Hi everyone (or no one-- I have absolutely no idea who reads my blog at this point)! You may have noticed that it's been quite some time since my last update, but that is mainly because here at Foxhollow I am almost always either working, eating, or sleeping.
Obviously, we're still working hard. It's rained almost every day and we've survived two tornado warnings, but there are always things to do in the greenhouse or fields. We plant, harvest, weed, water, build (woohoo power tools!) and lots of other weird jobs. Sometimes I feel a little unappreciated, to be perfectly honest, and work gets tedious, but I am still having a fantastic time and learning new farmer skills every day.
In addition to being totally organic, Foxhollow uses a farming technique called biodynamics for their produce, developed by a man named Rudolf Steiner. From what I understand, it basically revolves around the cosmos, and different types of plants grow better if they are planted on certain days in the year. For example, yesterday and today were flower days according to the official Biodynamic Calendar (which is based on the phases of the moon...I think), and tomorrow is a leaf day. Foxhollow also soaks their seeds and spray their gardens with "biodynamic preps" made of natural herbs and minerals to help plants grow better. They are really big on the idea that attitude and atmosphere affect the way a plant grows (meditation and mental well being are a pretty prominent aspect of the Foxhollow experience for a lot of people), and that biodynamic practices bring what they call "life force energy" into food. Some people say they can taste the energy and even see the energy in the seeds-- like an aura.
I don't know how much of Steiner's stuff I really believe. Andrew and I definitely haven't ruled out the idea that plants are influenced by the moon, but neither of us are really sure about the rest. Obviously, there's a lot to know and we're both just beginning to learn about it. Regardless of what I believe, though, it has been really incredible for me to get a little more in touch with my spiritual side here on the farm. It was probably the last thing I expected to happen, but I love our meditation classes so much and for the first time in my life, I think, I feel like I am really opening my mind to the connections between living things of all kinds and my mental and physical well being, as well as my ability to control my own state of mind. I don't really know how to explain it yet (and, like all of this biodynamics stuff, I'm not quite sure what I do and don't believe), but I feel something really good and healthy coming from all of this. I am really trying to focus on positive and peaceful energy inside and and out. (I am pretty excited to be able to transfer whatever skills and ideas I hopefully gain from all of this into my hectic future college life :).)
So we'll see. Whatever these crazy mental meditation games are, they feel healthy to me. I'm not sure that saying "good luck, little baby" to a seed and kissing it before placing in into the ground is going to make it grow any better (yesssss, many of us are guilty of this), but I do think all of our combined happy energy might have an impact. And maybe "life force energy" is a part of the circle of life just as much as plants' and animals' physical beings are. Even if it's not true, I like the idea.
Friday, April 29, 2011
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Our First Days of Farm Life
Foxhollow Farm! It is absolutely nothing like we expected, but I'm having a fantastic time being worked to the point of constant muscle ache and hanging out with organic-loving hippies. Although it was pouring down rain our first two days here and our time here got off to a little bit of an awkward start with food and sleeping arrangements, things are great and we're gearing up for an awesome month of farm life. It feels so good to be outside and active every day (now that it doesn't rain 24/7)!
Andrew and I are pretty much exclusively working in Foxhollow's Market Garden, which produces a gazillion different kinds of vegetables. We planted 1,000 pounds of potatoes yesterday (which will yield 5,000 pounds of produce) and about a billion onion and parsley plants today. On the one hand, being here at this time of year is awesome because there is so much to be done-- on the other hand, there are only a few crops that are ready to eat! (But people try everything. At our bonfire-potluck on Saturday night, one girl brought tiny flank steak bites topped with VIOLETS! And one of the interns casually consumed a live worm while we were transplanting onions this morning.) Still, we are often rewarded with fantastically tenter asparagus as well as loads of spinach and lettuce and other greeeeeeens from the garden.
I haven't taken many pictures yet, but here are a few to keep you entertained and informed for the time being.
Andrew and my humble abode for the month:
And on Sunday, one of the interns taught me how to make sauerkraut (it's made with collards from the garden instead of cabbage...but it was all going to waste! I think it will turn out great anyway...it will have fermented for juuuust long enough when Andrew and I get ready to leave for Arlington). Here's Lou
We started with three buckets of chopped collards and, after a few hours of pressing and twisting, ended up with half a bucket of sauerkraut!
Lou, the sauerkraut expert :
My bucket:
All the sauerkraut we made! Now we wait for it to ferment--you can leave it for 1-6 months.
In short: living on a farm. Keeping busy, sweaty, and SO tired. Learning lots of stuff! Being outside! As different as it is from what Andrew and I were anticipating, it will definitely be a valuable experience for both of us :).
Andrew and I are pretty much exclusively working in Foxhollow's Market Garden, which produces a gazillion different kinds of vegetables. We planted 1,000 pounds of potatoes yesterday (which will yield 5,000 pounds of produce) and about a billion onion and parsley plants today. On the one hand, being here at this time of year is awesome because there is so much to be done-- on the other hand, there are only a few crops that are ready to eat! (But people try everything. At our bonfire-potluck on Saturday night, one girl brought tiny flank steak bites topped with VIOLETS! And one of the interns casually consumed a live worm while we were transplanting onions this morning.) Still, we are often rewarded with fantastically tenter asparagus as well as loads of spinach and lettuce and other greeeeeeens from the garden.
