Review of "Fast Food Nation"

Fast Food Nation, Eric Schlosser, Harper Perennial, 2002.
Eric Schlosser does a fine job of revealing how the Fast Food industry has revolutionized not only the way America dines outside the home, but also inside the home as well. The chapters analyze these topics in great detail: the start and growth of McDonalds; the origins of the nation’s beef processing industry and how the demands of the fast food industry led to the consolidation to a few “super-sized” firms; the frozen potato industry and its mechanical processes; the natural and chemical flavoring industry; and the globalization and cost of fast food franchises (which included a detailed example of a new McDonalds in East Germany near a WWII concentration camp after the fall the Berlin wall.)

He also revealed more of a “social justice” issue behind the meat industry that we may not know about (and if we do, we all choose to ignore it): how immigrant workers are used for cheap unskilled labor; how OSHA laws are being challenged and circumvented; how towns and small cities with large beef processing facilities are being harmed socially, culturally and environmentally; how the application of the assembly line mentality was applied to food industry, (thus reducing the skill level required to a specific certain task, keeping wages low). It is difficult for me to think a proper respect of the safety and economic concerns of lower level employees would increase beef prices dramatically. Sadly, I think it is all about control, profits, and market share.
The most memorable part of the book for me was where a franchise owner drove his employees to a Success Seminar to hear inspirational stories about working hard and being successful. Towards the end of the seminar, Christopher Reeve is wheeled onstage and tells the audience that since his accident, his priorities have changed: "It doesn't matter" (about fame, money, success). Mr Schlosser writes that these men and women are touched by a sudden awareness of something hollow in their own lives. (p.107) There is something hollow about the business philosophies of "Bigger", "Better", "Faster", "Cheaper", "More Convenient", (as well as "Greater Market Share" and "Brand Loyalty") when there is such disrespect for the employees of these businesses, the local farmers, the consumers and the citizens of the local economy. It is almost insulting how America is being conned into thinking this is is the new normal and there can be no other way. In my view, Nutritional Health, Sustainability and Local Market Economies should be the real focus of the food industry.

I am a big believer in the proper evaluation of opportunity cost. If you spend a dollar here, you cannot spend the same dollar there. If you spend your 2 weeks of work granted vacation days in Florida, you can’t spend the same two weeks vacation in California. We have many choices but our time, money and efforts are not unlimited.
Thus, if you change the America’s view of dining experience into cheap, pre-packaged, convenient, chemically “tasty”, disposable meals with low nutritional value processed by temporary immigrants and high tech machines, controlled by profit-driven corporations, then what is the cost? Well, here is my list: poor eating habits and portion control; adjusting the location and sanctity of family meals which dissolves the family community; promoting the idea of thinking that food should be cheap, and thus insisting on it, regardless of health benefits of cheap food; separation of the food preparation from the public eye -- and thus lack of proper understanding of what is really in our food; and uninformed transfer and “dependence” on the food industry, thinking they have own best interests in mind. Well, America and the world, we are "having it our own way", to quote a fast food jingle that I grew up with.

A fictional movie was made from this book which I will probably watch soon. Mr. Schlosser was also a main contributor to the film, Food Inc., which visually shows some of the topics from Fast Food Nation. I highly recommend it to anyone who really wants to understand the modern food industry.

Oct. 25, 2009: Week 22+

Farmer Erin wanted to go out with a "bang" so the distribution was as follows:

4-6 hot peppers (small)
1 cauliflower

1 rutabaga
1 celeriac (shown to right)
1 head of green cabbage
1 head of red cabbage
3 lbs carrots (orange)
1 lb carrots (purple)
1 1/3 lbs of mixed greens (aragula, red mustard, mizuna, tatsoi, curly frill): = about a "gallon jug"/non compacted
4 miniature heads of red or green leaf lettuce (like single serving size)
1 swiss chard bunch (giant)
2 1/2 lbs onions
2 1/2 lbs potatoes
3 lbs parsnips
2 butternut squash
choice of (2) : fennel (2), bunch of radishes, bunch of beets, bunch of turnips, small carton of broccoli, regular or dinosaur kale

[Probably 18-20 lbs of 13-15 types of organic vegetables...]

