My week looked like this: 8-9 hours of work every day, and this included planting hundreds of garlic bulbs, building temporary tunnels to protect the veggies from the first frost of the year, harvesting, and filling CSA boxes. The farm provided me a comfortable bed and dry bulk items (rice, beans, lentils, quinoa, etc.) and all the veggies I could eat from the farmer box (veggies that didn't make the cut for the CSA box or the market stand, but are still super delicious!). It was tiring work, but the farm crew was awesome and I had a ton of fun and learned a whole lot of valuable information that will make the urban farm even more productive.
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| All the veggies I could eat! And I ate well for sure! |
I took notes all week on the technical stuff, including some terrific varieties I'm going to plant next year. But these are some of the additional take-aways:
1) Farming is a labor of love. You don't farm to get rich, and most families have at least one person who works off-farm. This is something that I had thought about in other ways, but hearing the farmers talk about it in these terms made total sense. Like teaching, growing food is something that you love not for the money, but for the hard work and the non-monetary rewards. It feels great to grow food and feed people.
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| Packing up the CSA boxes was a lot of fun. I thought of all the people involved in the CSA boxes I've received over the years and all the people who would be eating the food grown at this farm. |
2) Starting small is ok. I feel like my ideas are creeping along, but that is a good way to grow-- slow and steady. The CSA farm I worked on last week started out 30 years ago with only 10 shares and an acre of gardens. Today they often have seasons where over 100 CSA shares are sold, they run a weekly stand at the farmers market, and they farm over 7 acres.
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| The veggie plots at this farm were very large and needed a crew to keep them up. If my urban farm grows slowly and I farm only what I am able to handle, my business and my sanity will survive to farm another year! |
3) I learned this week that urban farming, especially going the route of farming small plots in city backyards, is really cool (perhaps I have underestimated myself?). And by living and working in town, I can live my values and use my bicycle as significant mode of transportation, something that I wouldn't be able to do if I lived out of town.
There are a lot additional advantages to urban farming: the very local community of both my neighbors and those with whom I farm and sell to, utilizing lawns to produce healthy, chemical-free food instead of input-heavy grass, and producing food without the land debt (often in the hundreds of thousands of dollars) that many farmers face. Also, I will be able to have "high touch" with my high density plots, keeping them weed free and healthy to get the most produce out of small amount of land.
There are a lot additional advantages to urban farming: the very local community of both my neighbors and those with whom I farm and sell to, utilizing lawns to produce healthy, chemical-free food instead of input-heavy grass, and producing food without the land debt (often in the hundreds of thousands of dollars) that many farmers face. Also, I will be able to have "high touch" with my high density plots, keeping them weed free and healthy to get the most produce out of small amount of land.
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| Unlike row crops, veggie farming is very hands on, and plants need babied throughout the season. I built these tunnels to protect sensitive lettuces from the first killing frost. |
Have a great week everyone! Next week I hope to have some updates on the urban farm expansion project!