I haven't taken many pictures yet, but here are a few to keep you entertained and informed for the time being.
Andrew and my humble abode for the month:
And on Sunday, one of the interns taught me how to make sauerkraut (it's made with collards from the garden instead of cabbage...but it was all going to waste! I think it will turn out great anyway...it will have fermented for juuuust long enough when Andrew and I get ready to leave for Arlington). Here's Lou
We started with three buckets of chopped collards and, after a few hours of pressing and twisting, ended up with half a bucket of sauerkraut!
Lou, the sauerkraut expert :
My bucket:
All the sauerkraut we made! Now we wait for it to ferment--you can leave it for 1-6 months.
In short: living on a farm. Keeping busy, sweaty, and SO tired. Learning lots of stuff! Being outside! As different as it is from what Andrew and I were anticipating, it will definitely be a valuable experience for both of us :).
Thursday, April 14, 2011
On the Road Again :)
Yesterday morning, Andrew and I left for our 2.5-day road trip to Crestwood, Kentucky. I can't say we've done anything too impressive yet, but it's definitely been an eventful (and roundabout, and unpredictable) journey.
We departed Arlington mid-morning, headed to a campsite run by the park service about 10 miles outside of Neola, West Virginia. After this town, the campground, the nearby lake, and all other identifying terms we had for this place were deemed nonexistent by the GPS, we finally put in some other random city on the VA/WV border, just so we'd get to the general area without any problems.
It took about 4 1/2 hours to get where we thought we wanted to be...and after a little confusion we finally figured out how to get to Neola with the help of another amazing modern tool, Andrew's iPhone (but honestly, I'm glad we had a paper map for this adventure too...it's been an invaluable guide). We followed a relatively tiny state route, tailgating a school bus the entire time and people watching all the way. We were pretty relieved when we finally started seeing signs for our campsite, and followed a seemingly endless windy road to get there. We thought we had passed it a few times and thought about turning back...and BAM! "Welcome to Sherwood Lake! BEGIN VIEWING WILDLIFE." I was actually cheering. We turned the bend...and immediately came to this:
So that was Unbelievable Obstacle #1 of the day...no one seemed to be worried about it and there was obviously nothing we could do (and Andrew confessed that he had little to no interest in camping anyway). So we decided to keep driving. I think this was the first time in my whole life that I thought about sleep that night and didn't know which city (or even state) I'd have a bed in. After running off an ending road into a dirt trail at 45 mph (Unbelievable Obstacle #2--there were no signs, mind you), and becoming stranded when we found dead end after dead end in our least favorite city in the country, Beckley, WV, we finally stopped in Charleston to eat dinner and find a hotel for the night. Neither Andrew nor I had ever just walked into a hotel (in the US) and asked for a room, but no one seemed to think too much of it and we found a room with no trouble at all. Although we were kept up pretty late by an endless battle between a hotel party and security staff right across the hall. West Virginia is "wild and wonderful" even on Wednesday nights!
So we're about to begin Day 2, Destination: Lexington! At this point, we're ready to get out of this state. On that note:
We departed Arlington mid-morning, headed to a campsite run by the park service about 10 miles outside of Neola, West Virginia. After this town, the campground, the nearby lake, and all other identifying terms we had for this place were deemed nonexistent by the GPS, we finally put in some other random city on the VA/WV border, just so we'd get to the general area without any problems.
It took about 4 1/2 hours to get where we thought we wanted to be...and after a little confusion we finally figured out how to get to Neola with the help of another amazing modern tool, Andrew's iPhone (but honestly, I'm glad we had a paper map for this adventure too...it's been an invaluable guide). We followed a relatively tiny state route, tailgating a school bus the entire time and people watching all the way. We were pretty relieved when we finally started seeing signs for our campsite, and followed a seemingly endless windy road to get there. We thought we had passed it a few times and thought about turning back...and BAM! "Welcome to Sherwood Lake! BEGIN VIEWING WILDLIFE." I was actually cheering. We turned the bend...and immediately came to this:
So that was Unbelievable Obstacle #1 of the day...no one seemed to be worried about it and there was obviously nothing we could do (and Andrew confessed that he had little to no interest in camping anyway). So we decided to keep driving. I think this was the first time in my whole life that I thought about sleep that night and didn't know which city (or even state) I'd have a bed in. After running off an ending road into a dirt trail at 45 mph (Unbelievable Obstacle #2--there were no signs, mind you), and becoming stranded when we found dead end after dead end in our least favorite city in the country, Beckley, WV, we finally stopped in Charleston to eat dinner and find a hotel for the night. Neither Andrew nor I had ever just walked into a hotel (in the US) and asked for a room, but no one seemed to think too much of it and we found a room with no trouble at all. Although we were kept up pretty late by an endless battle between a hotel party and security staff right across the hall. West Virginia is "wild and wonderful" even on Wednesday nights!
So we're about to begin Day 2, Destination: Lexington! At this point, we're ready to get out of this state. On that note:
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