My Last Day at Sunnyside

I spent the past day and a few hours today learning about Organic Farming at the Farm at Sunnyside in Washington, Virginia. It was hot and exhausting and exhilarating and inspiring and enjoyable all at the same time. I am sure I'll forget a ton of what I did, but I'll jot down as much as I can. A special Thank You to Stacey and Casey, the Farm Managers (in the pic on the right) for their hospitality.

The harvesting was being done for the Farmer's Market. And people, let me tell you- there are no giant machines that roll through these fields and pick things. It is all people. HUMAN BEINGS that sit in the rich, delicious soil, pick each fruit or vegetable or root or herb or flower BY HAND. EVERY time. So the next time you go to the Farmer's Market instead of the Grocery Store, you are supporting some really amazing work and completely amazing people. So consider buying local at a market before a chain grocery store.

I am a member of a CSA, I do support local farmers, but this was even a step further. I have never seen so much absolutely, complete perfect and beautiful produce in my life. The "seconds" bin and the "eat me" bins are supposed to be what doesn't go to retail, but it's still more gorgeous than anything at the grocery store. And the flavors and Juice. HOLY MOLY. I'll just stop here.

Everyone was so great and would teach me little tidbits about their specialties or their love for farming. It was really interesting to hear where some of these employees have come from and their various other jobs or past careers- nutrition, accounting, clothes designer, one woman sailed from Hawaii to Washington with two other people and also taught English in Thailand-

Here's what I learned about and did in 14 hours.

- 5 of the 9 employees live in a bunk house together on the farm.
- harvested rainbow chard for the farmer's market
- switched 2 giant coolers, one was warm and one was cold, we moved all of the goodies from each into the other to make room for the market goods being harvested.
- harvested lots and lots of green onions and cleaned them
- cleaned previously pulled garlic
- moved trays and trays of seedlings of various types of kale and cauliflower from the greenhouse to the "hardening table". this is where the plants get thrown into nature for 2 weeks to learn how to survive and then they are planted in the fields.
- took lots and lots of photos
- met the three pigs- the were so cute and little and shorty
- weeded turmeric beds
- weeded garlic beds
- harvested okra
- dug up red potatoes and white potatoes from the soil
- looked and observed so many variations of insects, worms, butterflies, flying creatures... they are all over the farm but it feels like you've died and gone to Heaven with all of these beautiful, colorful things flying all over
- learned about the compost, the correct way to trim collards and okra to help them to grow and get more sun and nutrients
- learned that my knees don't like to be sat upon for hours at a time. walking was a little painful today, but whatever- I'll get over it
- deer are everywhere. the first morning a deer was running parallel to my car but only about 20 feet from it.
- bunnies.      @LesDamesdescoffier #LDEI