Oct. 25, 2009: Week 22

It was a beautiful fall day to end the season. The sun was out, the wind was cool, but not too brisk, and we had a lot of helpers. The first job was to harvest the lettuce heads (114 count); with 5 helpers. "Cut under the head in the ground so the leaves do not fall away." With 5 helpers, the cutting, washing, and storing task took about 20 minutes. Then on to the parsnips; this time we needed 142 lbs. since we were also harvesting for the final distribution for the Thursday pick-ups.
Parsnips are harvested like carrots with a pitchfork, plunged straight down with a lot of effort and delicate manuveuring (that is, jumping on and pulling the pitchfork, without piercing the parsnip).
Even with help, washing nearly 150 lbs of parsnips takes some time, and that was the majority of the rest of the afternoon before the distribution stations were set up at 4pm.

What will happen on the farm in the fall? Well, some of the crops stay in the ground until Thanksgiving harvest. For the "early bird" members who sign up for 2010, there is a special thanksgiving share that will be distributed. I am guessing onions, parsnips, carrots, potatoes, and spinach, and probably more...

The bigger question is "What will I do now"? I have accumulated many books for winter reading. Some are social commentaries about food consumption, some are gardening books, some are environmental. I will continue to be here.

Oct 18, 2009; Week 21+

We received another celery root, another head of cabbage, some greens (mustard, mizuna, tat soi), chard, potatoes, red onions, carrots, turnips, and some more Delicata squash. My wife has been making a lot of soups and stews with the root vegetables.

Oct 18, 2009; Week 21

This is my second to last week and there are still things to be done. The cool weather vegetables are still growing slowly. hopefully the spinach will be grown by Thanksgiving. There will be a special Thanksgiving share of greens, potatoes, onions, etc, for those paying members that renew for next year in November.

We harvested turnips, radishes, cabbage and more celery root. We also harvested some greens -- I think it was tat soi. We still are distributing stored onions and potatoes. The farm had visitors for a garlic planting festival who had rode down from Rochester on bicycles. I planted a few bulbs before my shift was over. Garlic is planted in the fall for harvest the following spring.

Oct 10, 2009; Week 20+

Pretty much the same as last week: Remaining Peppers (some green bell, other mostly hot), celery root, a head of cabbage, greens (mustard, mizuna), some smaller eggplants, potatoes, red onions, carrots, and some more Delicata and other squash.

Oct 10, 2009; Week 20

The weather is much cooler so washing the crops is not as refreshing as it was in the hot summer sun. One errant spray of the hose and you can get soaked with a resulting chill that stays with you the whole day. (Trust me on this one.) There was a whole cart of scallions to be prepared for distribution. Scallions are very labor intensive. The stalks have to be gently separated by their white base, any brownish dry skin has to be peeled away, then washed, and trimmed.

Erin decided to harvest all the peppers. Peppers enjoy the sun and heat of the summer, and now in fall, we are approaching frosty nights. So anything worth harvesting was taken. We did them all: green (bell), Hungarian hot wax, cayenne, Jalapeno, as well as some other black and green types. Occasionally I would chew on a green pepper when I found a nice one; since I am not a hot pepper fan, I wasn't as courageous. Instead of bending over or crouching to harvest, we pulled the whole plant out and could examine the plant as we stood up. We ended up with about 4-5 bushel baskets.

We also covered the carrots and swiss chard plants with a white cloth. This fabric-type tarp is as long as a row and needs to be secured with rock bags every 10-15 ft or so. So the both the bags and cloth need to be moved to the new location. It was a long day.

Oct 3, 2009; Week 19+

Some green peppers, another celery root, greens (tat soi, mustard, mizuna), a head of cabbage, chard, eggplants, 2-3 lbs potatoes, red onions, carrots, scallions, beets, and more Delicata squash (4-6 count).

It has become our new favorite at home; it is shaped like a small hoagie sandwich, but the green and yellow skin is thin and edible. The u-pick herbs (oregano, basil, cilantro) are still available.

Oct 3, 2009; Week 19

We harvested more carrots, celery root and eggplants. The eggplants are spoiling so finding the remaining good ones (black, not purple or scarred) were difficult. All in all, the eggplant crop was incredibly abundant. We also harvested some fall squash; mostly butternut and spaghetti.

