We are still here, and still working hard. Or hardly working? Depends on the time of day, I think. ;)

This week we are harvesting:

Cabbage - red and green
Tomatoes - so many varieties!
Kohlrabi
Onions - red, yellow, and white
Cucumbers
Zucchini
Beans - yellow and green
Kale
Chard
Eggplant
Bok Choy
Maybe some other stuff that isn't coming to mind right away. It is high season on the farm!

The farm's 15th anniversary party is this Sunday, and there is lots of preparation going on. I think I'll try to write an origin story for the place before the week is out. The bugs remain bad in the meantime, and so I shall say hello and goodbye for now!

Making plans.

I am a plan maker. I like to have the order of things, the sequence of events, more or less mentally lined up before I get started. I like to think through the tasks of the day before I get out of bed. I like to know when the onions are going to get chopped and the water put to boil before I step in the kitchen. You could say I like to know what to expect.

Part of coming to Iowa this summer was a lesson to myself in being more comfortable with the unknown ways in which life continues to unfold. Sure, we knew we were coming to work on a farm for the summer, but what next? This internship only lasts until October, and what then? This was probably the most common question we heard (and continue to hear) from friends and family as we shared news of our move, and the most difficult question for me to (not) answer. Shrug the shoulders. I don't know. We'll see. Cross that bridge when we come to it, I guess.

We're not exactly ready to literally cross the bridge, but we are approaching the half way point of our time here. It is time to start having conversations about what we want to do and where we want to go from here. And (I can't decide if this is surprising or not) we are pretty much in agreement - the plan should be to find another internship. One more year on another farm with different systems and different markets. If we do another CSA farm we'll likely try to get on somewhere bigger, to get a feel for what a larger operation looks and feels like. We're tossing around the idea of trying to get on with some kind of livestock operation. If you know us even moderately well (or taken one look in the fridge), you know the deep relationship we have with dairy products. Maybe we should learn about cows. It would probably save us a lot of money in the long run.

So, that's where I am in the long term planning process. Now if we could only pin down an area of the country to shoot for. Much as I'm loving our time here, I don't think Iowa is forever. East Coast? Back to the Left Coast? Southern Indiana?? So many more decisions yet to make. Plus, even if we line up something that starts in March, that leaves a little over 4 months to fill this winter. Deep breath. Good thing I have some practice at not having every little piece and parcel planned out. Even if it doesn't always seem like it, a little mystery is good to have around.

A day in the life for real.

So what exactly do our days look like here at One Step at a Time Gardens?

They have a real rhythm and routine to them, which is pretty great when one really looks forward to and enjoys the tasks that repeatedly fill the days. It's also helpful that the rhythm and routine includes quite a bit of quiet down time at the beginning and ending of the work day, since we don't have TV, internet, or even phone service in our little house. And, since the mosquitoes have been so swarming and hellaciously bothersome this week, I've had even more quiet down time since I'm not willing to brave the outdoors after work. It is such.a.nice.change. from the pace of life I was keeping in Portland with two jobs and an active social life. The active social life part I could stand a little more of here in north central Iowa, but I'm perfectly content with a single job.

But, back to the day-to-day routine. We're woken in the morning (usually about 5:30) by the singing and chirping of dozens of varieties of birds. The combination of the 500 acre wetland reserve across the road and the diversity of the landscape and crops at the farm makes it a lovely place to be bird in the summertime. It's pretty astounding how loud they all are.

We're up by six or so, and coffee gets made and stretching happens. Lots of stretching. I've gotten back into running a few days a week, and on those days I try to be out the door by 6:15. I've got a couple of different routes measured for distance, and depending on energy level, humidity percentage, and how good the chapter of my book was the night before, I try to run between 2 and 4 miles. Another round of stretching and a quick rinse off shower before breakfast about 7:15. Dishes get done, we check the weather, shoelaces tied, pockets get packed with snot rag, earplugs and watch, sunblock is applied, and water bottles get filled for the morning.

8:00 starts the work day, and we gather in the pack-out shed to run through the priorities for the day. Our crew is a little different each day, and we range anywhere from 5 to 11 present for work.
The priorities are a little different each day as well, depending on where we are in the CSA delivery schedule, but there are a few chores that get done every day. The greenhouse gets watered, the wash station sinks filled, and the electric fences turned off by one person. Another two people head out to move the chicken tractors to fresh pasture and refill the chicken feed. Someone else wipes down the pack-out counters and may fold CSA boxes.

