Educating Myself

Well, the collards and tomatoes of View South Farm have flourished and wilted out of existence in the tide of life and death that all nature undergoes every year, and in all these months I haven't found the time to write about it. Hopefully soon I will be able to share some photos and stories of my harrowing battle with cabbage moths and the delicious produce I got out of my verandagarten this year, but I have other things to discuss first.

I've been thinking lately that it's time I got serious. I'm long done with school, have decided that the stuffy life of Arabic study is not for me, and am well established in my own place. I cannot whine, like many of my cohort have done, that the economy and higher education has left me a jobless sap living at my parents house (even if Tom Ashbrook thinks I should!). Of course, I haven't found work in Islamic Studies, but I think if that was my passion, I would have had no trouble cultivating the relationships and applying to internships that I needed, not to mention it would have been easier to buckle down and learn more Arabic than my professors expected of me. No, my field lays outdoors, in the soil with the plants that will feed me, my family, and my neighbors til we all go the way of my collard greens. It just took me a while to admit that to myself, and I still feel bad that I didn't discover it earlier.*

 I've had enough of the fooling around, though, and am taking my first steps on the long road to sustaining myself as a farmer. I have the foresight now to think that this road itself is my destination. I just hope I can keep that perspective when I feel the pressure to veer off, plant myself, and decide that I can go no further.

Anyhow, my first step was to get back to working outside. As it turns out, there are quite a few farms outside of Boston, but I decided not to go to work for them, at least right away. Instead, I work for a certified organic landscaping company. I won't learn about crops in my time there, but I will learn about planting, feeding, and treating plants, pruning trees, and fostering healthy soil. I'm also working a lot harder and longer in a day than I ever did on a farm (and that will change), so feel that when I do get back to food production, I will be much more prepared to meet the demands on my body. Also, I earning more as a landscaper, which will allow me to save for when Etta and I go on our grand WWOOFing adventures, and for buying land of my own someday.

This brings me to my next step, and the reason I'm posting this: my education. A lot of organic farmers nowadays have the advantage of a college education in soil sciences, botany, and animal husbandry. I can't afford to shell out for another degree, and fully intend to educate myself with classes, and online and print resources. Experience is much more valuable than a degree on a farm, so I'm going to read all I can before I dive into my real education actually growing the crops and taking care of animals.

Etta pointed out that without homework, it will be harder for me to internalize the knowledge I get from my books, so I'm turning Regular Farmer into my homework. From here on out, I'm going to be writing up the facts I've learned, and even doing the occasional research paper, right here for all of you to read. That might sound boring now, but think about how much you loved my post on chicken slaughter! I won't be killing any animals this winter, but I will have some good stories from Michael Pollan,  the beardy orchardist Michael Phillips, and a straight-up, 800-page texbook that I'll spice up just for you.
I hope you'll read on, there's a lot for both of us to learn!

The Regular Farmer

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*I have no regrets, though. I found a loving and supportive partner at college, and great friends I wouldn't trade for the world. Without my education, I wouldn't have been exposed to the philosophies that allow me to drop my regrets like a hot potato the moment they crop up, to boot.