Sept 26, 2009; Week 18+

Green Peppers, Celery Root, 2 lbs greens (choice of tat soi, mustard, mizuna), chard, eggplants, 2-3 potatoes, 3 lbs. red onions, carrots, and some squash.

Sept 26, 2009; Week 18

There are still crops on the first field but the back field is mostly covered by “grass” now, perhaps a few rows of peppers, eggplants and fall crops. There is broom corn in the back, and some flowers that are starting to seed. It was only two months ago that this area was covered with hundreds of vegetable plants.

We started to harvest the celery root. The stalks are thinner and bushier than regular celery; it the round base that is used for cooking. These celery roots were the size of melons and sometimes two hands were needed to pull them out. Then with a knife, we cut off the stringy roots leaving a whitish ball.

Then we scattered rye and vetch as a cover crop. After a good year of harvest, the soil is spent of its nutrients. Planting a cover crop will keep the soil in place, as well as providing nitrogen. The vetch is specifically used for nitrogen replacement; Erin plucked one tiny plant up in a currently growing field to show the tiny white part of its roots which is providing the necessary replacement. Also, when it is time to plant in the spring, these covers will be turned into the soil with additional compost. I have learned that proper soil maintenance and replenishment are vital to farming success.

PS There will be about two more weeks: For Sunday pickups the last distribution will be October 25. Thus, I have two additional weeks of work.

Sept 19, 2009: Week 17+

2 watermelons (red or yellow flesh), 2 lbs of potatoes, 2lbs (or 3lbs ?) of cured red onions, turnips, some hot peppers, 4-5 green & red peppers, leafy greens, and 2 heads lettuce. The choices (pick 2) were: a long thin eggplant, chinese eggplants, fava beans (i think) or beets. The watermelons -- almost basketball size -- are the last of the season.

Sept 19, 2009: Week 17

I am working backwards here: posting later entries rather than the earlier ones: I really hope I can catch up!

This past week we started the planting cycle again. First we marked the 3 rows for planting with a 4ft wide hand-made wood row-measuring device, then hand planted some seeds, and finally covered them up with dirt using a hoe. Then we ran the plastic hoses alongside the newly planted rows, and checked for leaks. Then we covered the rows with a white fabric tarp. What I most remember was when I was concentrating on dragging the hoe carefully alongside the row, the ground "moved" as if I was mixing cement or working in mud. It was a disturbing optical illusion because the earth really seemed to move like a lava where I pulled the hoe. I need to research this phenomenon...

Sept 12, 2009: Week 16+

Watermelon, eggplants, potatoes, cured red onions, hot peppers, green & red peppers, leafy greens, beets, and lettuce. The quality is still top rate.

Sept 12, 2009: Week 16

I spent about two hours weeding rows with a stirrup hoe. I’m guessing it was about a quarter of a mile in distance. I noticed a monarch butterfly worm on the dill. The cool crops (broccoli, fall squash) are growing well. Some of the previous crops have been turned in , and what was teeming with vegetation is now churned soil, ready for a rest or a cover crop. The farm has been expanded further behind the main plot, as the main plot will probably be rested next year.

Sept 5, 2009: Week 15+

Watermelon, Cantelope, eggplants, corn, potatoes, onions, hot peppers, green & red peppers, leafy greens, beets, and lettuce.

Sept 5, 2009: Week15

This week I spent creating new fence posts with a post crashing tool. The fence was because the perimeter of the farm had changed. The crop debris was turned in back in to the soil by the tractor, so what was full of vegetation is now back to barren soil, now for a cover crop. Then I went around putting peanut butter on the wire fence. I also harvested and washed scallions which can be very time consuming.

August 29, 2009: Week 14+

August 29, 2009: Week 14

Wow. I haven’t updated this blog in three weeks. So much for my attempts to be a consistent writer. I guess it’s because there are more things on the farm I am used to doing rather than being introduced to.

I do remember seeing a praying mantis insect -- and then having Erin put him on my arm. Oh he’s friendly, she said, as he started to crawl up my arm to my shoulder. After I recovered from my fainting spell, he was no where to be seen, and I was sent home.

(I didn’t really faint, but I was saying to get him off me through gritted teeth.. His alien head was really freaky...)

