Hey friends

I'm sure the sporadic posts are a clear indication of how busy I've been (and how disinclined I am to be near computers when I am in such a beautiful place). Farm work has been keeping me incredibly busy with early mornings and long days working out in the sun. The weather seems to have cleared up for good, with long stretches of hot, sunny days. Our early spring rains fed the weeds just what they needed, creating an eternal game of catchup on the farm.

Recently I've been harvesting, working markets, tearing up an acre of black plastic that was this spring's strawberry crop, direct seeding some fall crops (corn, beets, carrots, edamame, sunflowers), setting up irrigation for those crops, and digging the first potatoes of the season! Things currently harvested are: (almost) tomatoes, the first few eggplants, summer squash, green and purple beans, carrots, beets, garlic, onions, cabbage, kale, swiss chard, and buckets and buckets of flowers.

This past weekend was an especial reflection on the importance of a supportive community for a successful farm. This Saturday I woke up early early to work one of the farm's two Saturday markets in downtown Asheville. I spent the entire morning baking in the sun, talking to folks that were picking up their CSAs and browsing the market. I had a great time talking to people, finding out what they were cooking with the food they buy, why they're choosing to buy from our farm. Then on Sunday afternoon I led farm tours for the Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project's Family Farm Tour. All afternoon I was walking visitors around the farm, answering questions about our growing practices and crops and the farmers' philosophy. Tons of people came out for the opportunity to meet the farmers growing their food, and were delighted to see the fields.

As I explore my research question, simple interactions with eaters are what stick in my mind. People are so so grateful for what local, small-scale farmers are doing: trying to create a space for accessible regional foodways produced in responsible ways in a country so quick to dismiss the value of good food.

Which leads me to an update on my project: so far so good. Of course, farm work has been keeping me really busy, but I have found the time to line up my first of five interviews, with the rest to follow one per week til the end of the summer.

I have spent my first month settling in and paying attention: asking tons of questions, working markets, and trying to figure out the business side of Flying Cloud Farm. I am researching local food (and farms) as community assets. More specifically, I am delving into different eaters/community members' concepts of place. I am asking each interlocuter to begin by drawing a map of their regional foodshed: the places from which they eat. I will then ask each interlocuter a series of questions about their sense of direct relationship to food, and how/if that relationship is changed by direct interaction with local farmers. These answers are my research into the importance of community to sustain small, local farms.

So far:

Please share surprises or challenges you've encountered with your research project thus far.

My biggest surprise has been the size of the food community that Flying Cloud supports: the reach and spread of nine acres of growing land is incredible, with nine full time workers feeding more than one hundred and ten families through the CSA program, as well as the countless number of folks buying food at the market and the farm's roadside stand. That is my research pool: the many many people that Flying Cloud feeds.

A challenge is actually contacting interlocuters. My experience with arranging and conducting interviews is limited, so I am a little nervous about my first one.

Has your research question or scope of your project shifted at this point?

My research question remains the same. Perhaps that is because it implies the importance of community supported agriculture, and my work on the farm and at the markets has only reinforced the interconnectedness of supportive eaters and successful farms. I have been constantly struck by the gratitude and support of the people I meet at market, and I work every day on the farm for those same people: sowing seeds, harvesting, weeding.



More to come this week! I will update after my first interview (hopefully this Wednesday), at which time I am sure I will have some more profound and focused ideas about this research project!

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!