Farmer Kid

We’ve been farming with Janet and Jeff now for three weeks. Three exceptional weeks. Not only because we’ve had the most beautiful February weather imaginable (We haven’t worked outside in the rain once. And just this week we’ve had a few frosty mornings, but that has come along as a result of glorious warm and sunny days.) But mostly because we are blessed with working alongside people we love and respect deeply. And have a tremendous amount of fun with.

During our one hundred eighty hours of work, almost all of it has been in the blueberry field with our pruners. Repeating the same task again, and again, and again. The most challenging part of this work being to stay alert and accurate with each bush, and not become sloppy as they begin to blur together. We have seven rows (of 37) to go!

Perhaps a slightly more challenging aspect of this work is finding a balanced relationship to our work and our friends. Our friends are our bosses. Our friends are our teachers. Our friends are our community. Our work is new to us, even if we’ve pruned over 400 bushes.

The traditional job market has shown us that if we can demonstrate or simply profess rapid mastery of any task set before us we are a more desirable employee. It seems to me that resume building has destroyed our humility. I came to farm because I wanted to experience a more slow paced relationship to mastery. I want to move away from thinking my ideas are the best, and to redevelop my skills as the student. Karate Kid style.

So while I’m looking at my teachers for guidance, they are also my peers. And I also came to farm for community. I want to experience collaboration and camaraderie. But not at the expense of respect for my masters. (My masters being ‘a person skilled in a particular trade and able to teach others’ not ‘a person who has dominance or control over something.’) So I approach each day, question, and task aiming for the balance of humility, support, and friendship.