Bob’s Note: Today we are pleased to present Part 2 of BFM Board Member Athena Freedlander’s debut as a blogger. When we left our heroine last week she was busy dealing with “liquid fish." (Read Part 1 HERE.) 

 

Next farm lesson for the city kitty? My planting skills would get me canned on a farming gig because I take too long digging holes. I was trying to form perfect round holes for the delicate basil seedlings, taking my time with each one, making sure they were nice and neat and symmetrical, really hoping not to make a mistake. That, actually, was my mistake.

 

The digging motion with the trowel should be swift and efficient.  A simple dig in and pull back motion. You have to be fast on the farm- there is so much to get done in a day and always something else that needs your attention. It’s an interesting blend of quick but also careful. That’s not so easy. Again, noted by the City Kitty. Oh, and plants don’t really like to be fussed with. Oh, and don’t pat down the dirt around them. Oh, and by the way, you just threw weeds on a growing cabbage. Oh, and for the record, morning glories are actually an invasive weed, so stop taking pictures of them.  Argh. This is not going well.

 

After we finish two long rows of basil rotated between tomato plants, Sky said we were going to stake the tomatoes and peppers. Now, I am not sure if you are familiar with a device called a “fence pole driver”, but I had never seen one in my life. It kind of looked like it was for digging holes, but what the heck do I know. It is a cylindrical metal tool with handles on each side that you whack on top of wooden stakes in order to drive them into the ground. The name says it all.

 

You have to use your upper body strength to lift it over the stakes and pound directly down. It produces this very loud clanging noise every time you drive down on a stake (earplugs highly recommended!). City Kitty lesson with a fence pole driver?  I’m a weakling! I could only do about two to Sky’s twenty, and had to drop out all together at one point because I couldn’t even lift the driver anymore. I had exhausted my muscles. (In my defense, we had hauled an entire flat of 180 pound bundles of stakes across the property earlier that day), but my goodness, this metal driver thing was taking it out of me! 

 

This was another humbling moment. I was acutely aware of how deeply physically demanding farming work is. It really engages the body in an incredible way (Note to self: No need to join the gym. Just join a farm.). We clanged our way down some very long rows of tomatoes and peppers. The task felt like something out of Greek mythology- like the more we did, the longer the rows got- like Sisyphus rolling his boulder up the hill only to have it roll right back down……

 

Later, the day was winding down, and It was getting close to my end time, when something really cool happened. In the middle of our task of driving the stakes, Sky stopped for a second and asked “Can you hear that?” I stood still and listened. Then he said “Do you hear the bees?” He pulled back a few corn plants making an opening, and it was as if he pulled back a curtain to a bustling, magical fairy land of bees!! They were everywhere! Sky said he thought they were his family’s bees. He could even identify where they came from!! How cool is that?? In the age of colony collapse disorder, neonicotinoids and diminishing bee populations, this just made my heart happy.

 

One thing I do know is the importance of pollinators. Without them, there is no food, there are no farms, there is no us. In simply witnessing the collective, symphonic hum of healthy, happy bees- in that moment I felt something unexpected- the only word I can think of is hope. I felt hope.

 

Spending time on a farm is amazing. There are constant reminders EVERYWHERE of the experience of being alive. It manifests itself not only in the actual physical labor- the use of muscles, the sweat, the kneeling and bending and pulling and hauling, but it also awakens all the senses. It is a full-throttle, bio-diverse, sensory experience. You see colors and textures everywhere, from vegetables, to blossoms, weeds, bugs, dirt, water, animals. You will hear buzzing and humming and chirping, but also tools being used and earth being shaped.

 

While planting, a sprout gets dropped into its hole with a graceful, muted thud. You will feel the pebbly grains of Azomite or dried chicken manure in your hands as you fertilize. You will catch the scent of corn flowering in the breeze, which is sweet and beautiful. You may also catch the scent of liquid fish at times, beautiful in its own way. You will taste. You will taste food. You will taste food in its purest form, its most divine expression. Food from the earth grown by people whose hand you can shake and ask how their day was.

 

We get caught up in our everyday lives sometimes as people. We get caught up in our heads. We get caught up in ourselves. Growing food forces us to deal with so many things that are outside of our selves, that it is frees us from our self-centeredness. It makes us participate in planet earth, actively, acknowledging that we, too, are part of an ecosystem.

 

When I left the farm that day, I was covered in dirt, sweat and chicken manure. My muscles were shaky, I was completely sun drenched (my first bona-fide farmer’s tan!), I was sore in places I didn’t know existed, but more than anything, I was happy. I felt inspired and like I had participated in something important.

 

Before I left, Sky gave me a bunch of vegetables (It might have been Pity Produce, due to my total farming ignorance and many, many blunders that day)- delicious bright, sweet carrots, nutritious purple and green cabbage and curvy, ruffly, giant Brandywine tomatoes. Harvest is such a powerful word- the culmination of all the time and toil that goes into the miraculous process of growing. I left with my small physical harvest that day, but I really left with something much greater.

 

Until next week, Stay Fresh!

 

The Bridgeport Farmers Market Association is the seven member all volunteer board of directors that governs the Bridgeport Farmers Market. It is supported by a wonderful group of community volunteers who help in the setup and maintenance of the market. For more information on the Farmers Market or to see how you can help please e-mail us at bridgeportfarmersmarket@yahoo.comor, better yet, LIKE us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter. You can also check out the Market’s own YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/BridgeportFarmersMktor for more BFM video content you can now go to http://vimeo.com/bridgeportfarmersmarket/videos