Thursday 27 March 2014

end-of-market-madness ….



Market Day is like the opening night of a well rehearsed play ~ roles have been given, everything has been planned and prepared….there is an energy in the air as you wait for the final set up…it’s magically personal in the beginning of the season but by the end it’s another kinda special… #farmingwitha2yearold



I don’t mean to pop the proverbial bubble but harvesting, cleaning, bagging, pricing, signing, and displaying veggies and other gastro delights are all tasks that are both fun and predictable madness all season long. Let me illustrate with an example from a couple of years ago…..



It’s 5 a.m. sunday morning and Farmer Luke and I get up EVER SO QUIETLY in fear of waking Ms. Rea, who at this time was approaching two…. the thought of having to add that level to our morning was shattering to contemplate... so… without a word we creep downstairs and out the door… Granola Girl attends to cleaning, packaging, pricing and signage for the veggies as Farmer Luke delivers it from the fields…. naught a word is spoken…. partly because we are focused on task... and partly because at that hour the moment is fragile with exhaustion and we are ever fearful that the quiet will be broken…. so we just work… OH and smack mosquito after mosquito as the humidity rises…. I’ll agree there is a sense of peace and beauty in this early morning silent dance and for a moment I get swept up into the meditation....ahhhh.... then…… huh?…...damn. I hear the little footsteps coming down the stairs…. it’s like you get sucked back into this other existence and instantly you SHIFT GEARS….screeeeeech as the wheels lock…..



And so the juggling begins ~ consider this Act 2 of this grand play. Remember Ms. Rea is our little farm girl who wants to help in any and every way possible… cute?…yes. charming?…sure. adorable?…absolutely! BUT it’s also untimely…. to say the least.



Farmer Luke and I flounder around taking turns entertaining her with small manageable tasks as we manoeuvre the minefield of potential power struggles and sudden tantrums…and for the most part we succeed without injury…soon that wonderful silent dance turns into a square dance as Mr. Finn joins the foray. Although forever talking to himself or anyone who will listen, Mr. Finn is easily entertained with a few pieces of lego or a good book ~ as long as you listen to his commentary…on and off…..as best you can…all morning long......sigh.



So needless to say the romanticism of having a family farm and all working cohesively together happily taking the bounty to market is somewhat of a fallacy…at this stage in our life… the reality is we are just trying not to be late ~ we aren’t thinking of much else…and after being up late the night before and getting up at dawn and not stopping in between and adding a layer of Ms. Rea and a layer of Mr. Finn, plus mosquitoes and humidity…well I challenge any semi-stable individual to attempt THAT every weekend ALL summer long and still see ANY SENSE OF ROMANCE of the farm or otherwise! .....OK maybe it’s not that bad…but I’m a special kind of me and I’m prone to moments… :)



….one of my more extreme end-of-market ‘moments’ and one I am reminded of every so often….involved……McDonalds. YES, I am well aware of the lack of nutritional components of McDonalds and don’t get me started on the use of toys to drag your children into their corporate clutches ~ hey...I’m Granola…I’m all ‘Supersize Me’ed up…I get the issues…trust me...I do. …Buuuuut I’m also a mom who juggles an enormous amount of voluntary pressure which results in situations that have me breaking down and living the reason fast-food exists…it’s true….not very often but it has been known to happen…and sometimes at the worst opportunity….let me explain...



…after a particularly ‘fun’ and ‘romantic’ late night early morning market day at the end of the season I was completely spent…in so many ways…remember I also work full-time and travel loads…ya…dude.... I. AM. NUTS. …k, flash back to this particular day.... somehow I made it to McDonalds….I don’t honestly know how… I’m sure survival had a part to do with it and I suspect the children GPS’d me there… it was late in the season and my defenses were down… apparently two boxed processed chicken meals with an age and gender appropriate toy were purchased and distributed… I remember arriving at the farmers market flustered, exhausted, anxious and LATE (I hate to be late…). I piled the children onto the stroller with their Rotten Ronnies… without thinking I turned the corner heading towards our beautiful market stand full of nutritious organic grass-fed incredible goodness… smiling happily to the Farmer and relieved I had finally made it…..um….WITH TWO CHILDREN EATING McDonalds IN PLAN VIEW…….WTF!! Honestly. sigh.



Yup. The worst...right?....nope…it gets worse… A friend of ours who is also a vendor was serving a very large group of market customers… he paused what he was doing and said at the top of his lungs…..”MCDONALDS? What are you doing feeding your children McDonalds? Do you KNOW what she does people? She owns an organic grass-fed farm!! Her husband is a farmer!”

….what? the what! ...blink…blink….. SERIOUSLY?... ummm….I felt smaller than a 1 inch nugget…



Gulp.

All eyes on me…

…do I take it away from them as I fumble to explain myself then head over to our stall?