There is a wholesale delivery on Tuesday, and a CSA delivery on Wednesday and Thursday each. We try to harvest for those deliveries the day before, so we spend Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday morning harvesting, processing, and portioning produce. We usually go out in a couple of different groups - one group harvesting broccoli, lettuce, spinach, and chard and the other group going after peas, raspberries, and green beans, just as an example. Freshly picked food is brought back to the wash station and dumped in cold water, swished and swirled around to remove as much dirt and bugs as possible, and put into large tupperware containers in a large walk in cooler.

It's 10:30 or 11 by this point, and the cook of the day heads off to start making lunch. The rest of us work on portioning what we've just harvested and processed - 65 bags each of: 1 lb lettuce, 1/2 lb spinach, 1 lb. snow peas, 1/2 pint raspberries, 1 head broccoli, and whatever else it getting put into the box that week.

About 12 or 12:30 we break for lunch, heading to the kitchen to find out what the cook concocted using whatever veggies and pantry staples are on hand. We've been eating lots of salad and lots of stir fry so far. No complaints here. =)

Afternoons are spent either finishing up last bits of harvest that we didn't get to in the morning or working on general farm and crop maintenance projects. This translates to weeding. We are spending lots and lots of afternoons weeding these weeks, but Jan and Tim keep saying this is when the weed pressure is the highest. If we can yank the weeds that have already germinated before they go to seed then we'll reduce the seed bank for later in the year and next year. It is tedious work, but satisfying when you look back at a row that was not recognizable and see hundreds of perky little beet leaves waving in the wind.

We head in from the field about 4:30 to take care of end of the day chores; tying up chicken feed, watering the greenhouse again, wiping down harvest totes, cleaning the wash station, and generally end the day right about 5:00.

That's also right about when a beer gets opened and consumed on the shady front steps of the little house, boots and socks stripped off an lying on the grass a few yards away. This is generally when something mindless like Facebook surfing happens, and maybe a conversation about what should be for dinner. Showers ensue and by 7 I'm putting something together for dinner and trying to decide if I should read for education or for entertainment that evening. Sometimes a Netflix movie gets put on, but rarely does it get finished. 4 nights out of 7 I'm asleep by 10.

So there it is. That's the daily routine, more or less. I gotta tell you it feels a lot more exciting than it sounds! We do a lot of laughing and talking throughout the day, ask a lot of questions, walk a lot, do a lot of quick counting and calculating, and just generally pay attention to the world immediately surrounding ourselves. Did you see the beets germinated already?! Those bean plants really need to get harvested. Another couple of days before we can harvest a good crop of raspberries again - there's a good amount yet but they need to ripen a bit more. How many eggs did the hens lay this morning?

There is much changing detail to discuss within the generally structured framework of the week. Some of it is obvious and in your face (did you see how big the squash got?!) and some of it is more subtle. I'm really appreciating the variety of scope there is in this work, even within the predictability of the day to day tasks. Now for some more visitors......anyone?

A day in the life. (Or, why it takes me so long to write a new post sometimes)

Helllloooooo world! I think it's been almost 3 weeks since I posted last, and there are at least a couple of notable things and events I should have already shared. My folks came for a very short, but very lovely visit. They jumped right in harvesting lettuce and trimming onions, and were present for the inaugural use of our air conditioning. ( I chose to roast a chicken for dinner on an almost 90 degree day. Maybe not the smartest decision I've ever made.) My dad noted that all the birds chirping and flies buzzing seemed unnatural - where were the sirens?! But overall he gave the farm a "cooler than I expected" rating. It was really great to have them here - made it all seem a little more permanent and real to be able to share the experience with them.

That same week I had the chance to attend a state-wide "working group session" at the Leopold Center for Sustainability (at Iowa State University in Ames) convened for the purpose of creating a Food and Farm Plan for the 2011 Iowa State Legislature. It's slightly involved and complicated to explain, but it was essentially a gathering of folks involved in local food systems at every level (farmers, livestock producers, aggregators, grocery stores, economic developers, legislators, academics, etc.) intended to hash out what kinds of local food systems already exist, and what the barriers are for expanding local food systems further. The result will be a plan of action presented to the legislature with the goal that they will enact some policies aimed at increasing the local food network, and access to it, in Iowa. It's a pretty exciting time to be involved with local food here, and it was a real experience to be a fly on the wall at that meeting. It was amazingly inspiring and really got my wheels turning in thinking about all the different directions there are to go with this subject. Super exciting. Did you know you can get a Master's in Sustainable Ag with a focus in Sociology??

