Organic: CSA vs. Subsistence Italy

After concluding our last volunteer day on the farm, I could not help but compare the experience with my time volunteering on a subsistence farm in Italy (Link to my Italy farm blog).  There were some definite differences and also some striking similarities:

First off, I worked in Sora, Italy during late May and June.  This is more the planting season, although we did harvest the end of the spring's green beans and lettuce.  Most of the work included putting seeds in the ground, tying tomatoes, removing grape leaves, and putting baby lettuce heads in the ground.  For that reason, doing my tasks perfectly was important.  Screw up the seeds, screw up the harvest.  Giuseppe, an older man who spoke maybe 5 words of English, would show us over and over again how to the job if we were not doing it right.  We worked during a time of harvesting only at Common Thread, and there were few if any occasions when we were re-told how to do a job.  The most crucial times were deciding whether a vegetable was good enough to give to a customer, and even that would be more officially decided later when putting the veggies on display for sale.  The work did not have to be done so precisely.  Cultural and seasonal differences aside, I would have expected that a subsistence farm would be more laid back than one in it for profit.  The farm in Italy in particular also runs a B&B, so the farm also feeds the guests.  So their additional income source would have made me think the farm might be more laid back.

Secondly, although there were plenty of female volunteers on the farm in Italy, the men (and there were never more than two) were always given the most labor-intensive jobs.  Sometimes volunteers would also have to work in the kitchen or clean the guest rooms, but those jobs were never given to the men.  So there was definitely a strong division of labor along gender lines in this context, which did not exist at Common Thread.  There, jobs were distributed to everyone regardless of gender.

Despite the subtle differences, there was one overriding similarity.  At Common Thread, there was always a din of chatter while doing the work.  The language barrier prevented a lot of that in Italy, but Giuseppe would often pause in his work and let us have a break.  We would lay down in the tall grasses skirting the fields and listen to the buzzing of flies and soak in the sun on our faces.  Or, if Giuseppe thought we were taking the work too seriously, he would tell us to "piano, piano," which means to relax.  There was never a rush to finish the work, whatever did not happen today would happen tomorrow.  Farming relies on plants and their natural processes.  To an extent, a farmer must have faith in something that is complicated and not guaranteed.  I feel as though in these two places, that faith affects the working environment, making it low-stress (for the volunteers at least).  As Giuseppe would always say, "As long as the shine is shining and you are smiling, I am happy."