We have been on the farm now for 3 weeks and we have gotten to the point where all we can think about is leaving. That is mostly due to the Arctic front that apparently has made its way to Ireland, and in the last three days the temperature has dropped by at least 15 degrees. We spend our nights wearing sweatpants, hoodies, and woolly socks, and as we watch TV we sit directly on the space heater in an attempt to stay warm.
The farm has been an experience, however, and here are a few highlights from the last week:
Thanksgiving without an oven. Menu included already cooked slices of chicken (we couldnt find turkey), mashed turnip, cranberry sauce, instant stuffing and instant gravy. Not exactly a gourmet meal, but we made the most of it, and we were sure to at least spend a little extra money on a bottle of red wine. We found some old curtains that we used as tablecloths, lit some candles, and toasted eachother with mugs of wine on how lucky we are for having been able to come on this trip.
The pigs. As we are in charge of feeding them twice a day, we have begun to bond with the animals. They hear us coming and bumble their way over to us. We swear they have doubled in size since we arrived at the farm. We now have a strategy when it comes to feeding them: One person walk into the pen as a distraction, while the other slips behind and sprints to the trough to dump the food. Once they hear the food being dumped we are completely ignored, and no longer have to worry about being trampled into the mud. We are getting a soft spot for the little guys, and we are coming up with ways for the gate to be "accidentally" left open on our last day at the farm.
Tom. Tom has been a recent addition to our life. He is Padrig's 85 year old father and he and his wife live in the big house on the farm. The highlight of our day is seeing Tom's daily outing on the farm. He begins by stopping at the barn, assessing our carrot bundling while warning us about the Arctic chill. He then slowly creeps along the muddy path to stop and stare at the pigs for a good 20 minutes, making sure they are okay and getting quite upset if they haven't received their daily treat of old tomatoes and avocados. He seems to have a soft spot for them, as well, and we are considering asking him if he wants in on our pig evacuation scheme. We think Tom is great, but became extremely concerned for the safety of the Irish population when we saw him roll up in his car to the farmers market to buy some fish. His face was 6 inches from the windshield and he usually has to be within 5 feet of us to even recognize (or hear) us, so we can only imagine what he must be like on the road. He is very proud of himself as he informed us that last year he bought the first automatic car in Ballinasloe.
We find ourselves getting rather frusterated with the lack of organization and common sense of our bosses. We leave you now with our favorite quotes from each of them, just to give you an understanding of what we're dealing with:
Padrig: "Hey, do you want to know something? I just found out that these little raisins are actually made from dried grapes! I never knew that till this month!"
Una: "I'm having one of those days where I can't believe I'm an organic farmer."
Laura: "Did you always want to be a farmer?"
Una: "Oh no. When I was eighteen I wanted to be an actress!"
Thank god we only have a week left on the farm.
Saturday, November 24, 2007
Saturday, November 10, 2007
The Two Best Farmers You've Ever Met
We have survived our first week on the farm and since we only make it into town once a week, we bring you now our weekly blog entry. Here are some key points and insights into the daily routine of life as an organic farmer:
- Wake up when it's still dark and real cold. Laura makes the instant coffee as Meghan whips up the porridge. This usually involves searching around the house for the Splenda, which we always hide frantically from Una, the wife of the organic farmer, because she only does organic and frowns at us for even chewing gum due to its artificiality.
- Get dressed in long underwear (pants and top), sweats, jackets, wellies, and waterproof overalls. Head over to the pig pen to begin our day. As we mix up their organic porridge breakfast, the 6 large males pigs crowd the fence, squealing for us to hurry up. One of us then has to take the food into the pen with all six pigs swarming and nipping her legs as she makes her way to the trough. The other stands outside and is usually crying from laughing so hard as the other tries not to get taken down into the muck. Usually half the food has been dumped on the pigs and the other half is smeared all over our clothes. We then trudge back up the barn, feeling defeated.
