With beams of light through the front cafe door, we made it into the little downtown of Thomas, West Virginia. We have nestled into a little state park, pouring down yellow and red fall leaves into our shoulders with just a morning sip of coffee. We thought we would stay a few days here and gather our photographs and writing to post to you all, but there is not a fresh produce stand for miles. We have a half of a cucumber, one lemon and and a knuckle of ginger. As the season changes, as does the inner workings of our bodies and diet, but we are not yet ready to relinquish the freshness of some leafy kale and a cold and crunchy apple.
We have just one week left of the journey. We were delighted to have the invite to an extended friends wedding, tucked into the hills of West Virginia in the hamlet of Helvetia, a village of craftsman and artisans. With the spinning and calling out for square dancing steps, we partner danced into the night, accompanied by the whimsical fervor of passionate string musicians. An evening drive into the mountains, planted us into the welcoming home of the bride and groom, who have created a simple and beautiful homestead. Their porch was filled with friends, family, farmers and their
great big HUGE pumpkins. There farm is in it's first year. It is rich with their labors and their dreams, sprinkled with winter kales and the amazing chia seed from South America that may be able to help any runner up any hill with just a handful.
The evening and morning passed with tastes of homemade black walnut bread, fresh from the tree, popped amaranth and the warmth of a toasty wood stove that also toasted morning breakfast bread for a group of 15. We chatted about pasteurization, raw milks, art in Pittsburgh, recipes for amaranth and cover crops, browsed at the Small Farmers Journal and reveled at the chilies drying all throughout the house, just harvested before the first winter frost arrived.
We are headed to pittsburgh for a small imtimate interactive installation in collaboration with a new friend who is involved in one mile food installations. After that... to a small cheese making operation to learn the basic of raw milks and a large scale CSA farm whose operation is getting big enough to question small scale organics.
We look forward to giving you the full picture of the south. We have seemingly passefd from Santa Fe to West Virginia with a big of silence. Not to worry..we have many stories and discoveries to share.
Monday, October 22, 2007
Friday, October 12, 2007
Is Valero Local?
We knew that if factories arrived in our path we would seek out the opportunity to view what was happening inside. We have passed many industrial facilities. Some signed heavily and others lighting up the sky scape with an ambiguity of what could be anything from a toxic nuclear power plant to an incinerator. A few nights ago, as we attempted to get as close to the Texan border, we arrived in the thick of the night to the most majestic and frightful sight. The castles of glowing lights were a Valero oil refinery. It was somehow refreshing to know that the Valero, whose deisel fuel we used on occasion was being processed right here in the neighborhood. We had wondered if Texaco fuel was from texas. Now one seemed to know.
We were looking for camping within the SABINE wildlife refuge, but instead found a sign for the coastguard and drove passed the billowing smoke of this Factory........we could hardly escape. This was an expedition where we drove two hours later than expected, following coastal roads that became flooded, turning around we felt we would never be able to find our way out, so we stopped and took pictures instead. We also ended up sleping in the car that night, and in the morning, when passing the factories, it seemed normal again. Delivery trucks and stop signs, smoke that billowed into clouds and the exit of Texas. Now the question lies, in Valero local?
Thursday, October 4, 2007
Seeds of Change in the West
Through sunny skies and passed pecan orchards, we have arrived in this thriving little hamlet bustling with the rigor and the vivacious spirit of a large city. We are in Marfa, Texas, tucked in the back couches of a coffee shop after being on the deserted highways and old ocean floor of the Guadalupe Mountains.
We have 15 gallons of veg oil in our trunk that we look forward to filtering, although the striking sun of the plains blew thick with storm clouds and we await another day when the heated sun will ease our process.
We just finished the satchels full of tomatoes, kale, arugula, sweet bell peppers and radishes from Seeds of Change farm tour. We spend an entire afternoon there. We were welcomed by their generous staff, and invited to view, wander, look and collect. Seeds of Change has been in operation for some years now. Mars (you know the candy bar) bought them out and now are the most financially stable investors that keep Seeds of Change afloat. Luckily, Jackie Mars, the wife of the Mr., truly supports the cultivation of a sustainable culture. Sustainability being better than organic and fair trade, because it encompasses the entire means from which the ethics of a company should implement alternative measures.
