FARM!

So I went to the farm today and absolutely loved it. The weather was perfect and it was amazing to escape to such a natural, serene place for three hours in the early morning. At first it felt a bit like I was Paris Hilton on Simple Life- not that I'm a ditzy heiress, but I just felt a bit out of place. Yet as soon as we started harvesting leeks and I got a little dirt under my fingernails, it felt extremely natural.

We spent the morning harvesting and washing leeks, squash, cabbage, beets and celeriac (celery root). The leeks were fun because we had to chop off the tops of them with this really satisfying like swinging knife-chop. One of the most dissapointing vegetables was definitely beets, because the majority of them had mice damage or were too small to be of any use. Celeriac is this weird ugly thing that I had never even heard of... this is what it looks like:

The most interesting part of working on the farm was definitely talking to Amy, one of the two owners/farmers. She is too cute in her overalls and little pregnant belly and extremely personable. Hearing her story about how her and Chris, her husband, became involved in farming was just really fascinating. Both are first-generation farmers and children of businessmen/white-collar families that didn't initially approve of the concept. It was just really satisfying to see that two people could turn away from the materialistic, distant world we live in and follow their passion to create local, organic food and connect with nature.

I think the connection with nature is really what makes Common Thread such a great place. Amy was talking about how members of the farm joined for a plethora of different reasons. Some did join simply for the food, but a lot of people love the ambiance of the area or the concept of buying local food and knowing where it came from. Others do it for their children, who love the chickens, pigs, and carrots (local kids are obsessed with Common Thread carrots).

The past few decades have seen the dot-com boom and a technological whirlwind of ways to keep people connected. I used to call my parents from a pay phone in middle school if I was going to come home late, and now 3 year olds can navigate the applications on my blackberry. While technology has undoubtedly made us more connected to each other, the connections are somehow more artificial and distant. I have 1000 faceboook friends but now need facebook to remember my best friend's birthday. I think this trend towards depersonalization might finally be ending, with people realizing the importance of real connections with this real world that we live in. The popularity of Common Thread is evidence of this- our community is beginning to seek a connection with the earth and environment that we have been ignorantly destroying for far too long.

I'm going to eat some dinner now. Salad- no microwave! Yay food.

-Jenna