- The rest of the day is spent harvesting a variety of veg, including carrots, parsnips, celery, brussel sprouts, cabbage and tomatoes, all to get ready for the "market." We are still working on our harvesting skills, as we tend to either eat what we pick, or spear the veg with our pitchforks as we attempt to dig them up.
- Market days are particularly exciting because we get a chance to head into actual civilization. Our first day at the market, however, was not quite what we expected. In the days prior we had felt intense pressure and expectation to make sure there was enough harvested, and in our minds we pictured a giant, crowded market. We were amused to roll up and discover the market consisted of 4 stands and our four new best friends: the fish man from Russia, the pastry man from France, Martin, the wine and cheese connoisseur, and Padrig, the organic farmer we work for. We are there to help set up, but for the most part we stand around and gawk as Una, who is quite petite, displays her freakish strength by hoisting around bags of potatoes and wooden tables.
- There are a few elements of organic farm life to which we are having a little trouble adjusting. First things first, we aren't allowed to have a trash can because everything has to go in the compost or be recycled. We spend a good half hour arguing about what goes in which bucket, and whether paper towels actually ARE part of the compost (the dampness of the paper seems to play an instrumental role, but we haven't quite mastered the art). In the end we get fed up and hide a plastic bag of garbage in our room for our next trip to town where we can get rid of it in a public trash can. Another difficulty we face daily is having to walk outside to go to the bathroom. In an effort not to dirty our house (which is basically a large room with a space heater that Meghan is usually hovered over), the door to the bathroom is on the outside of the house, and every night at about 2 am we wake each other up as we turn on a light and dig around for shoes and a sweatshirt.
- The best part of farm life is the giant refrigerator room in the barn with all the fruit and veg we could ever want. We usually wait till everyone has gone home, and then we lurk up in the dark with a box and go on raids for dinner. Our favorite item is the expensive golden kiwi that has been imported from New Zealand. We've never eaten so much organic produce in our lives; we're going out to Indian tonight.
- Nightly activities, aka until 9 pm, involve alternating between reading and staring at each other.
We'll be back next week for further updates, unless we've been fired or eaten by pigs.
- Wake up when it's still dark and real cold. Laura makes the instant coffee as Meghan whips up the porridge. This usually involves searching around the house for the Splenda, which we always hide frantically from Una, the wife of the organic farmer, because she only does organic and frowns at us for even chewing gum due to its artificiality.
- Get dressed in long underwear (pants and top), sweats, jackets, wellies, and waterproof overalls. Head over to the pig pen to begin our day. As we mix up their organic porridge breakfast, the 6 large males pigs crowd the fence, squealing for us to hurry up. One of us then has to take the food into the pen with all six pigs swarming and nipping her legs as she makes her way to the trough. The other stands outside and is usually crying from laughing so hard as the other tries not to get taken down into the muck. Usually half the food has been dumped on the pigs and the other half is smeared all over our clothes. We then trudge back up the barn, feeling defeated.
- The rest of the day is spent harvesting a variety of veg, including carrots, parsnips, celery, brussel sprouts, cabbage and tomatoes, all to get ready for the "market." We are still working on our harvesting skills, as we tend to either eat what we pick, or spear the veg with our pitchforks as we attempt to dig them up.
- Market days are particularly exciting because we get a chance to head into actual civilization. Our first day at the market, however, was not quite what we expected. In the days prior we had felt intense pressure and expectation to make sure there was enough harvested, and in our minds we pictured a giant, crowded market. We were amused to roll up and discover the market consisted of 4 stands and our four new best friends: the fish man from Russia, the pastry man from France, Martin, the wine and cheese connoisseur, and Padrig, the organic farmer we work for. We are there to help set up, but for the most part we stand around and gawk as Una, who is quite petite, displays her freakish strength by hoisting around bags of potatoes and wooden tables.