We began our tour identifying and harvesting seeds. Each row was carefully labeled and available for identifying. Joe was hard at work, pleased to be extracting sunflowers stalks and jovial in his regard to the pleasant nature of the company. Seeds of Change runs this research farm to produce quantities of seed for drying and selling, as well as to grow varieties that visitors view from their extension collection. Farmers all throughout the US are supported in part by their contribution of providing seeds to their 250,000 catalogue patrons. These seed growing farmers often additionally gather income from running a CSA to their local community. Inside the seed lab, are multiple large industrial sized equipment. Seeds that have casings and wind propellers like the gentle fliers of a dandelion are carefully placed through equipment to process just the seed alone.
We walked through gardens rows and greenhouses, tasting and choosing. How delightful for us to be able to taste the variety that we wish to grow, to be able to eat three different types of kale and write down the ones that are intoxicated with flavor. Would you ever think that the seeds packets that you choose from the hardware store. 3 for 99 cents would be any less than good. Is it more the success of being able to grow them? So at what stage does a farmer or a lay man desire the variety of a better tomato or a heartier lettuce. Who ever knew there was more than cherry, roma and vine tomatoes? When does the education begin? Just this last year, I grew 6 different types of lettuce, and to my surprise visitors were shocked! 4 more varieties than they have ever seem outside of the grocery store.
When did the grocery store begin to become the school of agriculture? How will we ever know that there is more out there? Does having a variety always have to become a luxury for high-end markets?
Having finished the last of our local produce, except from the sizzling hot chili pepper that we can eat only one at a time, we emark to the next town, San Antonio and Austin Texas, to meet a friend and explore the inner working of an urban oasis, maybe we will even see Willie Nelson?
As for now, our writings are more of daily occurance than of theory, in a time when we are developing views of progress, mutilations of land and intoxication of creeks and the over chlorination of public water, we are stayin bright. We will seek out the aromas of local and homemade food, either with our campstove or with the smell and seeking eye of a homemade Mexican food restaurant, or a torterillia, providing the freshest. Stay tuned! The west has given us many gifts of seeds, good new friends, welcoming cities, generous mechanics and great theories and thoughts.
We have 15 gallons of veg oil in our trunk that we look forward to filtering, although the striking sun of the plains blew thick with storm clouds and we await another day when the heated sun will ease our process.
We just finished the satchels full of tomatoes, kale, arugula, sweet bell peppers and radishes from Seeds of Change farm tour. We spend an entire afternoon there. We were welcomed by their generous staff, and invited to view, wander, look and collect. Seeds of Change has been in operation for some years now. Mars (you know the candy bar) bought them out and now are the most financially stable investors that keep Seeds of Change afloat. Luckily, Jackie Mars, the wife of the Mr., truly supports the cultivation of a sustainable culture. Sustainability being better than organic and fair trade, because it encompasses the entire means from which the ethics of a company should implement alternative measures.
We began our tour identifying and harvesting seeds. Each row was carefully labeled and available for identifying. Joe was hard at work, pleased to be extracting sunflowers stalks and jovial in his regard to the pleasant nature of the company. Seeds of Change runs this research farm to produce quantities of seed for drying and selling, as well as to grow varieties that visitors view from their extension collection. Farmers all throughout the US are supported in part by their contribution of providing seeds to their 250,000 catalogue patrons. These seed growing farmers often additionally gather income from running a CSA to their local community. Inside the seed lab, are multiple large industrial sized equipment. Seeds that have casings and wind propellers like the gentle fliers of a dandelion are carefully placed through equipment to process just the seed alone.
