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June 24, 2006
Diggin' in the dirt...
Today was my first day working at Grindstone Farm, the organic farm that provides the produce for the Community Supported Agriculture of Central York pod program. At the beginning of the season, share partner Kelly R. and I enrolled for a working share. What this means is that we agreed to work a minimum of 20 hours over the course of the 20 week season in blocks of at least 4 hours at the farm, doing whatever farm chores were required that day: weeding, picking, planting, etc.
On the Saturday after I returned from Florida, I drove north toward Pulaski to Tinker Tavern Road and my first encounter with Grindstone Farm. What an awesome place it is! Not just fields, though they are sooo cool to see, but also woods and a pond and a great and old blueberry field. Yippee! Walking through the woods on the way to the blueberry field that morning reminded me so much of walking in the woods back home in western Washington that I grinned all morning. It was a cool damp morning, and it was just fabulous.
So today I made the trip again, a quiet serene drive north on 81 with little traffic and the same sense of ease and contentment I felt on the open road last summer. The city and its commercial suburbs gradually gave way to the farm and pasture lands of the rural north country, and there were few other drivers venturing about at that hour.
Todays chores began with hand weeding a shallot field. I put on my invincible floppy hat, and my as yet unused spiffy new Atlas Glove Original Nitrile Touch gloves I got for Christmas and set about the task. Diggin' in the dirt. Diggin' and scratchin' and pullin' up weeds without disturbing the plants. Coooooool. There were seven of us altogether this morning, and we finished the shallot field in a little over 2 hours. It was gratifying to look behind myself in the rows and see nice clean rows of shallot plants with no weeds. There is a surprising sense of victory in that. The gloves are awesome. They fit close and stretchy, cuz they're thin knit, but are tough because of the nitrile coating. Weeding with them was almost like using bare hands, but better. The fit was great, the flexibility wonderful, and the best part was my hands emerged pretty clean afterwards.
On to the tomato field, where we hoed the weeds from between the plants. We only got about half the field done before the workday was over, but even that was satisying. Note to self, though: take my own hoe. The one I tried to use today was too short and a bit dull. Hard on the back.
I'd almost forgotten how good gardening is for my soul. Stephen Covey, in his famous book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People and all its related books and planning tools, emphasises over and over the need to take time to sharpen the saw. That's what gardening does for me in a way nothing else I know does. It sharpens my saw. I'd almost forgotten.
I am so glad I joined the CSA-CNY program, so thankful to Kelly for agreeing to share a share with me, and so happy we chose the workshare option. I've been interested in CSA since before I left Seattle, but never found one or really got connected until now. Everyone should consider joining CSA-CNY. Not only is the produce just incredible, it's just logical to support a local farmer willing to work to keep an organic farm (not easy) and provide deliveries each week by subscription. The farm is good for the community, however widely you draw that circle.
It may take a village to raise a child, but it takes a community to sustain a farm. I'm proud to be a part of it.
Posted by cageyer at June 24, 2006 01:47 PM
Comments
hey.
the next time you venture up, let me know. Pulaski is within shouting distance of me.
Posted by: madeline at June 25, 2006 10:41 AM