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.