Week 1 = Success

          The first week of helping out at the Common Thread farm is in the books as the Friday group I am a part of finished up earlier today.  I am sure not every morning will be as nice (weather wise) throughout the semester, but after my first experience at Common Thread, I am looking forward to Friday mornings on the farm.  We started our morning in the greenhouse by trimming the stalks from cloves of garlic and peeling loose skin from the outside of onions so they could be put into 50 pound produce bags.  As the sun began to come out as time went on you could begin to feel the temperature inside the greenhouse heat up.  I was a little surprised to hear from the assistant Cat that most of the garlic we were cutting had been drying in the green house since some time in July.  I also learned that you could tell that garlic was bad/rotting if you could peel back a layer or two of outside skin and see a yellowish color.  Pure white is ideal and means the garlic is fine for consuming.
After about an hour and a half of greenhouse work we split into two groups and moved to the fields to the left of the greenhouse to harvest celery and carrots.  After taking a bite out of a carrot right out of the ground and trying to ignore the grittiness of the dirt I couldn't avoid eating, I was impressed with the  vibrant taste that store bought carrots from large company's just can't seem to compete with.  It was surprising to see that the farm dog Boone enjoyed fresh carrots just as much as we did; I can honestly say that was the first time I have seen a dog chow down on any type of vegetable.  I have also never seen a dog with so much energy as he had, I grew tired just watching him run.  As soon as we were done loading the buckets of carrots and celery into the pickup truck Chris had driven out to the field, we all piled into the bed of the truck with the produce and headed back to the barn to partake in some washing.
          I took part in the washing of celery.  We dumped the tubs of celery we had collected from the field into large galvanized steel tubs full of what felt to be ice water to wash off any dirt that stuck to the leaves and stems before we could stack them into rectangular baskets (I forget the technical name of them) for storage.  After the washing had concluded, Chris surprised our group by cutting open a watermelon for us to eat as we took a little break and conversed by the pickup truck outside the barn.  Unlike the huge oblong watermelon one would usually see in a chain grocery store, the watermelon Chris cut for us was a little smaller than a soccer ball.  The second he stuck the knife into the watermelon rind, juice began to pour out.  For being so small, the watermelon packed a sweet punch of sugary heaven.  I know I must have had juice running down my face but I didn't care because I was caught up in the joyous outcry of my taste buds.
          Whether we were in the field as a group or in the barn doing work, the conversation never seemed to stop.  I think everyone in our group found working with the land and conversing with others to be satisfying.  Our fist day on the farm was very enjoyable.