a week on the farm
Last weekend after working at the farmers market, I caught a ride back to the farm and have been working out there for the past week. This was sort of a test-drive for me and for Heinz, to see whether employing me on the farm would be a mutually agreeable arrangement. For the most part, I think yes. I'm definitely slower than the other full-time workers, but hopefully some of this is due to inexperience. Also, Heinz puts a lot of emphasis on efficiency (reducing the number of trips back and forth to the storage coolers, setting up an ergonomic work area, etc.), which I think I'm pretty good at paying attention to. I think he's willing to hire me. I still need to think about it.
The work is hard, but it's varied. Heinz has about 15 acres planted with vegetables at any given time, and every day you get to work with 2 to 7 or so different vegetables. Among other things, in the past week I picked okra, tomatoes, peppers, celery, kale, lettuce, chard, cardoon, and kiwis, separated cloves on 80 pounds of garlic to be planted, thinned rows of radishes and turnips, loosened and rolled up black plastic from the watermelon beds, cut down old vines from the yard-long beans, washed and prepped beets, malabar, arugula, cardoon, celery, parsley, leeks, eggplant, tomatoes, and peppers, found two black widows (one in my bedroom), got one spider (I think) bite behind my ear, watched a 2-year-old climbing a tractor while wearing a turtleneck shirt and underpants on backwards and inside out, received hugs and a cold from three little children, and got followed everywhere by a duck named Bo who wags his tail (no kidding).
I'm definitely sore from hauling carts all over the place, but I think the work would be easier to get used to than the living situation. The workers live in an old corn crib that has been converted into a house of sorts. There are three bedrooms separated from the main living area by curtains. The house is not well-insulated so it's pretty cold at night, and there are lots of critters inside. Mostly (big!) spiders and moths, but I saw some evidence of mice as well. Because of the mice problem, everyone has air mattresses. That might be a deal-breaker right there, because one week is about the limit to how long I can sleep on an air mattress. It sounds like Heinz is willing to consider allowing real mattresses if residents can keep the mice under control. Water is acceptably hot, but the pressure is low. There's an extra pump that you can turn on when you take a shower, which helps a bit. Basically, the house needs someone to live there who takes some proprietary interest. Since most of the workers stay for only a season, there's no incentive to make big improvements. I think it could be okay.
Heinz picked me up this morning at 5:30 to make the drive back to DC. I wasn't planning on working the market, but he was short one person, so I stayed. Today was the first day we had ginger at the market, and even at $15 per pound, it quickly sold out. I didn't take any pictures, but here's someone else's picture:
Before seeing Heinz's ginger, I never knew it could be so beautiful. I took home two large chunks, plus a big bag of all the little bits that were too small to sell. I look forward to putting ginger in everything now. I have a big bag of rolled oats that Heinz pressured me into buying for breakfast for the week, so I looked for some cookie recipes that would use oats and ginger, and found an interesting one that came out really well. I made a few changes, and here it is:
Peanut butter oatmeal ginger cookies
1/2 c. butter
1 c. peanut butter
2/3 c. brown sugar
1/2 c. sugar
2 eggs
1/2 t. vanilla
1 1/2 c. flour
1 t. baking soda
3/4 t. salt
2-3 t. fresh grated ginger
1 to 2 c. rolled oats
Preheat oven to 350. Mix together wet ingredients. Mix together dry ingredients, except oats, separately. Add dry to wet. Stir in oats, adding more until it's a good ratio of dough to oats. Taste the dough and add more ginger if you want. Drop onto ungreased cookie sheets and bake for 10-12 minutes. Voila.
The work is hard, but it's varied. Heinz has about 15 acres planted with vegetables at any given time, and every day you get to work with 2 to 7 or so different vegetables. Among other things, in the past week I picked okra, tomatoes, peppers, celery, kale, lettuce, chard, cardoon, and kiwis, separated cloves on 80 pounds of garlic to be planted, thinned rows of radishes and turnips, loosened and rolled up black plastic from the watermelon beds, cut down old vines from the yard-long beans, washed and prepped beets, malabar, arugula, cardoon, celery, parsley, leeks, eggplant, tomatoes, and peppers, found two black widows (one in my bedroom), got one spider (I think) bite behind my ear, watched a 2-year-old climbing a tractor while wearing a turtleneck shirt and underpants on backwards and inside out, received hugs and a cold from three little children, and got followed everywhere by a duck named Bo who wags his tail (no kidding).
I'm definitely sore from hauling carts all over the place, but I think the work would be easier to get used to than the living situation. The workers live in an old corn crib that has been converted into a house of sorts. There are three bedrooms separated from the main living area by curtains. The house is not well-insulated so it's pretty cold at night, and there are lots of critters inside. Mostly (big!) spiders and moths, but I saw some evidence of mice as well. Because of the mice problem, everyone has air mattresses. That might be a deal-breaker right there, because one week is about the limit to how long I can sleep on an air mattress. It sounds like Heinz is willing to consider allowing real mattresses if residents can keep the mice under control. Water is acceptably hot, but the pressure is low. There's an extra pump that you can turn on when you take a shower, which helps a bit. Basically, the house needs someone to live there who takes some proprietary interest. Since most of the workers stay for only a season, there's no incentive to make big improvements. I think it could be okay.
Heinz picked me up this morning at 5:30 to make the drive back to DC. I wasn't planning on working the market, but he was short one person, so I stayed. Today was the first day we had ginger at the market, and even at $15 per pound, it quickly sold out. I didn't take any pictures, but here's someone else's picture:
Before seeing Heinz's ginger, I never knew it could be so beautiful. I took home two large chunks, plus a big bag of all the little bits that were too small to sell. I look forward to putting ginger in everything now. I have a big bag of rolled oats that Heinz pressured me into buying for breakfast for the week, so I looked for some cookie recipes that would use oats and ginger, and found an interesting one that came out really well. I made a few changes, and here it is:
Peanut butter oatmeal ginger cookies
1/2 c. butter
1 c. peanut butter
2/3 c. brown sugar
1/2 c. sugar
2 eggs
1/2 t. vanilla
1 1/2 c. flour
1 t. baking soda
3/4 t. salt
2-3 t. fresh grated ginger
1 to 2 c. rolled oats
Preheat oven to 350. Mix together wet ingredients. Mix together dry ingredients, except oats, separately. Add dry to wet. Stir in oats, adding more until it's a good ratio of dough to oats. Taste the dough and add more ginger if you want. Drop onto ungreased cookie sheets and bake for 10-12 minutes. Voila.
Comments
M
*though I enjoy myself at it tremendously! Just in a different way.
I just baked those cookies and I really like them. Unfortunately, the kids weren't too fond of them, though Yo-Yo and Nickel did each eat one. I guess the ginger was a little too sophisticated for them, silly kids. Maybe it will grow on them...
-JJ