Un-original title. Week 4.

It's been a busy week since I last wrote - a trip to southeastern Iowa for a Practical Farmers of Iowa (PFI) field day, a full week at the farm including snow peas and broccoli coming on, 3 inches of rain and 2 bouts of hail, an amazing solstice party and prairie walk with Slow Food Iowa and a chance to accompany Jan to the Saturday Farmers Market in Mason City. We're 4 weeks into the internship and the days are absolutely flying, despite the fact that these are the longest days of the year. All this light means everything is growing like crazy, and it's a challenge to keep up with all the harvesting and weeding that needs to happen, especially when violent storms are thrown into the mix.

Thunderstorms were one of the things Eli and I were both really looking forward to when we started thinking about being back in the Midwest, but I had forgotten just how powerful and scary they can be when the conditions are right. Thursday night brought some really nasty weather to the area, including a half mile wide tornado that brought a lot of destruction and at least a couple deaths to Southern Minnesota. Albert Lea, one of the towns that had a lot of damage, is only about 60 miles north of the farm here and many of the vendors at the Saturday farmers market in Mason City come from Albert Lea to sell their stuff. Luckily none of those folks had damage, but they all seemed to kn0w someone who did. Shiver shiver down my spine.

No tornadoes here at the farm, but we had some amazingly powerful (and destructive) wind and rain. We sat outside after work on Thursday evening just transfixed by the pre-storm sky - it was a spectacular show of clouds and colors that gave me a little adrenaline rush just watching it. Slate grays, deep ominous blues, scalloped clouds rushing past, and finally just a solid wall of darkness about 8 pm. The thunder, lightning and rain started about 8:30, the hail about 9:30, and by 11 when we went to bed (wind eerily whistling through the cracks around the door) it was still blustering and blowing.

Friday morning brought much of the same sky conditions without the actual rain fall so we spent the first part of the morning trying to salvage what we could of the lettuce and spinach before it started storming again. Most of the greens were shredded by the hail and while it's still edible, Jan and Tim have super high standards for the aesthetics of their produce. They don't send out greens missing just the right hue of green, let alone leaves that are deeply bruised and tattered. These were the rows that were supposed to supply the next 3 - 4 weeks of CSA shares with leafy greens, so it is a pretty significant damage. Last week we put a pound of lettuce and a half pound of spinach in the boxes expecting to put the same in for the next few weeks. Not this week. But, no lives taken and no structures badly damaged which puts things into perspective.

This weather episode really highlights what I think of as one of the most important aspects of being a member of Community Supported Agriculture. Jan and Tim have already received the support (financial and moral) from 120 members that they needed to put into process the organic production of a lot of different kinds of vegetables. Because of this support, the 20 minutes of hail that basically wiped out the entire crop of lettuce and spinach won't ruin the season for the farmers. Sure, it's unfortunate, but the hail storm brings only a little bit of misfortune to 120 people instead of a devastating amount of misfortune to 2 people. Through the CSA model the financial risk of organic and sustainable food production falls to the wider community of eaters rather than just to the very narrow single household producing the food. When there is plenty, everyone gets plenty. When there is not so much, everyone gets not so much. It's a system that makes sense to me.

I had a chance to go to Mason City with Jan yesterday for both the farmers market and for a short meeting with some other local foodists about starting a Buy Fresh, Buy Local chapter in North Iowa. I'm still trying to wrap my head around what exactly a Buy Fresh Buy Local chapter does, but I think it essentially provides some communication tools - advertisements, directories, and other public recognition efforts - for people and businesses who produce and support local food and products. There are BFBL chapters all around the country who all use the same imagery (http://www.foodroutes.org/buy-fresh-buy-local.jsp) so it is partially an effort to be part of one larger alternative food systems networks out there. It was a really good chance to get to see some of the behind the scenes work that has to happen in order to build vital food communities, and I left the meeting feeling pretty jazzed.

My point in mentioning that meeting, which happened right after the market, is that I'm really starting to see why this kind of work has been quietly calling my name. I've had some really great (and some really not great) jobs over the last few years but I haven't found anything that fit just right. I loved The ReBuilding Center and my outreach work there, but it was oh so hard to sit an office much of the day. I loved connecting with and supporting my AmeriCorps members as an AmeriCorps Team Leader but it was oh so hard to deal with ever shifting climate of the social service agency we were with. I don't think I'll ever say that I loved waiting tables, but I really did like the active and inter-active nature of the work. I liked having a brisk pace and defined tasks to accomplish. I think I probably kept a restaurant job through both of my office jobs because I needed the variety in my day-to-day. That, and the AmeriCorps stipend leaves just a little to be desired.

I find work on the farm to require a real balance of physical and mental work, which is what I think has been missing in my employment situations so far. The office work didn't give me enough physical movement and human interaction and the restaurants didn't give me enough mental stimulation and variety. On the farm, there are the obvious physical chores that get done everyday - moving the chicken tractors, harvesting vegetables, building fences, weighing and prepping veggies for CSA boxes and market, planting, weeding, walking the fields and inspecting the crops, looking for growth, pests, any pruning needs. And, there is an endless amount to think and talk about regarding both the physical work of the farm and the mental work of addressing and changing food systems at a much broader scale. This is a big issue that includes a big number of players. There are academics, politicians, entrepreneurs, and everyday joe-schmoes like myself trying to find their way and their place in this conversation. There is a whole generation of children and young people who, for the first time in modern history, have shorter life expectancies than their parents, partially because of their diets and the food they have (or don't have) access to. There are thousands and thousands of acres of land that have seen nothing but corn and chemicals since the 1970s. There are so many issues around food and food systems that need both more small farmers and more voices. I know the two don't traditionally go together, but Jan and Tim are two folks setting a much different example, and it's pretty inspiring to be spending so much time with them. Sets a girl to dreaming big dreams. =)

I think that was a really long and ramble-y way to say that the longer I'm here the more I'm getting out of it, and the more my wheels are spinning. I'm not even remotely sure as to where those wheels are taking me, but for now the fact that they are spinning like they are is plenty.

We have a busy week coming up yet again with all the normal farm work plus a visit from my parents (hoooraaay! haven't seen them since Christmas), and a visit from Indy friends Forest and Alex. We're also planning to take an early day on Friday and head to Madison, WI to see Eli's sister and brother-in-law, Erika and Michael. Haven't seen them since their wedding last summer, so we are really looking forward to the week and connecting in person with so many excellent people we don't get to see very often.

Think dry thoughts for us, and much love to all!

Jan and One Step at a Time Gardens produce at the Mason City Farmers Market on Saturday morning.

Tim cleaning up some of the damage from Thursday night's storm. The picnic table was our daily lunch spot.


Capturing some sun.

Sunset on the prairie.

Couple of happy folk.