Week 6 Newsletter

Week #6 - Week of July 6th

Week 6! Mamma mia. We are in it now.

There is a fun flow emerging among the crew and our tasks on the farm, a repetitiveness that remains distinct from monotonous. As weeks have passed, we have more time together under our belts, and with that naturally comes a sense of ease, trust, and more frequent cases of the sillies. 

Largely, we know our daily responsibilities: the specifications of how we tend to the fields, what harvests should look like, and how the name of the game for trellising cucumbers and tomatoes is mental fitness above all else. So, great, we know these things. But for better or worse, the crew is what I call a naturally curious group. Therefore, we are begging to find out what’s behind the magical ~Door Number 3!~ The prize the door reveals? Feeling comfortable enough to explore new solutions and efficiencies together! Yay! Sorry to anyone who was hoping it was a shiny new car.

Disclaimer: I think the word efficiency gets tossed around so frequently that I am starting to question whether or not I understand it anymore. I do NOT believe every second of every day should be optimized to maximum efficiency just for the sake of shaving time off tasks IF humanizing parts of the process are lost along the way. (We can gab philosophies next time I see ya’ll in the store or out and about on the farm.)

However, farming requires a lot of physical motion, and when you take excessive movements, your task will take you excessive time. So efficiency to us is very classically Frank and Lillian Gilbreth style. While Frank is more widely known for his work on time and motion studies in factory contexts, Lillian did extensive work on designing functional kitchen layouts. Among the most notable, she devised a kitchen that took the process of making a meatloaf from requiring 57 steps down to 39! I don’t know how much making a meatloaf has in common with farm tasks like harvesting, weeding, or preparing beds for new plantings, but when farming in July… the idea of the meatloaf efficiency gain sure is tantalizing. So we try different things when we can, rely on each other’s strengths, give/receive feedback, often just chuckle, say, “Ya know what, that’s good enough,” and break for lunch.

Everyday at lunch, we sit next to the CSA U-Pick Kale/Chard field, a reminder that we are supported by a community of kind and generous people who have made a commitment to their environment, their health, and their local food system. To that, I say with deep admiration and respect, thank you for being an active participant in where you get the food that fills your fridge and the flowers that brighten your table.

I raise a figurative glass, which in this case is a comically large head of broccoli and say,

Week 6, let’s eat!

-Amanda