Growing Together

Interview Roundup

2009-08-13T13:01:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-05T13:06:00.001-07:00

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...

July prompt

2009-07-22T09:40:00.000-07:00

Briefly describe the current status of your project.

I am currently interviewing eaters I have identified while working at Flying Cloud. My first interview is done, awaiting a lengthy transcription. My second and third interviews are lined up for the beginning of next week. After that, I have two more to finish in three weeks!

How does your CBR experience compare to your initial expectations?

I am having a great time living, working, and researching in this community. It's great to be not just a researcher, separate from more intimate goings-on, but a member of the place and farm. Fairview is an incredibly welcoming place, and it feels great to be involved growing food here.

What has been the most rewarding and challenging aspects of working with your community partner?

My most rewarding work is on the farm, whether that is growing and harvesting, or connecting with CSA members and other customers at one of the three farmers markets that Flying Cloud works. It's great to talk to people while they shop, finding out what they'll be cooking with the food we grew. A challenge is simply to find the time for these interviews, with a full time job that wears me out.

Interview

2009-07-22T09:29:00.000-07:00

A few thoughts on the first of my interviews. Two and three coming soon, but we're taking a farm break and going up to some land in Tuckasegee (near Brevard) so things must wait for a much-needed and welcomed vacation!

My first interview was a woman just down the road. I had her draw a map, both ideological and spatial, of her food shed. She included places such as the Food Lion and the Ingles right down the road, the local organic grocery Trout Lily, Fairview's community garden, her own backyard garden, Flying Cloud Farm's roadside produce stand, and Hickory Nut Gap (the meat farm just down the road; the farmer is Annie Louise's cousin). As she was drawing this map, she talked aloud about her food sources.

After the map was drawn, we went through the questions I posted in a previous entry. Cameron talked most about her idea of community. Fairview is a small town in the best of ways: close-knit, with everyone knowing and caring about everyone else. And of course, food plays a crucial role in how this community grows and connects. The community garden brings folks together in the dirt, while potlucks, square dances, and picnics are community events. Cameron talked a lot about how important these food moments were in drawing people together in celebration. She also talked a lot about how wonderful it was to know the folks she gets her food from, on farms just down the road from neighbors she knows.

Cameron's map reflected a really healthy food shed, with lots of sources for local and organic food. This is important to her: she works to preserve farmland with Americorps, and knows firsthand the importance of economically supporting local farms. This sensibility (the close knit community, farmers as friends, her love of cooking, and an understanding of the importance of supporting locally produced goods) absolutely informs her food decisions.

A few thoughts: food as resistance

2009-07-18T15:26:00.000-07:00

Hey folks--

Time passes quickly. Just finished my first few interviews and will post them once they are transcribed (the painstaking process of oral histories...)

In the meantime, I have been thinking a lot about my twisting path to an interest in food and farming. I was raised fairly apart from agriculture, living in town with parents that have wholeheartedly embraced the rewards of academic life and upper middle class living. Although I have always felt connected to land and other people (mostly thanks to my parents, who worked hard to instill in me a sense of love and respect for all people and things), that was much more a feeling than a reality when I was younger.

Once I started college, I took a lot of environmental science and studies classes that focused my interest in the other-than-human world. With this expansion in perspective came a change in priorities. I began to recognize the constraints and expectations of my life, and desire a more radical interaction with my world. I took time to slow my life and its heedless rush towards graduation and a 'good life.' I wanted to learn outside of school, separate from those sources of authority and that way of life.

I began to learn from the people and communities that determine their realities for themselves, using their hands to create art and meaning in their everyday lives. Which leads me to the idea of: growing food as resistance. Resistance against a society that has worked for a million reasons to control and compartmentalize one of the most beautiful things a person can do: feed themselves and others via direct interaction with the natural cycles, seasons, and processes of our living world. Resistance against a modern, fast-paced way of life that holds no place for an identity defined and enlightened by manual labor, communal living, and alternative economies based on skill and craft trade.

So I became interested in farming as a way of life that seems contrary to what I find unappealing or harmful in modern life. My romantic, idealistic view of farmer as community barn-raiser and good ol' human has clarified in my time at Flying Cloud. I recognize the hard work and many talents expended every day; the stresses of finances, business plans, and, yes, commerce. However, I still believe that the life I am living here is a better and more just way to live in a world that has gone too far in another direction, down a path of meaningless, impersonal consumerism and disconnect from other people and other beings.

So although I am conducting interviews on community economies, more than that, I am living in one and finding it agreeable.

Below are my interview questions, for those interested in the actual process. These are directed towards eaters from the farm, folks directly involved in regional commerce. I'll try to post thoughts and impressions from my first interview tomorrow. Also (hopefully) coming are pictures of the farm that a friend took.

Partners in Local Food--Consumers

Characterizing your community:

Mapping project: We would like you to lay out, from your perspective, the special features of your community and surrounding area. Please fill in some of the following (There can be overlap among the different categories):

Your own home and some of the places in your area that you go to most often in the course of a regular week.
The places, businesses, and activities that help to define your community
Businesses, farms, stores, and restaurants that are part of the local food economy.