We walked through gardens rows and greenhouses, tasting and choosing. How delightful for us to be able to taste the variety that we wish to grow, to be able to eat three different types of kale and write down the ones that are intoxicated with flavor. Would you ever think that the seeds packets that you choose from the hardware store. 3 for 99 cents would be any less than good. Is it more the success of being able to grow them? So at what stage does a farmer or a lay man desire the variety of a better tomato or a heartier lettuce. Who ever knew there was more than cherry, roma and vine tomatoes? When does the education begin? Just this last year, I grew 6 different types of lettuce, and to my surprise visitors were shocked! 4 more varieties than they have ever seem outside of the grocery store.
When did the grocery store begin to become the school of agriculture? How will we ever know that there is more out there? Does having a variety always have to become a luxury for high-end markets?
Having finished the last of our local produce, except from the sizzling hot chili pepper that we can eat only one at a time, we emark to the next town, San Antonio and Austin Texas, to meet a friend and explore the inner working of an urban oasis, maybe we will even see Willie Nelson?
As for now, our writings are more of daily occurance than of theory, in a time when we are developing views of progress, mutilations of land and intoxication of creeks and the over chlorination of public water, we are stayin bright. We will seek out the aromas of local and homemade food, either with our campstove or with the smell and seeking eye of a homemade Mexican food restaurant, or a torterillia, providing the freshest. Stay tuned! The west has given us many gifts of seeds, good new friends, welcoming cities, generous mechanics and great theories and thoughts.
Sunday, September 30, 2007
Santa Fe
Just four days into our stay in Santa Fe, we have found the gift of family and friends so welcoming and extensive we have seized to research the town as intimately as we often do upon our arrivals in a new place. We have sunk our teeth into learning from the locals over daily conversations, afternoons and dinners brimming with the knowledge of local plants, food, local culture, art, wildlife. entomology,archaeology and seasonal occurrences. The momentum of our travels has reached a peak.
With juniper berries drying in the back of the car window, we have a full collection of hollyhock seeds in four different colors. Mesquite seeds were dissected and retrieved as were the loofah pods that were generously and informatively handed out as a local product in Tuscon. We stayed in the north south side of town and Tug, the Galisteo St. neighbor helped us track down the state flower yucca seeds. Wild amaranth was billowing from the sidewalks. Within the passing of a entire day, the seeds being collected and drying in the center console of our vehicle were carefully dried, extracted and catalogued for future use.
My uncle invited us to view the inner workings of the small yet profitable Aroma coffee roasters, sharing the basics and master minding of organic and fair trade roasting.
The Santa Fe Farmers Market was so large we needed the assistance of a few new friends to show us the recommended route. There was an overflow of local farms. We spent the entire morning, finding out about turkey eggs, and quill feather pen carvings, and finding Jerusalem artichokes, and freshly roasted green chili. We found 6 different kinds of potatoes, the cheapest and freshest baby kale and arugula, one stalk of millet grain,and onions marked with the remnants of organic soil.
Dinner invites brought warmth and welcome to the food before us. My first attempt at eating fresh buffalo tacos, and the fine presentation and rolling of homemade egg pasta, prepared in the traditional rolling method from the western Italian hills. Fried lemons and orange peels, olives and onions generously and tastefully provided us with a mere 2 pints of the best smelling oil for our car. The grain of the south arrived in two dishes of blue corn polenta, with freshly harvested mushrooms, and blue corn flour pound cake. We were excited to share our project with the array of new friends and excited to find out that the same research farm we are attending this Monday is where most of the produce arrived from and mutual friends of many.
The kindness, interest in out project and resourcing that has taken place here is Santa Fe has made our stop here magical.
We head out to the seeds of change research farm, tomorrow. Stay tuned.
With juniper berries drying in the back of the car window, we have a full collection of hollyhock seeds in four different colors. Mesquite seeds were dissected and retrieved as were the loofah pods that were generously and informatively handed out as a local product in Tuscon. We stayed in the north south side of town and Tug, the Galisteo St. neighbor helped us track down the state flower yucca seeds. Wild amaranth was billowing from the sidewalks. Within the passing of a entire day, the seeds being collected and drying in the center console of our vehicle were carefully dried, extracted and catalogued for future use.
