Last week was a short week on the farm for me. I spent Monday and Tuesday (after my O Chem class, of course) out in the field. Wednesday I did some administrative things while putting the CSA newsletter together. Thursday and Friday I was in the Seattle area for a wedding. Two days on the farm is not enough for me.
As I was reflecting on the week I thought about how I was 2 months into my internship and most days are starting to look the same. The romantic visions of planting seeds and turning the soil have been reduced to the reality of pulling weeds and patching irrigation drip tape. This transition doesn’t cause me to question my desire to do this work, rather it encourages me. There is a great simplicity in being able to go out to the field and spend 6 or 8 hours pulling weeds. Pick a row, put your head down, and clear the row of anything that has the potential to choke out or steal water from your crops. A few of the interns will often be seen with head phones in, listening to an audio book or podcast as they move down a row.
It’s difficult to find interesting things to write about when the days are so repetitive. I think that’s OK. Shortly there will be new first harvests to write about: celebrations of the first tomato or melons and sweet corn. But for now these seemingly mundane tasks are the engine that is powering the mid-summer farm.
