pooped

the end of my first day on the farm has arrived. whew. i'm exhausted. i was up at around 6:30 and ready to rock and roll by a little after 7. i met up with ivan, a 17 year old 2nd generation mexican lad who is to be my best friend all summer long. he's very laid back and easy going. such is the pace of farmlife in general. here i was, charged up on iced tea and adrenaline, and ivan was kicking back with his sombrero on. new york meets california.

i realized i needed to take it easy otherwise there was going to be a problem. so i did. if they don't want to work like nonstop animals, i won't either. besides, i'm not here to kill myself, rather to learn and contribute what i can. our first excursion was to the cucumber fields. we picked a few cucumbers, some of which were absolutely MASSIVE -- we're talking 5 inches around and 3 feet long (NUTS). some of them even curl around too. afterwards, we moved onto strawberries. there weren't many berries left because their season has already mostly passed, but we managed to pick a few. then, we moved onto mint, rosemary, oregano and lavendar.

all of this picking was to the end of having enough produce to distribute among our 36 boxes. you see, being a CSA (community-supported agriculture) we have customers who buy a share of our crops each season and then in return they receive a box of produce for $20 per week. thursdays is the day the produce is shipped. today was that day.

so, we had to make sure that we had enough of the herbs and cucumbers. other workers were taking care of onions, garlic, squash, lettuce, artichokes, cabbage, etc. ivan and i created the boxes and rinsed them down, then lined them up on the tables. one by one we would choose a crop and drop it into the box. by the end, the boxes were STUFFED to the brim with fresh produce, topped off with fresh basil and oregano, the smells of which were amazing. then, various people came to pick up the boxes and drop them off at their assigned stations, and i was free to go.

this took from 7 am - 3 pm. there was lots of walking back and forth between fields, bending and standing, reaching, strange moving, etc. needless to say i'm exhausted.

it was a good first day. i felt a little sad because i'm new and being new on a job is never fun, but i hope as time goes on i become more comfortable and make friends here. talking to ivan about spiderman helped.