The Garden of Eve, My Adventure Begins!

Day 1, Saturday, 9/18

I was supposed to meet the head apprentice, Jon, at the Queens CSA stop "between 8 and 8:30" according to Eve, the farm's owner.  I arrived at 8:02 and was told, "he got here early today. you just missed him." The homeowner scurried around for 10 minutes, looking for Jon's cell number and meanwhile, I sent a text to Eve asking her for Jon's cell number as we had somehow missed each other. This is not how I wanted to start out my week on the farm. I'm pretty sure that Jon saw picking me up as an unwanted hassle and probably viewed me as some dilettante that wanted to play at farming for a week. Hah!

Anyway, Jon arrived back at the CSA location, rearranged the back of the truck to make room for my bicycle and bags, and off we went to make the other stops on his route.  Our next stop was at the Brooklyn Greenmarket at McCarren Park. He was dropping off some eggs that were shorted for the CSA delivery and stopped to talk to Mark, who ran GoE's stand at the greenmarket. I talked to Mark briefly and then resorted to watching the dogs at the dog run while waiting to leave for the next stop.  I think Jon was simply wasting some time at the market because he had left so early that the next two CSA stops would not be ready for him yet.

Finally, we left there and made the next stop in Carroll Gardens at the Transit Garden.  Everyone was so friendly and I helped to unload their "cajas" (or crates) of fruit and vegies and then loaded the empty cajas to go back to the farm.

We made one more stop in Brooklyn and then it was off to the Garden of Eve in Riverhead.  Jon is not exactly loquacious but he did make an effort at conversation and patiently answered all my questions.  Apparently, the farm makes the majority of its income from the CSAs.  I was quite surprised to hear this as I assumed it would be from the farmstands.  Good to know!  The farm sells 800 CSA shares (including half shares) and also operates a farmstand at the farm in Riverhead on a daily basis. It also participates in greenmarkets at McCarren Park and at Westhampton Beach.  Eve also mentioned in passing one night that she also supplies several restaurant chefs with the farm's organic produce.

We arrived at the farm just in time for lunch.  Lunch is generally prepared by one of the farm apprentices who leaves the fields at 10:30 to go back to the house to make lunch for all of the apprentices/volunteers.  That first day's lunch was made by Ted and consisted of grilled peanut butter and peach sandwiches.  I have to say that I was a bit apprehensive but the sandwiches were great! We all sat around and talked for a bit and then it was out to the fields.  There were a couple of volunteers out for the day from Manhattan and we were set to weeding.  The other volunteers had never been on a farm or gardened before and were completely clueless. I hadn't even thought about it before, but what if they pulled up the good plants instead of the weeds? That's potential income, down the drain! We continued to weed for an hour or so and then it was time to collect the eggs.  They were a little scared to reach under the hens to pull out the eggs and I can't say that I blame them - especially since I was pecked a few times by a recalcitrant hen.

There are about 1,000 chickens on the farm and probably 995 of them are hens (as opposed to roosters) - so needless to say there were a LOT of eggs.  We had some help from Trish, who works at the GoE a few times a week and at another farm the other days.  We took the eggs back to the Processing Barn and washed them and I was quite surprised when they added bleach to the water. Bleach, organic? You have to wash off chicken poop, blood, feathers and sawdust - so I guess it makes sense. The three of us sat on crates around a big galvanized tin tub filled to the brim with water and the eggs in a basket in the middle and washed eggs for what seemed like a couple of hours.  When I finally stood up, boy, my back hurt!

After that, I went to work at the farm's garden center for while, making sure all of the tables were kept filled with mums and then helped to unpack a truck full of potted mums.  The garden center is a new addition to the farm this year.  There had been a garden center on the site previously, but it was run by some other people that were just renting the space.  Eve and her husband decided to run it themselves and put up a huge greenhouse and invested some money into the project.  It seems to be doing quite well.

The farm provides the apprentices room and board, a small stipend and as much produce as they want.  They also give them a discount on anything sold in the farmstand (all kinds of organic products from bread to cheese to soft drinks).  As a volunteer, I was entitled to the produce too but needed to stock up on other items from the supermarket. So I mounted my bike and rode to the King Kullen which is 3 miles from the farm (2.95 to be exact - I looked it up on mapquest).  I left my bike helmet on and while I was in the store, this guy came up to me and said "heh, heh, heh, do I need to be worried about safety in here?" and pointed to my bike helmet.  Really? Is that the best you can come up with??  Then, as I was walking to the wine shop down the way, a couple looked at me and said "that's straight out of NYC." Haven't these people ever seen anyone wearing a bike helmet before? I mean, really!

Back to the farm and made dinner for myself (everyone is on their own for dinner - unless you make plans with the others) and then we sat around talking for a bit and then everyone was off to bed. Some of the apprentices had been up at 5 am (or earlier) to load the trucks for their trips to the greenmarkets and CSA dropoffs and looked like they were very tired. One of the apprentices, Ted, is staying at a yurt that is all the way on the other side of the farm, so he took off before everyone else.

The next day, Sunday, is the only day off for the apprentices and Sherita kindly asked me if I would like to join her and her boyfriend on a drive. The plan was to visit some vineyards and Catapano Dairy Farm (goats only) to buy some goat cheese.  Anyone who knows me knows how I love goat cheese and wine was just a bonus, so that was a no-brainer.

So plans for Sunday were complete and I was off to bed in The Chateau, otherwise known as the garage. Jon was kind enough to get sheets and blankets for me to make the bed (an uncomfortable futon - I know, I'm spoiled).  Thank goodness, I had brought my own pillowcase at least - just didn't have room for sheets too.  I read the Omnivore's Dilemma for a little while and missed Yufi and decided to turn in. I woke up in the middle of the night to hear what sounded like someone walking around outside and something on the roof of the garage. What could it be? After lying in my lumpy bed listening for a while, I decided to get up and investigate. I couldn't see anything out the window (which didn't open, drat it!) so I went outside to see what it was.  A raccoon in the garbage! I just managed to spot it as it ran away and it was pitch dark outside.  I couldn't see what was making the noise on the roof but figured I would look in the morning. Since I was up anyway, I went into the house to go to the bathroom.  Oh yes, I forgot to mention that there was no hot water in the house (the boiler was broken) and since there was no bathroom in the garage, I made my way to the upstairs bathroom in the dark, hoping that I didn't fall down the stairs. Oy! What a day!