really, what difference does it make how you say it, anyways. lol
today i spent 3 1/2 hours in the farm field, hilling potatoes, with some very bored children in tow. actually it went quite well - they amused themselves for most of the time. it helped we had grampa's two chocolate labs with us; they're always good for some entertainment - especially in the pond!! anyways, i got the entire field hilled today. (YEAH for me!!!) i have SUCH an appreciation for my food now. my son said at one point (when he was kinda helping pull thistles), "how does Marika does this every day?! like, how does she keep smiling?!" Marika is the farm worker at the local organic farm where we get our CSA box from. Week after week for several years now she's been providing our family with delicious food. I replied that she's really passionate about her work - about providing families like ours with delicious, healthy, organic, local, in-season food. About helping us make a connection with our food. Passion. That's what's driving her... and me.
Someone the other day (father's day, actually) said on facebook that he was grateful for all the times his dad made him work hard when he was a kid, because now as an adult, he's not afraid of a little hard work to reach a goal. I thought of all the times when I was a kid, working on the local raspberry fields, that my dad would say, "go and work there - then you'll really appreciate getting an education. don't settle for becoming a farm labourer in life. working there will get that notion out of your head - then you'll be motivated to get a higher education." (basically; he'd never say it in so many words. LOL) Well, here we are, full circle. I went and got that higher education, and here I am, back toiling in the field. Only this time I'm passionate about it. This is MY food I'm growing, damn it. (well, actually, I'm not planning on eating the potatoes, LMAO, but STILL....) Funny how things have come 'round. Farming is not an occupation we should demean or belittle, yet, socially it sure isn't equal to lawyer, doctor, university professor. Far from it, eh. Sure, farmers get paid very little for the sweat and labour they put into growing our food. That's exactly one reason it's all so messed up. We have no real appreciation for just how much sweat and energy it TAKES to grow our food. We just happily go to the grocery store and buy whatever we feel like to eat. No connection to the land, no connection to the seasons, to locally-grown food, to its carbon footprint, to how much precious water was used to grow or produce it. No connection at all. That's one reason I'm out there, growing potatoes. My kids need to SEE the connection. They need to FEEL it. They need to remember the hours Mom was out there, toiling away, and them feeling bored bored bored with it all. Because when they're adults, they'll remember and maybe, just MAYBE.... they'll want to plant a potato for themselves and seek what kind of crazy joy there is in watching a plant grow, produce food and seed, and go through its full cycle. THAT's what I'm talkin' about. I remember how BORING picking raspberries was. I remember. And yet, here I am.
Doin' the right thing.
I hope.
2 comments:
It's not just that raspberry picking was boring (which it was), but it was hot and dirty and prickly and the pay was lousy, especially for how quickly I picked! Now, I can't wait to take my kids berry picking, and not have to get paid for it. Instead, now we pay to do that work....hmmm...too bad it has to come to that. But we'll have fun picking anyway, and then eating them later!
This was wonderful to read! Such an appreciation you have for your food and its origins. I like how you think.
I *adore* our local farmers. I love exposing my 5 kids to the joys of the farmers markets, and I love the food-to-table connection they get by talking to the farmers. 'Shake the hand that feeds you', I say to them. And they do :)
We also garden and it is truly a delight to be able to turn a tiny seed into delicious food.
I say po-tay-to :)
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