- There are a few elements of organic farm life to which we are having a little trouble adjusting. First things first, we aren't allowed to have a trash can because everything has to go in the compost or be recycled. We spend a good half hour arguing about what goes in which bucket, and whether paper towels actually ARE part of the compost (the dampness of the paper seems to play an instrumental role, but we haven't quite mastered the art). In the end we get fed up and hide a plastic bag of garbage in our room for our next trip to town where we can get rid of it in a public trash can. Another difficulty we face daily is having to walk outside to go to the bathroom. In an effort not to dirty our house (which is basically a large room with a space heater that Meghan is usually hovered over), the door to the bathroom is on the outside of the house, and every night at about 2 am we wake each other up as we turn on a light and dig around for shoes and a sweatshirt.
- The best part of farm life is the giant refrigerator room in the barn with all the fruit and veg we could ever want. We usually wait till everyone has gone home, and then we lurk up in the dark with a box and go on raids for dinner. Our favorite item is the expensive golden kiwi that has been imported from New Zealand. We've never eaten so much organic produce in our lives; we're going out to Indian tonight.
- Nightly activities, aka until 9 pm, involve alternating between reading and staring at each other.
We'll be back next week for further updates, unless we've been fired or eaten by pigs.
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
Life on the Farm
Yesterday was our first day at the farm, and I can now say that Meghan and I are the best carrot harvesters ever. Our day began by waking up in our little wooden house that is located on the farm itself in our bunkbeds. After a breakfast of oatmeal and tea (we were feeling very
farmlike), we hauled on our wellies, waterproof pants and jacket, and headed out. Una and Padrig are the couple we are working for, and Una began by showing us around the farm, including the polytunnels, crops, and pig pen. We thought we were only dealing with vegetables, but just
our luck, they acquired pigs about 4 weeks ago, and Meg and I now have the pleasure of helping feed them every morning. After feeding the pigs, we headed into the carrot patch, where we spent the next 5 hours
pulling carrots out of the ground and loading them into the tractor. There was a huge order to be shipped to Dublin today, and so yesterday we apparently harvested in a day what they normal do in two weeks. After the harvesting we had a quick lunch of organic vegetables and
then headed into the barn and bundled 250 bunches of carrots that had to weigh 1kg each. Needless to say, we were busy until about 7pm.
After quick showers in the bathroom that only has an entrance from the outside (which is starting to get annoying when we have to walk outside at 2am), we whipped up a dinner of more organic, had some tea and played cards, and then looked at our watch to see that it was
still only 9:30pm. We sat and stared at eachother for 15 more mintues,then decided it was more than acceptable to get into bed to read.Within half hour we were both completely passed out.
Because we had such a busy day yesterday, we were given the day off,and we have wandered into town to use the internet and check out theshops. Our legs and backs are pretty sore, but we are enjoying beingin the country as opposed to the dirtiness and craziness of Dublin. We
will try to blog again soon, as well as post some pictures to give asense of our current situation. Hope all is well with everyone, we miss you!
farmlike), we hauled on our wellies, waterproof pants and jacket, and headed out. Una and Padrig are the couple we are working for, and Una began by showing us around the farm, including the polytunnels, crops, and pig pen. We thought we were only dealing with vegetables, but just
our luck, they acquired pigs about 4 weeks ago, and Meg and I now have the pleasure of helping feed them every morning. After feeding the pigs, we headed into the carrot patch, where we spent the next 5 hours
pulling carrots out of the ground and loading them into the tractor. There was a huge order to be shipped to Dublin today, and so yesterday we apparently harvested in a day what they normal do in two weeks. After the harvesting we had a quick lunch of organic vegetables and
then headed into the barn and bundled 250 bunches of carrots that had to weigh 1kg each. Needless to say, we were busy until about 7pm.
After quick showers in the bathroom that only has an entrance from the outside (which is starting to get annoying when we have to walk outside at 2am), we whipped up a dinner of more organic, had some tea and played cards, and then looked at our watch to see that it was
still only 9:30pm. We sat and stared at eachother for 15 more mintues,then decided it was more than acceptable to get into bed to read.Within half hour we were both completely passed out.