The next exciting thing to happen was a trip to Madison, WI to see Eli's sister and brother-in-law. Holy mini-Portland. I kept having deja-vu and thinking maybe we never left the Pacific Northwest at all. Fixed gear bikes, skin tight cut off jean shorts, full sleeve tatoos, Chacos, boutiques, cafes, and jogging strollers were all present in abundance. It was amazing.

Even more amazing was the time we got to spend with Erika and Michael - they absolutely took care of us and showed us an incredible weekend, complete with the country's largest farmer's market and an evening on one of the lakes in a 1981 competition ski boat. I got to drive.

It was really fun to be in an urban environment, but I was surprised at how closed in and sped up I felt. We'd only been on the farm 5 weeks by the time we visited, and already I'd adjusted pretty completely to the rhythm on this rural place. Kind of baffling, considering I've spent 26 years as an urban-ite.

This would be a perfect segment to the topic I intended to sit down and write about - what a day on the farm is like. BUT, I've been trying to make these posts shorter. If I was just an innocent reader I think I would think it tedious to read through looooonnnggg paragraphs of my mental rambling. And, it's 6:47pm and my belly says it is time to eat. It also leaves me good fodder for the next post, which will hopefully come sooner than 3 weeks from now.

This week we are majorly battling mosquitoes ( like, MAJORLY battling. I've never seen anything like these suckers, to be honest), harvesting green beans, lettuce, spinach, kohlrabi, sugar and snap peas, and broccoli. We are also weeding like crazy, and I am finding such a strange satisfaction every time we finish a row. Also planted beets and carrots, and have some peppers to transplant. I'm going to Friday market tomorrow with Jan, and Eli is off to Saturday market for the first time. Down to Grinnell (just outside Des Moines) for a Field Day on weed management on Saturday afternoon, and then hopefully a low-key day on Sunday.

Thanks, thanks, thanks for reading (and by extension caring), and feel free to drop a line letting us know what all you loved ones are up to. Much love!

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.

Brief notes and some photos

Well, mostly a photo blog this week, I think. It's been rainy and stormy here in Iowa which means some of the planting and other field work has been postponed, but it also means we've had time to do and talk about some of the behind the scenes work that happens here. It also means time for conversation with some of the other crew members - most notably the ultra conservative Regular Baptist (can anyone tell me what that means??) teenagers who work a couple of times a week. How to keep a level head when a 15 year old boy tells you a woman shouldn't been a minister because it's not a woman's role to teach??? He seems to take direction from our fearless female farmer just fine, so I sense some cognitive dissonance. Perhaps an issue to slowly and persistently address over the course of the summer.

CSA Boxes this week included lettuce, spinach, green onions and radishes. We just picked the first of the snow peas (below) for market tomorrow, and those will get included in next week's share. They are delicious - crisp, crunchy and just a little sweet.

Eli and I are headed to Clarinda, IA (southwestern corner of the state) tomorrow to attend an organic farm "field day" put together by the Practical Farmers of Iowa, a nonprofit that works to improve communication and knowledge sharing between Iowa farmers of all types. The farm we're headed to transitioned from conventional to organic corn and soy, and introduced a couple acres of veggies to their production as well. I'm looking forward to seeing another operation now that I have a fairly decent understanding of the one we're on. Hopefully I'll find some time and energy to report and reflect on how the weekend goes. In meantime we are sending lots of love!

Snow peas harvested for Saturday Farmer's Market.

One of the old, but still useful, farm buildings at OSTG. See the clouds in the windows?

The front pasture, lane, and East Twin Lake.

Row of lettuce just before harvest in the hoop or "high tunnel" house. Tomatoes on the right.

My current blogging and general communication location, until the the flatbed needs moving. =)

2nd Week Thoughts

I'm starting this blog post without a real sense of topical direction, so hopefully it doesn't get too ramble-y or nonsensical - but if it does, I hope it's at least amusing.

Yesterday marked two weeks of work done here at One Step at a Time Gardens and things are starting to feel a bit more rhythmic and routine, although not absolutely entirely. There is always a period at a new job when I feel kind of jittery and nervous - I don't know the lingo and acronyms thrown about, the names of key players in the field (literally, here!) or organization, how unkempt I can actually wear my hair, or where the toilet paper is kept. There is always new information coming at me, I feel like I should always have a question, and I am always a little freaked out that maybe they meant to hire somebody else but accidentally ended up with me. How many times is it okay to ask to be reminded about some small detail before they think I'm an idiot? How long before I can let my shoulders relax and just know what to do and where to be? The good news is I've had a lot of different jobs, which means a lot of time being the new girl, so those questions aren't really rhetorical: 3 times is an appropriate amount to ask the same question (but not in the same day!) and 3-5 weeks is a good amount of time to count on before near-total comfort in a job sets in. At 2 weeks down, I'm nearing the homestretch to confidence in my day-to-day responsibilities, and that is a good feeling.