Just to be clear could you: (a) underline category 1 (your home, etc. ) in red, (b) highlight category 2 (special features) in yellow; and (c) highlight the local food economy in blue.

(End of mapping exercise—although informants are free to refer to map or even add to it in the remaining questions)

In addition to what you have placed on the map, can you list other features that make your community special?
Do you consider any of features that you have put on the map or just mentioned as typical of other North Carolina communities?
Of the features that you just mentioned, which if any make your community different from other communities in North Carolina?
How do you think that the features you have identified affect the local economy?

Connections to local food:

In terms of your own shopping, how often do you…? (use attached checklist#1):
How would you define “local” food?
Are there any foods, flowers, or other locally grown products that you buy, or try to buy, specially when in season?

If yes, what vegetables?
What kinds of fruit?
What kind of meat?
What other products?

How does the quality of locally grown items differ from other items? Can you give some examples?
Have you recently tried new or unfamiliar fruits, vegetables, cuts of meat or other products?

If yes, which ones
Was it locally grown? And if so, did that affect your decision to buy the food?

In your perception, and experience, do locally grown foods or flowers tend to be cheaper or more expensive than their non-local alternatives?

Connections to grocery stores and food retailers:

From which of the following places have you gotten groceries? (Checklist #2)
Have you ever made a request for a special food or preparation from a store or other provider? If so what did you request? From what kind of store? How did the store respond?
Have you ever approached a store for support for a community organization or event? What was the occasion? From what kind of store? How did the store respond?
Have you contacted a store in order to sell a product or to promote a business venture? If yes, what was the product? From what kind of store? What was the response?
Are you part of a local food cooperative?
Do you have a favorite store or source for groceries? Which one? Why is it your favorite?
If you could change one thing about the way your local grocery store operates (the one that you use most often), what would it be?
If you could change one thing about the store’s relation to the community, what would it be? (e.g. its location, school partnerships, selection of food)

Checklist #1: Local Food Practices: How often do you…?

	Not at all	Every once in a while	Sometimes	Often	Almost always
buy North Carolina-grown produce at a grocery store?	1	2	3	4	5
buy something at a farmers market?	1	2	3	4	5
buy products such as jams, salsas or other ready-made goods that are identified as NC-made?	1	2	3	4	5
buy something at a farm stand?	1	2	3	4	5
buy something direct from a farm?	1	2	3	4	5
raise something to eat in your own garden?	1	2	3	4	5
receive a gift of produce that family or friends have raised?	1	2	3	4	5
buy a product that bears a label from a farm that you have heard of?	1	2	3	4	5
buy a product directly from a farmer that you have met?	1	2	3	4	5
raise food or prepare dishes to give as gifts to others?	1	2	3	4	5

Check list #2: Within the past year, how often did you get food at the following places…?

	Not at all	Occasionally, but little used	Sometimes	Often	Most common
A chain grocery store	1	2	3	4	5
A gas station or convenience store	1	2	3	4	5
A large retailer such as Target or Wal-Mart	1	2	3	4	5
A cooperatively owned grocery store	1	2	3	4	5
An independent grocery store	1	2	3	4	5
An organic, ethnic, or gourmet grocery	1	2	3	4	5
A non-profit organization such as a community food pantry	1	2	3	4	5
(other____________)	1	2	3	4	5

Check list #3: Self-Reported Demographic Information (complete at end of interview)

Age:_________________

Gender:______________

Race or ethnicity:_________________

Hometown:______________________

Years of residence in community:____

Approximate annual household income:

0-$24,999 25,000 -49,999 50,000-74,999 75,000-99,999 100,000-124,999 >125,000

Educational background:

Elementary High School Graduate Some College Undergrad Degree Grad Degree

2009-06-29T17:43:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-07T12:32:00.001-07:00

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!

Growing Together: Investigating Community Assets While Rebuilding a Local Food Economy in Fairview, North Carolina

2009-04-28T12:58:00.000-07:00

This summer I will be working for three months on a small family farm in the Blue Ridge Mountains outside of Asheville, NC. Flying Cloud Farm (www.flyingcloudfarm.net) is a biodiverse farm which grows fruits, vegetables, flowers, and herbs for a direct local market through farmers' markets, a roadside farm stand, and community supported agriculture (CSA) shares. Isaiah and Annie Louise Perkinson have been farming the land for nine years.

I will explore the role of local food systems in building and maintaining community while working at Flying Cloud. Since local food communities require direct and intimate relationships between growers and eaters, I will study how local farmers manage the relationships that underlie their direct market approach. Through experiential research and interviews with key stakeholders, I will investigate two specific factors:

(1) the farmers’ vision of their enterprise, and

(2) the wider community’s vision of farming as a community and cultural asset.

This research will not only contribute to my own program of study in Southern Folklore, but to a comparative data set for a larger study of local food economies in the Piedmont.