Because we had such a busy day yesterday, we were given the day off,and we have wandered into town to use the internet and check out theshops. Our legs and backs are pretty sore, but we are enjoying beingin the country as opposed to the dirtiness and craziness of Dublin. We
will try to blog again soon, as well as post some pictures to give asense of our current situation. Hope all is well with everyone, we miss you!
Our last days in Dublin
Our final week in Dublin was a bit of a fiasco.
- on sunday we left the house to run around the corner for a huge cup of coffee, in our pajamas, planning to be gone about 5 minutes. when we walked back (without coffee...we forgot everyone is at church sunday mornings) we both looked at eachother waiting for the other to open the door. no keys. awesome. we spent a good 2 hours trying to get into the house.
- tuesday-last day of work. we have to celebrate so we go out for a pint. we walk back to the house only to put in our keys and set the alarm off. it is deafening and we have no idea what the code is to turn it off. there is no number on the alarm box and we dont know who even set the alarm on (we hadnt been setting it). We had no cell phone so we frantically run up the street to call our landlord for the code at 1am...they tell us the code and we run back home. code doesn't work. bollucks. we run back to pay phone to see if tehre is maybe a different code. landlord doesn't know. we run back to house. still can't turn alarm off. dont know what to do. all of a sudden, there are about 4 cop cars that come screaming down our street and surround our house, thinking there is a burglar in our house. we try to explain what is going on but they yell at us to be quiet while they send men in. they look at us weird and dont understand when we show them our keys. finally they realize we live in the house,there is no burglar, we dont know how to turn off the alarm and that we are foreigners. police man gets alarm to miraculously stop about 4 hours after it started going off. we eventually go to bed. our poor, poor neighbors.
-thursday- we are tired of the city and want to see a little of ireland before we go to the farm. so, we rent a car. it is manual so i drive while laura navigates. we are a genius team and manuever ourselves through ireland and their terribly marked road system. i manage to drive on the right side of the road (most of the time) and we arrive safely back in dublin. the car rental place is closed until morning so we park the car outside of it and walk back in the morning to return the keys. we arrive in the morning to see that someone has stolen all of the hubcaps off the car and scratched the door. cool.
-saturday-we managed to pack up all of our stuff and head to the organic farm where we plan to work/live until the end of november.
- on sunday we left the house to run around the corner for a huge cup of coffee, in our pajamas, planning to be gone about 5 minutes. when we walked back (without coffee...we forgot everyone is at church sunday mornings) we both looked at eachother waiting for the other to open the door. no keys. awesome. we spent a good 2 hours trying to get into the house.
- tuesday-last day of work. we have to celebrate so we go out for a pint. we walk back to the house only to put in our keys and set the alarm off. it is deafening and we have no idea what the code is to turn it off. there is no number on the alarm box and we dont know who even set the alarm on (we hadnt been setting it). We had no cell phone so we frantically run up the street to call our landlord for the code at 1am...they tell us the code and we run back home. code doesn't work. bollucks. we run back to pay phone to see if tehre is maybe a different code. landlord doesn't know. we run back to house. still can't turn alarm off. dont know what to do. all of a sudden, there are about 4 cop cars that come screaming down our street and surround our house, thinking there is a burglar in our house. we try to explain what is going on but they yell at us to be quiet while they send men in. they look at us weird and dont understand when we show them our keys. finally they realize we live in the house,there is no burglar, we dont know how to turn off the alarm and that we are foreigners. police man gets alarm to miraculously stop about 4 hours after it started going off. we eventually go to bed. our poor, poor neighbors.
-thursday- we are tired of the city and want to see a little of ireland before we go to the farm. so, we rent a car. it is manual so i drive while laura navigates. we are a genius team and manuever ourselves through ireland and their terribly marked road system. i manage to drive on the right side of the road (most of the time) and we arrive safely back in dublin. the car rental place is closed until morning so we park the car outside of it and walk back in the morning to return the keys. we arrive in the morning to see that someone has stolen all of the hubcaps off the car and scratched the door. cool.
-saturday-we managed to pack up all of our stuff and head to the organic farm where we plan to work/live until the end of november.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
