Part 2 of Shayne love.
Hello everyone!
It’s raining today and I’m a bit bored, so I thought I’d send you another email update about my life as a farmer. Some of you I just added to my little farming email list thing either cause I forgot you the first time (sorry, I had about 5 minutes to type) or because I thought you’d be interested in the subject matter. Don’t worry, this is not the beginning of a crazy amount of farm spam.
Basically, here’s the run-down if I didn’t explain it well enough before: Vickis Veggies is an 6 acre CSA farm (CSA = community supported agriculture: people become members and get shares of food each week from March-November) located in Picton, Ontario. Picton is a GORGEOUS island on the coast of Lake Ontario with acres and acres and acres of undeveloped land. A lot of golden, rolling fields and rocky beaches on Lake Ontario Recently, it’s been attracting a lot of tourists and older people moving from Toronto, so there is a lot of debate and tension about developing.
Anyway, Vicki’s is owned by Vicki and Tim, and employees 4 girls besides myself. Stacey, Stephanie and Jocelyn are all around my age, and Terry Lee is VIcki’s age. Working with them is the most fun ever; we basically just talk talk talk all day long as we weed or plant or harvest. It’s kind of like being at a party all the time, except instead of drinkin’ beers or whatnot, we’re outside in breathtakingly beautiful landscapes gettin’ tan and doing some farm work. It’s not as physically taxing as I thought it would be, although I’m definitely exhausted and gross and sweaty and achey at the end of each day. My farmers tan is ROCKIN! I’m so brown, and it’s a pretty even tan because it’s really hot and we basically all take off our shirts and work in these home-made bathing suit bra/top things that Vicki’s sister made. Of course, I’ve used about half a bottle of sunscreen in one week, but the rest of them here are so used to the sun that they just go without and don’t even burn.
Right now, we’re kinda in-between seasons. Spring is giving way into summer, which means we’re picking the last of the spinach, harvesting snow peas and snap peas, and trying to figure out what to do with the 260 lbs of garlic scapes we’ve got in the barn. Today, for example, we made 18 lbs of garlic scape pesto (while listening to Vicki’s old disco records and learning to do the hustle). I’m bringing the recipe home and having a garlic scape party. We also just planted some celery, and are beginning to harvest lettuce. We’ve spent most of our time, though, weeding the carrots and onion. It took us eight days to finish the carrots, and we’re still not done the onions; Tim says its because he put hay down in the fields before planting, which was a good environment for crabgrass seeds to take hold. Crabgrass is evil. It’s the hardest weed to pull out, in my opinion. Tim and Vicki also buy chickens from large industrial farms (they buy them for $7 a chicken, and basically save their lives) and raise them to lay eggs. Oh! How could I forget? It’s also strawberry season, so we just go strawberry picking every day in the field and have fresh strawberries constantly. I also have been learning a bit about herbs. So far, I can identify chamomile and cumphrey (i think thats how you spell it) and I know that cumphrey is used to keep bones strong and heal cuts quickly.
The days here are pretty nice: wake up at 8am, have a nice breakfast with Vicki and Tim and Sage (their adorable 3 year old daughter), work until the lunch bell calls us in at 12:30-ish, eat a MASSIVE lunch (seriously…I’m going to gain a million pounds while I’m here – and I’ll enjoy it!) with everyone at this long, fantastic wood table, go back to work until 5 or 6 and then done! We’ve been doing all sorts of things at night; one time we went swimming at Vicki’s sister’s house (her entire family sung me “Oh Canada” in an effort to teach it to me), another time we build a bonfire in the yard and just hung out, took out some guitars, played a few songs and watched the stars come out. I’ve never seen so many stars! Yesterday, Vicki, Tim, Sage, Stephanie and their friend Brendan and I all went out to this place called Little Bluff. It’s a rocky beach by Lake Ontario, and it’s the most gorgeous place ever. The rocks are all completely smooth and thick and round, and most of them are about the size of the palm of your hand. It lies right on the edge of the Lake, and the water is so clear that you can see straight to the bottom for at least ten feet out. Lake Ontario looks more like an ocean; you can’t see the other side (which is obvious, I guess, since it’s bigger than New Jersey). We build a campfire, and roasted some food, drank a bottle of wine, and roasted marshmellows. Sage got marshmellow gunk all over her face, and Tim taught me how to skip stones. I got pretty good at it!
The best thing, I think, about Picton and “the county” as people call Prince Edward County, is that it’s very rural, but everyone I’ve met here is extremely bright, well-traveled, and educated (although not always educated in the traditional sense). The things Stephanie knows about herbs and Japan, (two things she is interested in) could fit into an encyclopedia. Every story from Vicki seems to begin with “When I was in New Zealand/Germany/Spain/Australia/any other random country”, and Tim has lived in both the states and in Africa for extended periods of time. Jocelyn has been to Indonesia. It seems to be much more natural to travel here than it is in the states. Everyone I’ve met, even if they didn’t finish college, goes above and beyond in an effort to educate themselves about the things they are interested in. Sometimes it’s printmaking, sometimes it meditation, sometimes its videography or furniture making; but if you’ve got an interest in something here, it seems like people don’t stop learning about it until they become experts. Also, everyone seems very into politics; we talk about Canadian, US and international politics all the time in the fields. Stephanie jokingly calls Canada “the progressive wonderland” but in reality, its not as progressive as one might think. It’s similar to America except for gay marriage, healthcare, and not going to war every five seconds. Stacey jokes that the Canadian Navy is basically two men and a dinghy. Additionally, the amount of knowledge it takes to run a farm is breathtaking. Vicki’s Veggies is one of the most popular farms in the county; they have 80 CSA members, supply tons of restaurants and have their own little store next to the farmhouse. They’ve been written up in some national Canadian magazines, and basically, are the best small business ever. Of course, I’m learning about all the difficulties of running a farm as well; it’s hard to make a profit off of selling vegetables locally, so Vicki and Tim rely heavily on the food tourism industry that is alive and well in Picton. The government also subsidizes some of the wages for their employees. Even in a town as environmentally conscious as Picton, it’s hard to compete with large food companies.
However, although I’m learning slowly about HOW to farm, I’m really learning about the importance of farming, I think. What you eat is so integral both to your physical and spiritual health, and the way of life here is a perfect balance between constantly busy and constantly relaxed. People here put health, family, friends, the environment, and a healthy sense of hard work before anything else. Native county folk aren’t the richest people I’ve met, but they don’t want for a single thing, it seems, because they’ve got everything they need right in their backyard. I think it’s a combination of the way of life in general, and the political climate of Canada. I’m definitely glad I came here, and I wish I was staying longer!
Get ready for some awesome recipes when I get back. Also, feel free to send me an email, because I’d love to hear from you!
PS – www.vickisveggies.com for pics of where I am! You can find the Vicki;s Veggies group on facebook too.
Miss and love you all,
–
~Shayne
jane sayz...