My uncle invited us to view the inner workings of the small yet profitable Aroma coffee roasters, sharing the basics and master minding of organic and fair trade roasting.
The Santa Fe Farmers Market was so large we needed the assistance of a few new friends to show us the recommended route. There was an overflow of local farms. We spent the entire morning, finding out about turkey eggs, and quill feather pen carvings, and finding Jerusalem artichokes, and freshly roasted green chili. We found 6 different kinds of potatoes, the cheapest and freshest baby kale and arugula, one stalk of millet grain,and onions marked with the remnants of organic soil.
Dinner invites brought warmth and welcome to the food before us. My first attempt at eating fresh buffalo tacos, and the fine presentation and rolling of homemade egg pasta, prepared in the traditional rolling method from the western Italian hills. Fried lemons and orange peels, olives and onions generously and tastefully provided us with a mere 2 pints of the best smelling oil for our car. The grain of the south arrived in two dishes of blue corn polenta, with freshly harvested mushrooms, and blue corn flour pound cake. We were excited to share our project with the array of new friends and excited to find out that the same research farm we are attending this Monday is where most of the produce arrived from and mutual friends of many.
The kindness, interest in out project and resourcing that has taken place here is Santa Fe has made our stop here magical.
We head out to the seeds of change research farm, tomorrow. Stay tuned.
Friday, September 21, 2007
Joshua Tree
With the second leg of our travels ahead of us, we retreated to the quiet solstice of Joshua Tree, to regroup and be in the still of the vast land of wild and dangerous cacti and the 15,000 year old Joshua trees. With dried fruit and nuts in the trunk, two gallons of water, some hot Thai food from only restaurant in site, beside the bustling Beatnik Cafe, we departed, arriving in when the fall of the moon sank beyond the Hidden Valley rocks. The local newspaper listed an array of art events, but it seems to be that the more eccentric, and organized array of activity is a bit more discreet.
The two days in the desert was a quieting of the spirit tucked beside the monolithic boulders of the Hidden Valley Campground. It is no wonder they have a residency program here, as the entire day unfolds for retreating, reading, breathing, walking, listening, and watching the quietness of the clouds as the cactus expose themselves.
Where is local food in the desert? We equipped the car with dried fruits, nuts and grains. There was hardly a tree in site that sprouted green leaves let alone fruit. Within a days of cumulus clouds and rock climbers scaling rocks, we uncovered the magic of the cacti. The prickly pear was just in fruit, but many of the fruits were not quit ripened for tasting. From spending time in Mexico, Joanna was accustomed to the red striking fruit, it's many ways of eating and the simple art of harvesting. I hadn't a very strong liking nor desire for harvesting or working for the green bean tasting from the nopales, the cactus paddles from which the prickly pear is produced. The Land of Little Rain book carried on the discoveries and uses of desert plants, particularly the mesquite tree from which Bar-b-q flavoring comes from, creosole, from which a sap emerges for Indian arrowhead points and the jumping cholla flowers, which are picked off with a large and safe distancing pole.
Within the days in the desert, we looked and discovered, burned a fire in the night to pass the moonrise and identified the variations of cactus pencas. We began to understand the cactus families and the subtleties and variations in species.
With a desert storm overhead, we headed back to the manicured and private mobile home neighborhood in Palm Springs to Joanna's Grandmother's house, to repair the obviously rough running vegetable filter in the car, so that we could use the remaining 10 gallons of oil we cleaned in Camarillo.
With 2 hours of car maintenace, manual reading and oil adjustments, we invested in the best 6 in wide wrenches to add to our Grease Girl car kit, changed the filter and prepared for the next leg of the trip through the south.
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
California research and wonderings
Spending time in urban centers has given us the opportunity to source from the riches and most comprehensive cultural and educational outlets.
