own! If anyone has a couple of hundred thousand dollars they don't need...

Two other thoughts. One: The blackflies love me. More than anyone else on the farm, probably including baby Shilo.

Two: Farmers need Stuff. It was easy, giving away furniture, clothes and so on when leaving the UK. As a farmer, I'll need a shed full of tools; either a tractor or horse/s (I'm seriously considering working horses, if I can apprentice to someone), plus implements; greenhouses and/or polytunnels; boxes if I'm going to run a CSA scheme. Wheelbarrows, hoes, watering cans and irrigation systems; row cover, knives, spades, forks, water butts, cable, posts, barns, coops, freezers; saws, hammers, nails, screws.... as well as a room of computer bits, of course!!

Well. It's a lot to think on, that's for sure.

Postings won't come that often as internet is pretty limited on the farm, but that's ok. If you wonder what I'm doing, well, I'll be outside with my hands, and sometimes knees and elbows, in the soil. Planting, harvesting, weeding. Listening to the birds, staring at the sky. At peace, pretty much. How lucky I am.

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