August 22, 2009: Week 13+

Corn and Melons made their premiere this week! We grew successfully organic corn without pesticides in Western NY! (Can you tell I am excited?) Incredible. Also distributed were eggplants, green peppers, hot peppers, zucchini, onions, leeks, beets, chard, and lettuce and/or mixed greens. Cilantro, basil and oregano still are available.

August 22, 2009: Week 13

I guessed it would be another week of harvesting eggplants, cucumbers, green peppers, and hot peppers. I really don't mind -- it's a fun job to find the most ripe vegetable (or fruit?); it's also really amazing to me to see a little plant make so much produce. I was ready to go to the fields but my first job was to spread peanut butter on the electrified plastic wire strip around the farm. Some deer tracks were found in the fields and the fence needed to be baited again. I am told that deer can jump 8 ft over a fence. This "fence" is a white plastic band about 1/2 inch width over a metal wire about 4ft high. Animals can certainly crawl under it or jump over it, but the electricity that runs through the wire is the deterrent. Here is the plan: the deer smell the tasty peanut butter on the plastic strip, give a lick and Zzzzt! they experience the not-so-tasty goodness of 9,000 volts. So, of course, they don't come back and hopefully spread the word to other deer to stay away. As I was doing this for the full perimeter (1500 to 2000 feet), I was thinking of marketing names or slogans for this product : Lick-A-Bolt, Zap-Away. I was also wondering if deer like peanut butter or some other spread like Nutella, or perhaps marshmallow Fluff?

This week we also harvested some watermelons and cantelopes; this is more difficult to time because of the discernment needed to find out about the sweetness inside. What is the sound of the thump? What is the color and texture of the rind? How easy does the melon fall away from the stem? ....

August 15, 2009: Week 12+

Mostly similar to last week, with the exception of no fennel: Eggplants, green peppers, 1-2 hot peppers, zucchini, onions, carrots, scallions (or are they leeks?), chard, and mixed greens. There were also a few tomatillos available. The sunflowers are still glorious...

August 15, 2009: Week 12

(Two weeks behind...)

It was a real hot day again, and again we harvested eggplants, cucumbers, green peppers, and hot peppers (jalopeno, hungarian hot wax, and black Czech). The eggplants (black, Italian-style) were huge and seem never-ending. Green peppers are still abundant as well as the other various hot peppers. I thought it would be a full harvest day but after an hour, Erin decided that she wanted to till in the rotten tomatoes so I was introduced to the tractor (oooh!). It was Farming Machinery class 101-01 for me -- and I felt like a child around a fire engine. It's a beautiful new, shiny orange-red Kubota tractor. It was fun just to watch how to connect & disconnect the attachments. I wasn't allowed to drive it. I helped Erin by loading the steel pipe (5ft) tomato supports into the front bull dozer - type shovel so she could till in the soil.

PS The picture below is taken from Erin's blog (entry of August 11 2009): look how beautiful the eggplants are!

August 8, 2009: Week 11+

This week’s share was very abundant and beyond expectations. Eggplants, green peppers, a hot wax pepper, a black Czech pepper, a jalopeno pepper, zucchini, onions, fennel, carrots, scallions, and mixed greens.

There were also free sunflowers (4 ft long stems with “dinner plate” size blooms), and the free “u-pick” herb fields offered cilantro, basil, bronze fennel and dill. There were also some beautiful “u-pick” flowers available.

The place is amazing and I am blessed to be part of it.

August 8, 2009: Week 11

It was a full shift of harvesting this past week: eggplants, cucumbers, green peppers, hot peppers, and some fennel. The eggplants were huge and very prolific. I had weeded these eggplant plants weeks ago and it was worth it. Harvesting cucumbers are a bit of a chore since they like to hide, and similar to beans, if the fruit is allowed to grow too big, the plant will shut down its production. We harvested the three varieties in the row (over 200 cucumbers) and more were on the way.

The green peppers were ready and sometimes they grow really close together. A few were turning reddish. The other peppers (Hungarian hot wax, Czech black, and Jalopeno) were all healthy and full grown.

We took a few minutes to walk in the mini-corn field; it was amazing to see the width of the stalks and the corn coming out. We should start to harvest soon.