CA has been fruitful. I met up with a dear friend who works at Patagonia. Patagonia offers employees up to $2500 towards the investment of a hybrid or alternative fuel vehicle. Hows that for benefits. She also got us a link with the few restaurants in town that are savvy to collecting oil. The Thai restaurant down the street was ready to start a weekly schedule with me. The sushi restaurant was already on a system of collecting and delivering. The other Chinese and Thai restaurants thought I had already come in last week. They were prepared for gathering oil for me. In addition, for the first time this morning I found companies that actually clean and have a delivery service to your home like Green Diesel in Chino, CA. However, they don't distribute on a pick up basis.
We have been building our vocabulary and our interests are converging in a community of artists and activists, historians and mechanics. They are so few times in life to just learn and research and piece together ideas and spur others. We are doing just that.
San Francisco was filled with a visit to the largest botanical library in the western US. Joanna even found a publication from a regarded author she had worked with in Oaxaca. We looked at companion planting, heirloom seeds publications,botanical illustrations from South Africa that was inspiring for drawing. We made it to the Prelinger Library, which was written about earlier in our travels. Our camping dreams and set-up, process and location was inspired by the historical societies current exhibit of the Way We Camped. We ogled over the maps, camp song books, poems of the love for bacon and vintage publications of traveling techniques and set-up. We crossed the street to
SFMOMA to get a view of Ann Hamilton's indigo blue installation. There is nothing more profound than seeing what seems like 18,000 worn work shirts, pressed and folder into a triangular mound and an attendant worker sitting at the table in front of it erasing single words from a old book, letting the eraser bits make a nice pile of refuse, to make a commentary on labor.
Santa Cruz welcomed us to a beach side apartment bustling with friends and a warm welcome to the Santa Cruz County Fair , where we headed straight to the agricultural complex to view what the local pride reveals. Vegetables were showcased and given awards for the best in show. Growers were often young kids. The vegetable had been there all week and weren't exactly in the best shape, nor were the cakes from the last weeks contest. However I did see children bringing in their parents to show them their awards. The feeling of pure pride over a small reddish tomato, even if it is not organic or heirloom, seem effective for these little ones.
We passed through Castroville, to the micro climate where artichokes grow like crazy. When you can't go organic, just go kitsch...was our motto for castroville, as we passed factories steaming with who knows what, set out to find a seaside shanty for fried artichoke hearts and settled for the diner with a 6 foot artichoke outside. How can you pass through and NOT eat the artichoke bread?
LA was brewing with scientific and cultural combinations of art and space. Our visit to the Museum of Jurassic Technology was more than we had planned for. The moving dioramas inset into the wall and mechanical waves took our breath away. We came upon a historical view and diorama display of the history or mobile home and trailer living.
Just down the street was the Center for Land Use and Interpretation. They welcomed us through their discreet doorway. There was a parking exhibit that was not as impressive in presentation as it is in installation in urban centers. The most luring is their comprehensive library of industrial, urban or rural sites. The attendant encouraged us to document and perhaps submit land sites that we come across that can be added to their archive.
We are headed to Joshua Tree for a few days to find a few days in the desert to collect our ideas, source out the artistic community that has sprung up there, enjoy the quiet still sunrises, wax the car, fix the stove, and take all of bits and pieces of imagery that we have collected over the past 4 weeks to collage and build our journals. We are in the second leg of our travels. We will attend a sustainable gardening workshop at Native Seeds in Tuscon, visit the botany at the Desert Museum, and take to the mountains of Santa Fe to follow the Fallen Fruit local tree map and present out traveling photo booth to a high school class. Seeds of Change is offering us a chance to tour their gardens and view their seed banks. Marfa Texas will follow, with a plentiful and active arts festival. San Antonia will be next. Stay tuned. We are making, building and finding daily, although often times so rural it is hard to connect and share with you the day to day.
AND to our delight...we have a full tank of filtered veg oil in the car. Special thanks to the generous use of the Carman Family kitchen and to the plentiful and generous collection of veg oil.
