Hi All,
Welcome to Scrap Kitchen. The newsletter/podcast where I document managing a farm in the US, while trying to find a future farm in the UK. Where I find joy in the privilege of getting paid to work outside while the planet burns around us.
Sounds a bit dire, doesn’t it? And at times it feels a bit dire. With temperatures reaching over 50°C in India (reminiscent of the horrific opening chapter of Ministry for the Future), 14,000 acres of current wildfires in California and the ongoing genocide in both the Congo and Palestine.
I’m not here to tell you that farming, regenerative or otherwise will save us (though to some extent I believe it will). In the same way I think voting alone, when in both my countries the candidates are so blegh (and by this I mean Labour is racist, no longer supports labourers and is a general disgrace, but what option do we have, divide the vote and let the Tories win again?), won’t save us.
But I have found, and this is just personal experience, that the climate anxiety subsides. Hell, the general anxiety that I feel at the state of the world has been somewhat helped by physically doing something about it. By growing food, day in and day out. Smoke, or rain or almost non-existent snow. Through last year’s drought to this year’s early heat. The only thing that has kept me from panicking is having hands in the dirt and physically seeing people light up when they pick a tomato or try a turnip for the first time. In knowing that what we feed people wasn’t grown at the expense of the land we steward or the people that grow it (big up a living wage). And for that, I will always be grateful.
Current Farm Updates
By the end of this week, I was feeling pretty exhausted, as was the whole team. We have been pushing our way through May and the end seems almost in sight. I mean technically it’s June, but still, we have two more big projects to go. For now we can celebrate thousands of plants in the ground, weeded, watered, fed, and tended. And so so much harvesting.
In total, I think we harvested over 2800 lbs of Asparagus.
And we sold every single stem.
Now comes the cyclical nature of farming. Suddenly it isn’t Asparagus season any more. We opened up our 4 acres of Strawberries for U-Pick this weekend. In poured the public and suddenly it is Strawberry Season.
Now come (hopefully) six weeks of people picking luscious red berries, of children dressed as strawberries, their faces covered with the spoils of the field. There’s a running joke that we should weigh children before and after they “pick” strawberries. But really, how much can a five-year-old eat? And what could be better for showing them where their food comes from?
While some part of me was dreaming of the day when we would have consecutive days off, another part of me is already mourning the end of Asparagus. To nourish the part of me that will want Asparagus in a few months I have saved several pounds of seconds (unsellable flowering stems) and frozen it for a later date.
Side note: I was going to say to combat this, which made me pause. How much of our language is warfare? How insidious the military-industrial complex, the ongoing colonialist values, that instead of thinking of saving food for a later date as a gift to one’s future self it is instead an act of combat. An extension of war. To fight a feeling. To quash a need. I’m working on changing how I write, and by extension how I think.
Side Side Note: Thinking on the violence in the language I use then brings me back to the incredible breakdown by
of i start with the recognition that we are at war, conversations with Toni Cade Bambara. In it, Bambara explains that our responsibility to ourselves and others is to tell the truth, and within that truth is power. War is ongoing; the war on drugs, on People of Colour, the war on the poor and working class, the control and use of resources. We are still as at war as we were when she said this is 1983. To not recognise that every day is a fallacy. An untruth.Bringing the side notes together: Both these things can be true at once, that we are at war and also seeking peace. To not acknowledge this war, or an ongoing genocide say, is burying your head in the sand. At the same time, you can work towards peace, in your thoughts, in your communities, in your actions that stand up for those in active marginalisation, in the way you spend your time and your money and your life.
All of this from waiting to ‘combat’ a future need for asparagus.
I digress.
This time of year is one of rapid growth. it feels like if you look away for a second a bed can get overrun with weeds. A full cabbage can spring up overnight. Asparagus can grow up to 8 inches per day (thank fuck that’s over).
We have two more tasks on the horizon, to plant 5 acres of winter squash and pumpkins by hand and to have a farm tour of 750 people descend on us next weekend. No big deal.
Last year we seeded that field of squash amidst the smoke of Canada wildfires but the weeds got away from us (the eco weeder was not repaired in time) and our work was for naught. That was somewhat of a blow if I’m being honest. This year we are hoping to refine our methods, straighter lines, quicker seeding (no bending only burying with your foot) and the Eco-Weeder is ready to go. We’re hopeful for the thousands of pounds of pumpkins and winter squash that will spring up from that patch.
As for the tour, bring it on I guess. We’re working on better signage for the U-Pick block and have gotten together a farm map and brochure so we should be set. Hopefully. Maybe.
This week I’m looking forward to our first tomatoes which had been flirting with ripeness for the past week. We might also be doing our first wholesale order of Green Onions (hopefully 350 bunches). Oh and we harvested a lot of kale last week which was glorious! The chard is still struggling under the deer pressure, and who can blame them it is delicious. And the Peas can finally be harvested (though mostly they are a snack as we walk past them). Lots to come. Lots to do. Can’t wait, honestly.
Future Farm Updates
We’re currently talking with an incubator scheme in the south of England and are hoping to have a call with them soon. Then, if we fit well, submit a business plan to them this month.
We are still working on the land match scheme business plan and now we won’t be working 200 hours this month we might actually have more time to do it. The unions were really on to something when they fought for weekends, am I right ladies?
I’ve also been in touch with various contacts sent my way (thanks Mum) who run farming collectives or their own farms. But I am well aware that this time of year is the WORST for farmers so am not expecting fast replies for another month or so. Maybe more. Usually, things fully calm down in September. Ah, cyclical living.
Anyways, we are on the crest of the body/mind-consuming work of our current farm and looking forward to having a little more time to work towards the future farm.
Ok, I’ve gone on long enough.
See y’all later.
M
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If you missed the last update, read it here.
Ep.13-War and Peas