PS The onions have completely taken over the greenhouse. They have been placed horizontally on every flat surface for curing. Their withered stalks are sneaking out of the burlap sack covering. We will have an "cured" or yellow onion (or two) in our shares for a long time.

August 2, 2009: Week 10+

This weekly list of food is not as precise as I would like it to be, but I still hope you get a general idea. I'll repeat that the weekly list is about 9 to 11 vegetables, maybe even more, and I am so astounded by the quality that it really doesn't matter...Hmmm, i think it was: potatoes, fennel, an onion, carrots, squash (4 to 5), beets, mixed greens, lettuce, an eggplant, peppers (green, hot), and herbs. I also think a few tomatillos were available.

August 2, 2009: Week 10

It was a real hot day, but I didn't mind much since potato harvesting was our first job. It is really fun to dig down in the dirt and find these hidden golden or red beauties. I really feel like a kid playing in the dirt with a real purpose of finding stuff. We also found some scabby type growth on a few, and that was a bit disappointing as well as confusing. I have a lot to read and study over the winter. We harvested about 2lbs per share, which is about 60+lbs. Part of the harvest duty is washing the vegetables. Erin uses a bathtub built up on a wooden frame to wash off the dirt to have the food more presentable. After we washed the potatoes, we harvested fennel -- I really need to keep pictures up here soon -- fennel looks like a flattened cream colored pineapple, with what looks like woven strips on its side. Add another vegetable to my list of foodplants that I would have no idea what it is in its natural form, or how it grows. Finally we ended the day pulling up more onions for curing.

July 26, 2009: Week 9+

We received green kale (phew!), carrots, another big white onion, zucchini, napa cabbage, 3/4 lb green and purple beans, 3 lbs of potatoes, beets, 4 zucchini/squash, and 3 heads of lettuce. There was also pick your own basil and cilantro. On Monday, my wife, Del prepared a meal with the vegetables and some eggs from local farmer. She stated proudly that this meal was fully made by food from local farmers that we know on a "first name" basis. This is probably not the first time it has happened, but just knowing it makes the decision to live linked to the local community easier.

July 26, 2009: Week 9 (ps)

PS I do not care how healthy or tasty "dinosaur" kale is; I still think it's weird looking.

July 26, 2009: Week 9

The first job this past week was to prepare the onions for curing. About 1/3 - 1/2 crop of onions (red, white and yellow) were harvested. Now one hundred onions (maybe two hundred) needed to be placed on top of each other on the greenhouse tables, similar to laying roofing tiles. These tables are about 5ft by 20ft, and three of these tables, previously used for seedlings, will have onions "curing" for a few months.

The next assignment was harvesting kale. Oh, I didn't harvest kale last week; I harvested swiss chard. I am sorry for getting all these vegetables and greens mixed up; it's just that I have never been surrounded by so many different varieties of unlabeled living plants. There were 3 kinds of kale to be harvested: green, purple and dinosaur. The "dinosaur" kale is more bumpy like lizard skin and its stalk is white ribbed like lettuce. It looks weird.

Next we harvested carrots. This was fun. Like potatoes, carrots are dug up after the soil has been loosened by a pitchfork. We found carrots formed in strange shapes (for example, chicken feet). It's funny to think that just because a store never sold these strangely shaped carrots, could they not exist? Does the plant know that it must grow according to the way we expect to grow? A re-evaluation process is happening: must the healthiest and tastiest vegetables must be in the shape and have the color that I have been accustomed or "sold on"...?

We also harvested fennel and beans. I learned that long beans must be harvested, or the plant will stop making beans.

July 19; Week 8+

Besides a bunch of kale, a big 'ol onion, about 1 3/4 lbs of potatoes, green and "purple" string beans, we received heads of napa cabbage, green leaf lettuce, and red leaf lettuce. We also received yellow summer squash, zucchini and beets. There were some herbs - maybe parsley or cilantro, too. I think the peppers are coming soon.

July 19: Week 8

Sorry for the delay -- but I'm thinking there's only two people that actually read this on a weekly basis, so it's a easy forgiveness to get... It was a good work shift but a busy week to get the notes written down here.