CA has been fruitful. I met up with a dear friend who works at Patagonia. Patagonia offers employees up to $2500 towards the investment of a hybrid or alternative fuel vehicle. Hows that for benefits. She also got us a link with the few restaurants in town that are savvy to collecting oil. The Thai restaurant down the street was ready to start a weekly schedule with me. The sushi restaurant was already on a system of collecting and delivering. The other Chinese and Thai restaurants thought I had already come in last week. They were prepared for gathering oil for me. In addition, for the first time this morning I found companies that actually clean and have a delivery service to your home like Green Diesel in Chino, CA. However, they don't distribute on a pick up basis.
We have been building our vocabulary and our interests are converging in a community of artists and activists, historians and mechanics. They are so few times in life to just learn and research and piece together ideas and spur others. We are doing just that.
San Francisco was filled with a visit to the largest botanical library in the western US. Joanna even found a publication from a regarded author she had worked with in Oaxaca. We looked at companion planting, heirloom seeds publications,botanical illustrations from South Africa that was inspiring for drawing. We made it to the Prelinger Library, which was written about earlier in our travels. Our camping dreams and set-up, process and location was inspired by the historical societies current exhibit of the Way We Camped. We ogled over the maps, camp song books, poems of the love for bacon and vintage publications of traveling techniques and set-up. We crossed the street to
SFMOMA to get a view of Ann Hamilton's indigo blue installation. There is nothing more profound than seeing what seems like 18,000 worn work shirts, pressed and folder into a triangular mound and an attendant worker sitting at the table in front of it erasing single words from a old book, letting the eraser bits make a nice pile of refuse, to make a commentary on labor.
Santa Cruz welcomed us to a beach side apartment bustling with friends and a warm welcome to the Santa Cruz County Fair , where we headed straight to the agricultural complex to view what the local pride reveals. Vegetables were showcased and given awards for the best in show. Growers were often young kids. The vegetable had been there all week and weren't exactly in the best shape, nor were the cakes from the last weeks contest. However I did see children bringing in their parents to show them their awards. The feeling of pure pride over a small reddish tomato, even if it is not organic or heirloom, seem effective for these little ones.
We passed through Castroville, to the micro climate where artichokes grow like crazy. When you can't go organic, just go kitsch...was our motto for castroville, as we passed factories steaming with who knows what, set out to find a seaside shanty for fried artichoke hearts and settled for the diner with a 6 foot artichoke outside. How can you pass through and NOT eat the artichoke bread?
LA was brewing with scientific and cultural combinations of art and space. Our visit to the Museum of Jurassic Technology was more than we had planned for. The moving dioramas inset into the wall and mechanical waves took our breath away. We came upon a historical view and diorama display of the history or mobile home and trailer living.
Just down the street was the Center for Land Use and Interpretation. They welcomed us through their discreet doorway. There was a parking exhibit that was not as impressive in presentation as it is in installation in urban centers. The most luring is their comprehensive library of industrial, urban or rural sites. The attendant encouraged us to document and perhaps submit land sites that we come across that can be added to their archive.
We are headed to Joshua Tree for a few days to find a few days in the desert to collect our ideas, source out the artistic community that has sprung up there, enjoy the quiet still sunrises, wax the car, fix the stove, and take all of bits and pieces of imagery that we have collected over the past 4 weeks to collage and build our journals. We are in the second leg of our travels. We will attend a sustainable gardening workshop at Native Seeds in Tuscon, visit the botany at the Desert Museum, and take to the mountains of Santa Fe to follow the Fallen Fruit local tree map and present out traveling photo booth to a high school class. Seeds of Change is offering us a chance to tour their gardens and view their seed banks. Marfa Texas will follow, with a plentiful and active arts festival. San Antonia will be next. Stay tuned. We are making, building and finding daily, although often times so rural it is hard to connect and share with you the day to day.
AND to our delight...we have a full tank of filtered veg oil in the car. Special thanks to the generous use of the Carman Family kitchen and to the plentiful and generous collection of veg oil.
Saturday, September 15, 2007
Camarillo, CA
The sun shines bright here. There is not a cloud in the sky. The car rested at the curb overnight; windows down and the morning dew with a hint of ocean air freshening up the miles of vegetable oil that lingers in delight. A banjo tune plays plays, it was a CD bought this morning from the unexpected kind and sincere woman in the manicured stucco home in the older part of Camarillo on the garage sale saturday morning rounds.