Farm work really shifted last week as we moved into the first delivery week for the CSA and the first week for Farmer's Market in Mason City. We spent our first week on the farm transplanting, building a few tomato and pea fences, transplanting, weeding here and there, and transplanting some more. I'm a little foggy on the details since it was over a week ago, but I think we watered in (there's some lingo I learned! that means planted) something like 400 tomato plants, 300 peppers, 350 brassicas (broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage), and a whole whole bunch of summer and winter squashes. Last week we started actually harvesting produce that was planted way back in the fall and early early springtime, and boy did we glean a lot. Over the course of the week we harvested 1200 green onions, 50 pounds of spinach, and almost 70 pounds of head lettuce. We dug a whole bed of leeks and kept our fingers crossed for the radishes to ripen just in time, but they didn't cooperate. So, farm members received their first box this week without those lovely red globular vegetables that are ever so popular here in Iowa. (Are they popular other places? It seems a strange vegetable to be popular to me...) They did receive an absolutely beautiful and bright green array of lettuce, spinach, green onions and leeks along with the "weekly note" that Jan includes in each box.

The weekly note is an example of one of the things I think sets this farm and CSA apart from others we interacted with over the last few months. Jan takes a lot of time and care to make sure folks have the resources they need to be connected to their food on many different levels. The note includes a commentary on what is actually in the box, different suggestions for how to use it, perhaps a side bar on how it was produced, and she tries to also include a piece about different events, actions, people or organizations pertaining to food policy and culture, both regionally and nationally. This may mean highlighting a bill that is about to be put before Congress that will affect the regulations either conventional or organic agricultural producers must abide by (or put to wayside as conventional ag becomes less regulated). It may mean giving a shout out to a start-up coop in the North Iowa region. It may mean giving a brief review of a recently published food book or magazine article. It may mean highlighting the work and activities of one of the farm members in hopes of fostering connection and community among the folks who eat food from the same ground. The underlying point of the commentary section is always the same: encourage people to be more connected to their lifestyle choices, to their food, and to each other. Make eating (and living!) an informed and conscious activity.

This I am totally inspired by, and am diligently working to adopt as a regular practice of my own. It takes a lot of attention and effort, however, and I am as susceptible to laziness as the rest of my Millennial Generation. I know it sounds completely cheesy, but I really do just have to take it one step at a time, just like the name of the farm! I guess it actually turns out to be one trip to the farmer's market and one pound of bacon at a time, but who's policing terminology here? Ultimately I think the goal is to make conscious choices, even if they aren't always the correct or most responsible choices. We are a society and culture of consumers, that fact cannot (and maybe should not) be denied. That we consume is not a choice we make, but how we consume is a choice we make each and every day, whether we know it or not. I think many, many people don't realize that spending a dollar, any single dollar, is both making a choice and sending a message to those who operate within the free market. I know I don't always realize it, or at least don't always pay attention to it. Sometimes the cheap and convenient is just so damn cheap and convenient. Is an extra 5 minutes reading the label worth making my shopping partner even more terse and exasperated than he already is with my leisurely shopping self? ( I'm a woman who doesn't like shoe shopping or department stores, but put me in a grocery store and oh.man.watch.me.go.) So, I think the challenge is to be informed about where my money goes, who puts it in their pocket, and what they do with it. That's not always entirely possible, but the pursuit of that information is. It takes effort and energy and sometimes going without to make that pursuit and follow through with a purchase that feels good. And who wants to expend effort and energy EVERY TIME you make a purchase? Not me. But, practice makes perfect, and any routine can begin to feel normal after a while. That is the goal.

Oh boy. I am waxing a little too political even for my own 7pm and hungry for dinner brain. Being on this farm is giving me lots and lots and lots to think about, both by nature of the work and location and by nature of all the tiiiiiiiime I have here. It is lovely, but it can put the brain into overdrive. I think this is probably plenty for a Saturday evening.

Thank you so much to those of you who have commented or let me know otherwise you are reading. I know it seems impersonal and somewhat disconnected, but it means a lot to me to know those of you I love and care about are reading along and thinking and identifying. Eli and I think and talk about all of you often, so it's good to know the energy is being returned.

I'm still trying to find time to figure out a faster way to post photos (thanks for the Flickr tip, Uncle John...that's what I need to look into!) so still not many photos. Any specific tips and hints from other folks who have experience putting large photos onto a blog quickly would be appreciated. Much love to everyone!