The first few weeks

I'm settling into life here at Flying Cloud Farm. The weather was an initial shock: rain and freezing nights and one quick hailstorm that left the farmworkers thankful that Flying Cloud was not as hard hit as a local community garden where healthy kale and potatoes were decimated.

However, the weather has cleared and the sun has been shining for several days now, drying out the puddles lying between rows in the field. I am looking forward to planting again, with strawberry season mostly already over (due to the wet spring) and blueberries fast ripening.

Life so far has been busy, as I learn a new community of folks and adjust to a pace outside of the academic. Days are long, beginning at six or seven in the morning and working through the hot day, relaxing in the still-cool evenings and cooking big meals of fresh farm food.

I've been doing all kinds of work: direct seeding in the greenhouse and in the fields, transplanting, weeding, harvesting (a lot), and working the markets. Flying Cloud Farm has one of the largest community supported agriculture (CSA) programs in western North Carolina, feeding almost 130 families from nine acres of intensely productive land. The CSAs are a rush to compile for markets every Wednesday and Saturday--harvesting and picking the kale, lettuce, squash, strawberries, cabbage, bok choy, collards, Swiss chard, turnips, radishes, beets, spinach, mustard greens, and kohlrabi that currently fill boxes.

Five CSA members, or other consumers that I meet at the market, will be my interlocuters in my direct research. In the next week I will begin searching for the five eaters that will make up my sample study. I will be asking them a series of questions to determine their sense of the community value of direct-market, local food systems. I will ask them to visualize their "food sheds," drawing a literal map of food spaces that are important to them and their communities. Once that map is visualized, I will ask further questions about the importance (or non-importance) of local food and direct relationships between farmers and eaters for building strong and resilient communities.

A few brief observations about the other kinds of community on a small family farm:

Every work day, the farmworkers and farmers take lunch break together, cooking freshly-harvested farm food and sitting out on the porch for a brief break.

Since the farm is located on land owned by one of the farmer's parents, interns are included within an entire community, invited to local weddings and celebrations.

However, the interns also have a space of their own after work, with a community kitchen and an in-process kitchen garden full of fresh herbs and canning tomatoes.

The farmers markets are another viable example of alternative, local economies. After every market, vendors stroll down the market, trading fresh greens for eggs and North Carolina fish, goat soap and homemade mustard, tempeh and artisanal breads, porkchops and dahlia bulbs.

I am happy and refreshed to be working hard in the mountains this summer. I am excited to see what else this summer of learning and productivity will bring!