The nephews of the Carman house are at their soccer games, the pappa of the house is here, after a completed and well seasoned pork shoulder that was cooked to finish at the top of the night hour.
This home stop in Camarillo, Ca has been brewing with visitors. Aunts, counsins, 2nd counsins, nephews, grandpas, sisters, moms and more kids. It has been vivacious in hugs and food. A place anyone can call home and find a warm meal cooking on the bar b q.
The sharing, making and thought about food is the most impressionable here. It is not so important the source and local nature of the food but the shear form of sharing it. With visitors and family of all different walks of life, food takes all forms, making sure there is a bountiful enough for all visitors to feel welcome and nourished. Just yesterday morning I was welcome into my aunts home and gifted with warm of fresh bread. The outdoor bar b q has been beaming with hot dinners as a welcome to feast over the tales of south texas fishing and vietnam fermented fish breath blocking holders used by barbers.
Just last night, as the bustle of kids plunged into the pool, Jaima and Laura sat around the fire. My sister had encouraged them to stop by. They family became part of our family a year ago when they became displaced in their home and came to live here while they gathered their next plan. Jaime the father, has always worked in the fields. Although we shared the walls and welcome of a home, the mystery of his actual day to day work was often a mystery.
Camarillo is a small town interlaced with suburban homes and teaming with agriculture. It is a place where you can smell the harvest of the morning from the freeway. A place where cilantro is harvested in the fields at 6:15 just when the sun breaks the horizon to be able to see the base of the plants. Broccoli and celery, kale and lettuce are planted in rows, tightly packed in with as many as 6 rows to each soil mound.
Jaime invited us out to see his morning harvest. At the crack of dawn for us, which was 8:00, we arrived, just 2 miles down the freeway, entered on the dirt road to park in next to all of the other cars. The workers had almost completed the morning harvest. They had cut, rubberbanded and packed as many and as precisely as 60 cilantro bundles per box. There must have been 400 boxes. They took a few minute break waiting for the truck, marked the boxes, and the supervisor took the morning inventiry. The 40 or so workers loaded up the truck to call it a day.
Hopefully there is more work in the next week, which can be found by taking a look at the harvest crops, to see which one is in need. Jaime supports his family from his fruitful labors. He has been a friend and part of the family here. He is pround of his hardwork and has a humble manner of sharing even the fear and information for the chemicals that are still settling on the surface of the soil when they go in at the crack of down, disredgarding the 24 hour warning. He wares the marks of hard labor on his hands. His forearms blotched with his reactions from the many sprays that make the land clear of all bugs and prevent not a single invasive weed.
Cilantro still sticks to our palms, or the beautiful and pungent smell that is. The same boxes that Jaime was packing this morning on our tour to the agricultural site.. and these boxes make it as far as New York, Joanna remembers the graphic on the box from working in a restaurant in brooklyn.
This labor is hard. Jonathan, Jaime and Laura's son want to be a rancher. He loved his last visit to work with his dad. Laura knew that as a young kid, as eager as he was that working there even just casually, and to help him make a small allowance would be wonderful for his work ethic, but ran the risk of exposing his youthful body to a slew of chemicals that are being sprayed and resting on many of the leaves and topsoils.
Organic farms are harder to work on Jaime said. They often smell like fish from seaweed fertilizers, the produce is crawling with little insects that are not being sprayed for and the weeds and manual labor to mantain them, is laborious.
Can one really afford to choose the healthier work? Can agricultural labor become better? Will anyone take initiative to encourage better standards for farm labor? Did you know that the same pesicides that you wash from your lettuce is what others breath and wear on their skin and take home when they hug their children?
It was Jaime's family life that made him shine past his work challenges. It was the health of his spirit that has seemed to heal any physical ailments from his labor.
Here's to the cilantro that will cross the US to restaurants and markets all over the country. Here's to the risk of the exposed labor force who provides hand harvested produce to our grocery store shelves. Here's to eating locally and washing vegetables plentifully.
