First Day on the Farm

This past Wednesday, I made the trip to Common Thread with several members of our class for our first day on the farm. Although I encountered many surprises that day, the first began with not minding waking up at 7:30. Normally, I am one of those people who has an incredibly difficult time getting up in the morning. I've been known to continuously hit the snooze button on my alarm for an hour before starting my day. However, this Wednesday I hopped right out of bed despite the early hour because I was actually excited for what lay ahead. I didn't have to worry about preparing for class or remembering the observations I made during the reading last night. I didn't have a care in the world because I knew I was expected to know nothing about what I would be doing. It was a comforting feeling.

When we arrived, we were informed that we would be dividing into two groups for onions and garlic. The garlic group, for which I had been selected, was tasked with cutting the stems off of garlic plants that had been sitting and curing in the greenhouse for weeks. As we sat, we talked about our lives and got to know one another; it was truly a bonding experience. Before we knew it, we were done for the day. The three hours went by very quickly, especially in comparison with three hours spent at the library which seem to move at a snail's pace.

When I had thought of farm work earlier that morning, I was imagining that we would be out in the fields, harvesting crops. I hadn't considered that we might be sitting for the entire time in a warm greenhouse having a pleasant and entertaining conversation. Farm work is something that I, like many Americans, have inaccurately stereotyped to quite a large degree. I have a mental picture of what "farm work" looks like, and it does not include sitting in a greenhouse. That being said, I had a great time that day, learning about and laughing with my classmates as we engaged in the mindless activity of cutting garlic. Mindless though it was, I rather enjoyed working with the garlic. I love to cook, and freshly chopped garlic (preferably from the farmers market) is an ingredient in most of my creations. It was neat to see what it looks like in its original form and actually make the connections between this bulb of flavor that I love and the form it takes before it's cut and washed for my convenience.

Another surprise that day was the overhauling of the stereotype I had of who farmers are and what they look like. We worked that day alongside the two farming apprentices, Kat and Johanna - both female, both in their twenties (I'm guessing), and both having other careers that differ significantly from farming. In my mind, I typically imagine farmers as old men, at times even crotchety old men. Perhaps this is due to the images I've seen in television and movies. Perhaps it comes from an assumption I hold against my will that manual laborers are predominantly male. Perhaps it comes from elsewhere. Regardless, the two women differed from my expectations of who they would be. Kat, who I worked more closely with, is a stand-up comedienne in addition to working on the farm. Part of the reason she took so long to discover her love of farming, she explained to us, was because farming never seemed to be an option of something she could actually do with her life. For those of us who did not grow up on a farm or in a predominantly agrarian community, farming does not typically present itself as a career option unless you really struggle to seek it out. To me, farming has always seemed to be the kind of career that one inherits, like being royalty, rather than something that anyone could do if he or she were so inclined.

Similarly surprising to me, the other apprentice Johanna explained that before working at Common Thread, she had been part of a professional dance company. It's not like I thought female farmers did not exist, but what I did not expect was for female farmers to work in such a stereotypically masculine job after working in such a stereotypically feminine one like being a professional dancer.

This week, I learned that the notions I have of farming and farmers are so obscured by the images I have been presented with that I have lived my entire life completely disconnected from what farming really is and who farmers are. I hope to change the ill-conceived notions I have while working on the farm this semester so that I can improve my understanding of where the food I eat actually comes from, something I am aching to learn more about.