Farms and Fathers
I read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, Green for Life and then The Omnivore's Dilemma. It set me on a path to finding a local CSA, something that I've looked into in the past, but never really considered seriously. I ended up finding one called Tierra Miguel Farm, which also offers open houses the first Saturday of each month.
I was supposed to go with my old roommate, but he canceled at the last minute. I debated whether I should go at all, but come Saturday morning, I was on the road, driving north. I'm really glad I went. I met some interesting, entertaining people while there. The area was really peaceful, the farm itself was great, and I got a real sense of satisfaction after working just those few hours. (I ended up spending 7 hours on the farm, but only the first few were spent hard at work.)
The farm practices biodiversity and is completely organic. The soil smelled great and was a complete joy to work in. When completely still, you could hear the buzzing of the farm's bees, and it sounded like swarms of them, but I never saw more than one or two at a time. There was a potluck lunch, and then they set us loose on the strawberry fields. The strawberries tasted more like strawberries. The carrots more carrot-y. It's hard to explain, but everything tasted more like it should. I also got to check out the worm bin, and I've been contemplating how feasible it would be to make my own worm bin for all the food scraps that currently get chucked in the trash.
In a totally unrelated thread, my cousin sent me this link, of a photographer who took pictures of his father the last years of his life. Very touching, and makes me more inclined to visit my own family (or feel less weird about visiting them so often).
http://www.dayswithmyfather.com/
I was supposed to go with my old roommate, but he canceled at the last minute. I debated whether I should go at all, but come Saturday morning, I was on the road, driving north. I'm really glad I went. I met some interesting, entertaining people while there. The area was really peaceful, the farm itself was great, and I got a real sense of satisfaction after working just those few hours. (I ended up spending 7 hours on the farm, but only the first few were spent hard at work.)
The farm practices biodiversity and is completely organic. The soil smelled great and was a complete joy to work in. When completely still, you could hear the buzzing of the farm's bees, and it sounded like swarms of them, but I never saw more than one or two at a time. There was a potluck lunch, and then they set us loose on the strawberry fields. The strawberries tasted more like strawberries. The carrots more carrot-y. It's hard to explain, but everything tasted more like it should. I also got to check out the worm bin, and I've been contemplating how feasible it would be to make my own worm bin for all the food scraps that currently get chucked in the trash.
In a totally unrelated thread, my cousin sent me this link, of a photographer who took pictures of his father the last years of his life. Very touching, and makes me more inclined to visit my own family (or feel less weird about visiting them so often).
http://www.dayswithmyfather.com/