Interview Roundup

Hey y'all--

Inteviews are done, and just in time! I'm leaving the farm tomorrow afternoon, for a short trip down to New Orleans...

The five interviews have been fascinating: even more insightful than I was expecting, since the questions were fairly simple. I wanted to reflect on my five interviews: their similarities and (more interestingly) differences. Since the most fascinating part of these interviews was the map that each interlocuter drew, reflecting their weekly routine, the special features of their community, and their local food economy (and these three layers' necessary overlap), I'll also share those maps:

My first interview was with a girl close to my age who loves to cook. That was reflected in her interview, as she talked a lot about the quality and freshness of local and homegrown food. She shops farmers markets frequently, as well as our own roadside stand. Another interesting perspective was that of outsider: C has lived in Fairview for one year, and comes from much larger cities. She spoke deeply of the community and sense of place and belonging that she felt in Fairview. Perhaps her newness to the area allowed her a greater recognition of how unique a truly close-knit and caring community is. This perspective led her to draw a map of her community that was a tight web of commerce and direct relationship.

My second interview was with a woman who has been a member of Flying Cloud's CSA since she moved to Fairview about four years ago. Another avid cooker, she also talked about the quality and freshness of local food. She also spoke about how her cooking had changed as she learned to deal with a volume of fresh--sometimes strange--fruits and vegetables that needed to be prepared or preserved. She took canning classes, and now puts up most of her own food for the winter. S also spoke of the strong community of Fairview, and again tied those connections to a thriving local economy that works to support neighbors' enterprises. She also talked of the beauty of the place, which has been preserved in part by working farms. Another newcomer, she moved from southern Florida, and drew sharp contrasts between her two homes. She spoke of Florida as a place of disconnect from the natural world, food sources, and neighbors, as opposed to Fairview's community and connection to the land. S drew a map that was a tight cluster of friends' homes and farms, and left most of the map to her view from the mountains.

My third interview was with a woman living in Asheville who has been a Flying Cloud CSA member for two years. She has lived in the area her whole life, and had some really interesting reflections on how Asheville has changed, with an influx of newcomers that are united in their love of beautiful landscape. A's map was markedly different from the first two, since she lived in town and had a wider variety of food sources. She also talked about the culture of a local food economy: working to support neighbors and friends as much as possible, recognizing the importance of each person's place.

My fourth interview was with a woman who has owned a bakery in West Asheville for about nine years now. She works hard to source her menus locally, and buys food from Flying Cloud Farm. Her interview blended personal and business perspectives, as her food choices shape her family's dinner and her bakery's products. Her map was wide-ranging, pulling from local farms all around.

My fifth and final interview was with another woman living in Fairview. As her two girls clambered in and out of her lap, she talked about her daily food choices, feeding a young family by calling on neighbors for blueberries and sweet corn. Her map was another tight one, with almost all her needs met inside the community.

Each of my interlocuters recognized the importance of a strong and thriving community for a strong and thriving food economy. They made a point of mentioning how empowering (and reassuring) it was to know the folks whose food they ate. They spoke of the wonder of that in a country that has not made that knowledge a priority.



August reflections:

Has your involvement in community-based research impacted your motivation to engage in community issues, research or service?

Absolutely. However, that motivation was alread there. I've been interested in the power of community food activism for a while.

What assistance will be most helpful to you in the fall semester in wrapping up your CBR project?

I will turn over transcripts of my interviews to my advisor, who is conducting a larger study in the Piedmont area. My satellite research will inform his decision to broaden the range of the study into other areas of North Carolina. Thus, his evaluation of my research will be most helpful.

Write a brief letter of advice to a 2010 CBR-SURF.

Dear whoever,

Good luck! Be fearless. Insert yourself into a community not just through questions and research, but through work within the community. So often research projects are a matter of academic extraction: answers removed to a university, where strangers reflect on them. Make sure that you are not a stranger, and give back to the community that has opened itself to you and made you welcome.



That's it for now. I am so grateful for my summer here: I have learned a lot, and experienced the power of deep roots and hard work. Thank you!

A few pictures

Here are some pictures, courtesy of a friend that came to dinner. We went out into the fields to pick our meal, and she took a few photos. I wish I had a camera so I could better document the farm and its labors, but you can see the fields behind me. If you are interested in more photos, the farm website is www.flyingcloudfarm.net.

In other news, the farm work is workin' and so on. I'm only here for another week and a half! Which is incredible to believe and sad to know. I will be leaving with such a renewed respect for working the land and being a part of a close-knit community like this one. I will miss falling asleep to crickets every night and waking up to roosters crowing at four in the morning.

Summer is in full swing here. CSA boxes are full of pounds and pounds of tomatoes and cucumbers, blackberries, peppers, and eggplants. We're now at four markets, two on Wednesday and two on Saturday, which is keeping all the workers busy loading and unloading market trucks. This morning, before a colassal thunderstorm, we direct seeded five rows of fall crops. Last night we worked 'til eight transplanting eleven rows of winter brassicas: all kinds of kale and cabbage, broccoli, brussel sprouts.

In light of my studies: I've copied a letter below from Annie Louise, one of the farmers. She sends out weekly emails to CSA members, sharing stories from the farm, as well as recipes for the week's produce. It's a really smart way to keep in touch with CSA members: people feel included in the week's work in a way, and the stories give them a sense of place that their food embodies. People really enjoy these emails--they get mentioned at market a lot.

Studying community food ways has redefined my sense of community. While people living in the same place is an obvious beginning, what about people that eat the same things? Read the same CSA email? Always make a point to stop at the farm's roadside stand on the way home? Come by Flying Cloud's table at the market just to tell the workers how great the beets and carrots look, and how much they appreciate the work behind the produce? The millions of ways that a working farm must work to sustain itself, connecting to people and restaurants, are evident in all the effort spent on direct markets such as the CSA, the roadside stand, and the farmers' markets.

I have two interviews tomorrow, I'll post reflections sometime tomorrow evening.



Dear CSA Folks,

Wow! August already. Time flies in the summer on the farm. Yesterday after harvesting and packing 91 awesome boxes, we were able to transplant many of our fall crops – kale, chard, cabbages, brussel sprouts, and broccoli. We were so lucky that the rain held off out here, although it rained close to us. I am thankful for our great farm crew who understand that farming is not a 9-5 job, but a lifestyle where the work has to get done when the conditions are right. They worked until close to 8 last night and will be back at 8 this morning.

This week your boxes contain the following items; edamame, 5 cucumbers, 5 tomatoes, zucchini or squash, beets, green pepper, jalapeno pepper, onions, basil, blackberries, eggplant, and lettuce.

You may have eaten edamame and a sushi restaurant before. Simply remove the beans from the stem, bring a pot of water to boiling, add a couple of teaspoons of salt and the edamame beans, and simmer for 10 minutes or so. When they are ready, they will easily slip out of the pods. Eat them as a snack … eat the beans not the pods.

Here are some eggplant recipes from our great neighbor, Kitty Lynch. She may have more sweet corn for sale soon along with her world famous grape juice. She has an ‘honor system’ stand in the next driveway past ours. I’ll keep you posted.

Here are 2 eggplant recipes from How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman. They are delicious...