I knew he was kidding in his own way….and I was able to laugh it off with an “I’M ONLY HUMAN and sometimes you have to do what you have to do”…but the disappointment was evident as I walked up to Farmer Luke and he was looking at me with half a smile and eyes saying, “you are such a goof ~ what were you thinking?! I’m never going to let you forget this one! hahahaha” ….that’s just it…..I WASN’T thinking…and he hasn’t stop reminding me…. 

...it has since been diagnosed as ‘end-of-market-madness’….and I'm working on it.



 
Granola Girl: if you need me I'll be in here for the rest of the season










Monday 10 March 2014

The Deconstruction of a farmer ~ 25/25/50 = school/experience/instinct




In our family Ms. Forrest Rea and Farmer Luke are both extremely intuitive about farming. Forrest has ALWAYS wanted to be in on the action happily following Farmer Luke whenever he would let her tag along. Her gentleness, compassion and instinct with reading the animals and their behaviour is amazing to watch….she has pretty much been happily strapped to Farmer Luke from birth, puttering around going about the chores. It’s truly adorable to watch as they are clearly cut from the same cloth and the intuitive instinct Farmer Luke exhibits is certainly present in Forrest too.


Forrest would happily sit and talk to the chickens as Farmer Luke went about the chores

"wawa you wan wawa?" ~ always a helper!


for the first two seasons this was their daily routine


she now insists on gathering HER eggs...so we've been told...
this little 3 foot ninja will be running the show in no time!

As I’ve said, Farmer Luke is truly exceptional in his intuition about farming and knowing the land. For instance, when I met him he could read the sun and be within 15-20 minutes of the exact time….I am not kidding….trust me on this because I would test him at every random opportunity…hoping to stump him and catch him up BUT 9 times out of 10 he was bang on! just plain nuts if you ask me…in a crazy primal kind of way. The guy can also read grass ~ that’s right. Grass! ….and various other ground cover. I know…he went to school for pasture management and much of it was learnt by experience farming in three different countries…BUT nonetheless the man knows the nutrient value of grass based on its height on his gum boot!!….this kinda blows me away …I mean….who else do you know that can do that? Seriously.  



I've been told this is some good grass....
DIRT 101 - by Farmer Luke: bend it and if it cracks then it's sandy loam (preferred) ~ if it doesn't break then it's clay...."Ohhhhh. O.K."


...ANNNNNND  my all time personal favourite example of Farmer Luke’s incredible intuitive instinct at its very best (so far) involved: a bear, some cattle, a few other farmers and a cow whisperer…..


the story goes....Farmer Luke got a call early one morning by a farmer down the way who had been out all night looking for his cows that had broken through the fence after being spooked by a bear. Always willing to help a farmer he was there in a matter of minutes. After they mended the fence and one botched attempt to get the cows back into the paddock, the other farmers went off back to the barn to fetch the tractor and some grain...cuz obviously the only option is to coax them out by spreading grain right?.....ya. right! While they were gone Farmer Luke knew just what to do...he went to the middle of the paddock and lay down in the grass for a lovely mid-morning nap.....don't get me wrong....this was a well-intentioned manouver by a well-seasoned farmer (...and a sleep deprived dad...) ~ while the other farmers were still off busy getting the equipment ready and grain loaded...Farmer Luke was snoozing away....finally, he awoke to the familiar sound of...

sniff.
..sniff sniff.
...snort.
..sniffffffffff...

knowing this sound all too well he jumped up just before the first lick came splashing down on his face ~ GOT YA! WHOOP WHOOP 

farmer 1/cows 0

By the time the other farmers were back with all their equipment Farmer Luke had the cows safely back into the paddock and as he would say, "they were happy as" HAHAHAHA love this story for obvious reasons but the best part was how dumbfounded the other farmers were; they had no idea what he had done.....and even after a detailed explanation they still didn't truly believe him......silly silly silly farmers and their machines. 

You see…what Farmer Luke had discovered along the way by befriending cows and managing them on pastures, was that they were naturally curious and if there was something low to the ground and motionless in the grass they would automatically go to it in order to get a sense of what it was. huh! WELL I’LL BE a monkey’s uncle! Who knew? Clearly the other farmers who also raised cows had no idea. Now for the record, assuming anyone is actually keeping a record...HA...this Granola Girl technically did know this trick...but I would never have thought of it and I only know this because Farmer Luke taught me the trick when I made friends with my first calf on the farm in England. I have to say.....it’s a little disconcerting opening your eyes to this….





So all of this to say….the formula for this farmer seems to be 25/25/50 representing 25% schooling + 25% experience + 50% intuitive instinct. It’s that 50% instinct which sets him and Ms. Forrest apart from the rest of us in the family ~ it’s simply undeniable that they exhibit qualities that you just can’t easily learn…those qualities are inherent. Luke is the product of what I see Forrest to be and as a party to that journey I am so excited to watch it bloom. It just doesn’t get better than that! 

And in the end...I’ll learn….