Day 2: Into the Frying Pan

Five wonderful, sweaty hours in the field today, beginning with some Chi-Gon (some kind of martial art akin to Tai-Chi) at 6:30 a.m., breakfast, and into the field at 8:00 a.m. We were spread all over the farm; I first cut a little over 10 pounds of lettuce for the CSA they run here-- about 40 members. Then we took the lettuce into the greenhouse and washed it twice, and dried it in the biggest salad spinner I've ever seen-- Lev would love it! Then we bagged the lettuce into twenty 1/2 lb. bags for those who'd be picking up their shares today. What a joy this seemingly mundane work was-- seeing a project from start to finish in a most fulfilling way.

Then, out to the field, where we planted probably 150 fennel plants and an equal number of dill plants. Thanks to my trainer/taskmaster Dan at Millenium Fitness for making me do all of those lunges carrying 40 pounds-- I hated every minute of it, but I think that the work will pay off in fewer sore knees and backs!

Jakir, the farm director, gave a few of us a tour of this amazing farm-- funny to work and sweat five hours and THEN have a tour, but that's just the way it worked out...  This truly is a remarkable place. The farm is only in its fourth growing season; they started out with a heavy focus on education, which they've really done well. The adjacent JCC camp sends hundreds of kids to work here every day during the summer, and there's a whole kids garden with nooks and crannies for them to dig and play in.

More recently, with an increasing number of staff and volunteers, Jakir and the team have been able to turn their attention to higher volume production. Just yesterday, they started a whole new field with 500 tomato plants. Their CSA has grown by leaps and bounds, and they need to jack up production to keep up.

There is an amazing group of people here- staff and volunteers. Just one practicing Orthodox guy at this point, although once the Kollel study program begins in a couple of weeks, there will be more. The staff is a diverse group of men and women committed to farm education and Jewish values, and there is so much I will learn from them. The four summer "fellows" are four women in an around college age with a variety of environmental experience and a diversity of interests. Should be a lively time in the next couple of weeks, even before the Kollel folks get here. In the meantime, I am the oldest person here by at least 10 years, and it's only Jakir and I who are even married, let alone have kids. So far, no old man jokes-- I'll keep you posted!

I explored town just a bit this afternoon-- not much to see so far, but I found the grocery store and an ice cream bar-- yum!

Tonight we met for over an hour to discuss the Chesapeake Watershed Pilgrimage, which begins tomorrow. About 12 of us will head out on a three day adventure of hiking, canoeing, biking, and sailing, which promises to be physically challenging and, hopefully, deeply spiritual. The goal is to connect with nature as well as this amazing substance-- water-- and to learn about what happens to the watershed as it goes through a variety of human habitats. I will be off line on this adventure until Thursday night-- not even bringing my celll phone (thanks for the agitation, Lys!)... Funny-- they gave us a printed itinerary on which the last time on Thursday is BEER. I guess we'll need a few cold ones after this journey...

I look forward to blogging you all about it!