I definitely like working Sundays rather than Saturdays. A Saturday shift is mostly weeding but since Sunday is a pickup day, Sunday's shift is HARVESTING. First, I harvested kale. Erin hands out a special harvest knife, small like a pen knife, but is it sharp! Usually I come home with knife prick or two because of a jab. So I learned to harvest kale by cutting the branches at the plant's base and then inspecting the leaves for color and holes. Next we pulled up some onions. She has about 3 rows of big white onions, and we were choosing the ones that were close to the size of a softball. They were all big and really beautiful. The allocation would be 1 per share, and she probably has enough to last through September. The next vegetable we would harvest was potatoes. Now because of the late blight, the potatoes were to be harvested earlier than normally to avoid losing the whole crop. [Concerning the blighted tomatoes, Erin was spraying another natural fungicide spray (potassium bicarbonate) to slow down the decay process and save some of the fruit.] Harvesting the potatoes was fun. The plant was pulled directly out of the ground and some potatoes (golden with delicate skin) would fall down to the soil. There would also be a few appearing in the soil by the unearthing of the plant. Then she used a pitchfork to turn over more of the soil to find more. There I was on my hands and knees in this potato alley, searching for these buried treasure. I found a "rotten" brown one and I asked her about it. "Disease, or moles, or water damage..?" "Er, no," she said. "That was the starter potato that created all the other smaller potatoes". I smiled sheepishly. Sometimes I think I have a potato for a brain.

July 12, 2009: Week 7+

I was so affected by the loss of the tomatoes that I didn’t even look at the vegetables in the bags. My wife put them away. I’ll try to remember what was on the distribution list: red leaf lettuce, green leaf lettuce, other greens, cabbage, squash, beets. I know there was more, but I still bummed about the blight.

July 12, 2009: Week 7

It was a sad day at Mud Creek Farm this past Sunday. Erin is usually very easygoing and optimistic, but when the work-crew arrived, she looked concerned. She discovered late blight on the tomatoes and we needed to “contain” it. We would spray the smaller plants first with a bacteria spray (organically accepted) and then remove the plants to avoid the spread to other tomatoes and potatoes. Initially, when she told us about the blight I envisioned more spraying than removal.

So I had this spray device (35lb + when full) strapped to my back and then I sprayed each plant (over and under and stem). It was sort of cool, and a partner and I teamed up to spray about 5 rows that morning. All of the potatoes would had to be sprayed since this blight has its origins tracing back to the Great Potato Famine in Ireland.

Then we needed to remove the plants. The reality started to sink in. We would be removing all the tomato plants close to the ones that were affected. We ended up removing two 15 ft rows of plants and one complete row (about 180 ft). My heart was breaking. Each of these plants had at least 12 green tomatoes that were growing beautifully.

Erin gave the instructions clearly. We had to watch where we were stepping, block the downwind to avoid spores flying around, and carefully encase the plant into the plastic bag. Then we took the bags away by loading the bags in a parked car for disposal in the trash; composting was not an option. I am glad that my shift was over midway through the removal. I really do not if I could have handled the scene of a removal of a full row of tomatoes.

Removing weeds and their roots from the ground is a great accomplishment and displays our diligence, hard work and control over nature; blight spores are so damn small and powerfully contaminating, causing such damage and havoc and fear. There is something deep and spiritual about the presence of evil in a good environment. I am too upset to try to figure it out though.

July 4, 2009; Week 6+

I am an accountant by trade and experience. Even so, I can't keep proper track of the quantities and varieties of vegetables we are receiving. This week was more red leaf lettuce, mixed green, sugar snap peas, spinach, summer squash, zucchini, turnips, another kohlrabi, and another head of cabbage. [I am beginning to wonder as the kohlrabi pile up on our kitchen counter how far I could hit one with a baseball bat.]

It’s amazing how others react when I tell people I am working on a farm for a share of the food grown. More often than not, I am asked about how I found about it and how they could participate. I am really fortunate to have found this farm for the experience and for the food! I get a sense that more and more people would eat healthy if they knew how to. I hope that mega foodstuff conglomerates become worried that small farm communities are the new (and only) future of America's food development.