The nephews of the Carman house are at their soccer games, the pappa of the house is here, after a completed and well seasoned pork shoulder that was cooked to finish at the top of the night hour.
This home stop in Camarillo, Ca has been brewing with visitors. Aunts, counsins, 2nd counsins, nephews, grandpas, sisters, moms and more kids. It has been vivacious in hugs and food. A place anyone can call home and find a warm meal cooking on the bar b q.
The sharing, making and thought about food is the most impressionable here. It is not so important the source and local nature of the food but the shear form of sharing it. With visitors and family of all different walks of life, food takes all forms, making sure there is a bountiful enough for all visitors to feel welcome and nourished. Just yesterday morning I was welcome into my aunts home and gifted with warm of fresh bread. The outdoor bar b q has been beaming with hot dinners as a welcome to feast over the tales of south texas fishing and vietnam fermented fish breath blocking holders used by barbers.
Just last night, as the bustle of kids plunged into the pool, Jaima and Laura sat around the fire. My sister had encouraged them to stop by. They family became part of our family a year ago when they became displaced in their home and came to live here while they gathered their next plan. Jaime the father, has always worked in the fields. Although we shared the walls and welcome of a home, the mystery of his actual day to day work was often a mystery.
Camarillo is a small town interlaced with suburban homes and teaming with agriculture. It is a place where you can smell the harvest of the morning from the freeway. A place where cilantro is harvested in the fields at 6:15 just when the sun breaks the horizon to be able to see the base of the plants. Broccoli and celery, kale and lettuce are planted in rows, tightly packed in with as many as 6 rows to each soil mound.
Jaime invited us out to see his morning harvest. At the crack of dawn for us, which was 8:00, we arrived, just 2 miles down the freeway, entered on the dirt road to park in next to all of the other cars. The workers had almost completed the morning harvest. They had cut, rubberbanded and packed as many and as precisely as 60 cilantro bundles per box. There must have been 400 boxes. They took a few minute break waiting for the truck, marked the boxes, and the supervisor took the morning inventiry. The 40 or so workers loaded up the truck to call it a day.
Hopefully there is more work in the next week, which can be found by taking a look at the harvest crops, to see which one is in need. Jaime supports his family from his fruitful labors. He has been a friend and part of the family here. He is pround of his hardwork and has a humble manner of sharing even the fear and information for the chemicals that are still settling on the surface of the soil when they go in at the crack of down, disredgarding the 24 hour warning. He wares the marks of hard labor on his hands. His forearms blotched with his reactions from the many sprays that make the land clear of all bugs and prevent not a single invasive weed.
Cilantro still sticks to our palms, or the beautiful and pungent smell that is. The same boxes that Jaime was packing this morning on our tour to the agricultural site.. and these boxes make it as far as New York, Joanna remembers the graphic on the box from working in a restaurant in brooklyn.
This labor is hard. Jonathan, Jaime and Laura's son want to be a rancher. He loved his last visit to work with his dad. Laura knew that as a young kid, as eager as he was that working there even just casually, and to help him make a small allowance would be wonderful for his work ethic, but ran the risk of exposing his youthful body to a slew of chemicals that are being sprayed and resting on many of the leaves and topsoils.
Organic farms are harder to work on Jaime said. They often smell like fish from seaweed fertilizers, the produce is crawling with little insects that are not being sprayed for and the weeds and manual labor to mantain them, is laborious.
Can one really afford to choose the healthier work? Can agricultural labor become better? Will anyone take initiative to encourage better standards for farm labor? Did you know that the same pesicides that you wash from your lettuce is what others breath and wear on their skin and take home when they hug their children?
It was Jaime's family life that made him shine past his work challenges. It was the health of his spirit that has seemed to heal any physical ailments from his labor.
Here's to the cilantro that will cross the US to restaurants and markets all over the country. Here's to the risk of the exposed labor force who provides hand harvested produce to our grocery store shelves. Here's to eating locally and washing vegetables plentifully.
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