{"id":69,"date":"2023-09-26T20:10:48","date_gmt":"2023-09-26T20:10:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress.evergreen.edu\/foodways-ca-f23-ball\/?page_id=69"},"modified":"2023-12-14T18:28:01","modified_gmt":"2023-12-14T18:28:01","slug":"farming-while-x","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.evergreen.edu\/foodways-ca-f23-ball\/farming-while-x\/","title":{"rendered":"Farming While Remembering"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Flower Arranging <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
A good day to press cider, watch pine needles sparkle in the wind, remembering apple mint in the gravel and the smell of oxidizing apples\u2019 sweet tang in the press.<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Flower Wreath<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
October 5, 2023. 60 degrees farenheight. Olympia, WA. The Evergreen State College Organic Farm. Sunny, Crisp, Blue Sky, White Clouds, Pine Needles in the Breeze that land in my cider.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Working on the farm in fall is a constant remembering; uneven wet ground underfoot, the crisp wind of fall biting into the sunshine, anticipation of plant decay, bounty. Sitting on the cusp of death and summer\u2019s opulence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Tasks For the Day:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Crop Row Covers<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Weed Strawberries<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Harvest Flowers<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Flower Arranging to sell at market<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I helped with flower arranging, working with grape and kiwi vines and dried flowers from the summer bounty. It smelled like floral straw and felt good to be creative. There was one dried flower called Sweet Annie that was especially fragrant and interesting with a delicious lime, herb fresh scent. It brought me right back to apple mint in the gravel roads between fields. It was green compact and had tough hard cone shaped yellow flowers with no petals. I don\u2019t know if apple mint is the actual name but it\u2019s what I called it as a child. In the hot afternoons of fall I would walk the roads between the fields on my way to play hide and seek in the corn fields with my siblings, crushing it underfoot the warm apple minty volatiles filled my senses. It would always stop me, and I had to bend down and pick some, rubbing it between my fingers to release more of the comforting scent.  Today while I wove the wispy tendrils of Sweet Annie around the grape vine wreath I remembered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
We pressed apples today, Jonagold and Liberty apples. The press, the sun, the brown oxidization and sticky everywhere brought me to apple pressing with my children when they were young. Bread baking day was followed by pressing apples on the porch of their school. Little people in woolens and knit hats clamoring to see the apples crush and magically turn to sweet juice. Sticky everywhere. Smiles and excitement and a sugar high.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI prefer the term \u201cfood apartheid\u201d because it makes clear that we have a human-created system of segregation that relegates certain groups of food opulence and prevents others from accessing life-giving nourishment.\u201d Penniman pg4<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
As I worked today I thought of this quote. We, my family was not rich and yet we had access to all of these foods, the opulence of summer we were able to put away to enjoy through the winter. Joy and sweet treats as we pressed apples in the fall. The bounty of food available to us not necessarily through monetary wealth, but access to shared land and labor. It was not shared with others that did not look like us. I remember learning that people without just didn\u2019t work hard enough. I remember knowing this couldn\u2019t be right. It is interesting reading this quote through the lens of remembering food sovereignty as a child.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Confused Figs<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A good day to put away the farm for winter is coming and Ezra is moving on. A good day to remember the scent of herbs that have bolted while we chat of the future. A good day for being a confused fig.<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
November 16, 2023. 43 degrees Fahrenheit. Olympia, WA. The Evergreen State College Organic Farm. Sunny, crisp blue sky, sun hugging the horizon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tasks for the day:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Apply compost<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Finish removing bricks from the herb garden<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Weed the asparagus bed<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cut down perennials<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I helped with cutting down perennials. We cut down the limping shoots in pots putting the plants to sleep. It was a quick job and we moved into the medicinal herb garden to cut down the flowering shoots of mint, oregano and lemon balm. The remembering came into my bones, without a specific memory and more of a knowing. Surrounded by herbs those powerful medicine plants, scents wafting as we rustled and cut, we talked. We talked of our hopes and plans for our education. It felt as though these conversations were right in these beds, they have happened before, they belonged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt would be kerchief-wringing tragedy if Italians were to miss a vegetable in its transient ripeness. If an edible plant resolutely thwarts all attempts at practicality, a ceremony is devised to take advantage of it, no matter how short the season.\u201d Adler 55<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
As we were cutting the perennials and chatting about the plants I noticed a fig tree, full of plump green figs on bare limbs. It looked confused, it dropped its leaves for the fall change and winter slumber, yet it produced a second round of fruit that was destined for rot. This quote from Adler popped into my mind, rather the concept of the celebration of foods in their season the Italians. The simplicity of reveling thoroughly in a fruit or vegetable while in the peak of its season, the festivity and celebration of the present. I remember everything cherry when the trees bursting with the crimson plump twins, eating so much you don\u2019t want to eat it again and yet you soon long for them when it\u2019s over. My childhood was dotted by season \u2013 cherry, raspberry then peas and peppers. Apples and then the pears with a golden finale of corn before the frost set in. Everything was celebrated in this way. I wonder about this fig tree, remembering it was supposed to bless us with fruit again and the confusion and remembering that it is not at home in the Mediterranean, it is not on its land. How do we celebrate when we remember far from home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
I picked the fruit and turned them into an amaro. Crushed bitter unripe figs, spices and herbs are bathing in alcohol. Time and fermentation will work its magic and I will see if I can preserve the work of this confused fig tree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Flower Arranging A good day to press cider, watch pine needles sparkle in the wind, remembering apple mint in the gravel and the smell of oxidizing apples\u2019 sweet tang in the press. October 5, 2023. 60 degrees farenheight. Olympia, WA. The Evergreen State College Organic Farm. Sunny, Crisp, Blue Sky, White Clouds, Pine Needles in … Continue reading Farming While Remembering<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.evergreen.edu\/foodways-ca-f23-ball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/69"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.evergreen.edu\/foodways-ca-f23-ball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.evergreen.edu\/foodways-ca-f23-ball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.evergreen.edu\/foodways-ca-f23-ball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.evergreen.edu\/foodways-ca-f23-ball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.evergreen.edu\/foodways-ca-f23-ball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/69\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":254,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.evergreen.edu\/foodways-ca-f23-ball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/69\/revisions\/254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.evergreen.edu\/foodways-ca-f23-ball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}