July 4, 2009; Week 6

My church, Artisan Church of Rochester, has been singing the hymn Everlasting Arms (Showalter/Hoffman) for the past few weeks. With small word changes, I came up with:

What a humid day, wipe the sweat away
Weeding away at Mud Creek farms... (I’m weeding)
Weeding ...(I’m weeding), weeding... (I’m weeding), weeding away at Mud Creek farms...
Weeding ...(I’m weeding), weeding... (I’m weeding), weeding away at Mud Creek farms...

Yes, it was another week of weeding of a vegetable whose name I am struggling to remember. Oh, I remember the hot sun, the snails and beetles, and the sly weeds that grew up so close to the plant that my unaccustomed eye can't distinguish, but not the name. Oh! It was Chinese Eggplants! What was most discouraging was doing 20 feet and looking up to barely see the end of the row 180 ft away. But we did it, on our hands and knees, and it was quite an accomplishment.

Erin is a master weed identifier. Once I called her over to ask, "Is this a vegetable? Does it stay?"
She walked over and asked me, "Is it in the row?"
"No, but it looks official, you know like a real vegetable."
"It doesn't matter, pull it up. Anyway, it's a 'xxxxxx' weed."
I thought, Okay now I understand, 'if it's not in a row, then it has to go.' Sometimes I feel like a 8 year old with these silly questions.

We also mulched the potatoes with straw. Hilling potatoes is to done with dirt but it was late in the season so Erin is using straw upon the advice of another potato farmer. The hope is that the potatoes will send out the the buds into the straw and the potatoes will grow in the straw.

June 29, 2009: Week 5+

This week my wife decided to give away half of the vegetables and we still had about two bags full. We received some zucchini and squash, lettuce, spinach, swiss chard, and more napa cabbage. We really need to understand how to cook according to the seasonal harvest. I think having any vegetable that we want at the supermarket is extremely convenient; yet I think it’s that convenience that has dulled our need to use the harvested vegetables when they most abundant and fresh.

June 23, 2009; Week 5

Last week Erin was kind enough to allow me to work a weekday afternoon instead of a weekend. It was 4 hours of straight weeding. First I used the push-plow weeder for the 200 ft rows and then the scuffle hoe for in between the plants. Weeding in between the plants take the most time to complete. It’s too easy to work hurriedly, and miss the weed roots or hack a young seedling. Finally I weeded out an aggressive patch of thistle weed invading the rows of fennel. I will remember these thistle weeds…large, invasive, very spiky, and deep-rooted.

June 21, 2009: Week 4+

[Note: Since these entries are made a few days after receipt, my accounting of the weekly harvest is only an approximation and it is mostly based on my wife saying," look at the head of lettuce," or "smell these mustard greens" or "see how fresh this broccoli is"]...This week's share was more salad greens (mizuna, mustard greens), a beautiful head of napa cabbage, more red lettuce, more turnips and snap beans, some broccoli and another kohlrabi. My wife is very excited about the possibility of making kimchi from the napa cabbage. I do not share her enthusiasm and am patiently waiting for the "vegetables from a flower" like peppers, eggplants, tomatoes, squash...

June 20, 2009: Week 4

It was raining on Saturday when I arrived at Mud Creek and I wondered what I would be doing. I mean, how much does the rain put off farming duties? Anyway, I immediately got my hands dirty as I filtered the dried horse manure to make potting soil. I took out the large clumps and sticks and rocks (I am still unsure it was only horse manure) and mixed it with the soil with the white dots in a wheelbarrow. Then we added dried blood, jersey Green sand and something else, and mixed it well. Next came the water and it was ready to for filling the seed containers. We were planting rutabagas from seeds. Initially we were going to plant over 600 rutabagas and then Erin re-considered trimming down the numbers for a proposed yield of 2-3 rutabagas for 2-3 weeks in October. Similar to my ignorance about the kohlrabi vegetable, I have no idea what a rutabaga is, and yet I am very excited. (Hey! I have no idea what this is, but I'm growing it anyway!). After the seed planting, we de-cluttered the greenhouse a bit, and cleaned the floor of walk-in cooler of dirt and water. Erin tried to plant cucumbers from seed, but the rain just would not let up, and came right back to the greenhouse. She told me that walking on soil would compact it down, and if the sun dried up the footprints, the soil would be flattened, making water difficult to seep down. Seems reasonable enough.

June 14, 2009 - Week 3+

This past Sunday the whole family visited the farm for our pickup. Erin set up a "pick your own beans" sign for the customers and walked with my daughter to the farm. My daughter filled a small bag with sugar snap peas for our family and for another family whose share we were picking up. It is fun to watch her getting involved like this. Anyway, this week's share was 3/4 lb of salad greens, 1-2 heads of lettuce (green & red), 2-3 zucchini, more turnips, and a kohlrabi. It was raining the whole week so I am wondering what the harvest will be like next Sunday...

June 13, 2009 - Week 3

The first assignment today was harvesting the kohlrabi. I didn't even know this vegetable existed. It looks like an alien pod after it is pulled from the earth, and it has stalks that come up from the sides like tiny celery. The stalks and base are cut, and what is remaining is a cream colored pod-thing with finger-like stalks from the sides. I am sure that people have eaten this all over the world...just not me. . I am so impressed at the amount of variety that is grown here. Next we started to weed the onions and then switched over to carrots. The weeds were more abundant than the carrots so this task was very delicate. I must admit I hacked a few of the seedlings as I was using the hand weeder. Erin and I weeded the three rows the whole way (about 175 ft). We finished by weeding the beets by hand like the carrots. Then she introduced the concept of thinning right as I was recovering from losing about 4 carrot seedlings. Now I had to purposely the remove the overcrowded plants! This created a stumbling block for me because I was unsure of pulling the "right" (or in this case, the "worst") beet sprout from the ground. Of course it is necessary to thin the plants to maximize one plant's "fruit" but I imagined a potential beet on the end of each plant that now can never be. Erin, on the other hand, was quite quick to thin the rows. I guess this is all in the day's work for a farmer.

June 7, 2009 : Week 2+

Oh, we received our first week of harvest (really it is the second week but never made the trip back down after the first day to pick up the first week's bounty). The bags were full of 3 bags of spinach, some turnips, 2 heads of green lettuce (one normal looking; one funny looking, but still edible, i think), 1 head of red leaf lettuce, some bokchoy, some other greens like mizuna. I like greens but am waiting patiently for other vegetables that are less like a rabbit's diet.

June 6, 2009 : Week 2

For week 2, I came slightly more prepared with cheap cloth gloves and a blue handkerchief wrapped around my neck. The previous week my neck was a little red from being in the fields for all afternoon. I still only have a baseball cap, rather than a wide brim hat. The good ones are close to $10 and the cheap ones are, well, cheap. I may continue to put off buying one until I really need it. The sun was shining but it was also breezy. I saw a bird (don't know which...yet) fluttering in the ground and then found blue speckled eggs in the field. I also found a frog in the cracks of the earth near an irrigation line. There is wonderful life in the earth and I need to re-gain an appreciation for its beauty. It was mostly a weeding day. I started weeding the turnips (by hand), then ran a few irrigation lines again, and then went back to wedding. Erin had this Planet Jr walking weeder device that was so old school (literally made in 1920) that i really felt like a farmer. We also weeded the squash and zucchini, which were grown under a white fabric to prevent insect infestation. One more week, says Erin, and they will be ready...

May 31, 2009: Week 1

May 31 was my first day of working at Mud Creek Farms, a new Organic CSA formed in Victor, New York. In exchange for 20 weeks of work at 4 hours a week of farm work, I get a weekly share of the organic food that will be grown. The first thing i saw was about 1.5 acres of planted farmland, and another 1 acre or so tilled for future sowing. I was amazed that 1.5 acres can feed about 60 families for the summer and fall season. This is wonderful and mysterious to ponder. Anyway, the 1.5 planted acre had 5ft spaced rows with planted crops in the middle. Some crops had multiple rows between the 5ft spacing; some, like the tomatoes, just had one row of crop. My first job was to spread straw (hay?) around the tomatoes about 4" to 5" inches up the stem. This was to keep the weeds away, as well as to maintain moisture (if i remember correctly). Then I helped run irrigation lines down the 200 ft (?) rows and make sure the water dripped well. Finally I planted tomatoes from the potted plants. I was told that tomatoes could be planted deeper than I thought, actually up to the first branch; it just seemed so weird placing the stem so far in the dirt...