Future Farmers in Training - Part 2

Kevin's 6-week Reflection:

Rainshadow Farm Store

Last Spring my wife Katie and I decided that we were going to leave our jobs, our home and our lifestyles that we had worked hard for in order to live, learn and work on an organic farm. “Crazy!”. That’s what we heard from a few, but “of course you are, that’s awesome!” is the response from most everyone that knew us well. Over the past few years, admittedly thanks to the local organic trend, we have become more interested in what we were really eating and what it takes to grow and raise this food. Finding Rogue Farm Corps was a real blessing in disguise because I had no idea that opportunities like this were available. We spent most of last year researching the organization, the farms, and figuring out how it was going to work out for our lives. Almost a year later, here we are at Rainshadow Organics, in our mid-thirties,  living in a 10’x16’ tent, learning to do something that we have no practical experience in, and sharing our daily lives with 7+ perfect strangers. Yep, a little crazy.

Sunrise on the farm

For the whole year leading up to the start of our internship, I think my expectations changed weekly. All I knew was that we would be learning to grow things. How and where were the unknowns. I had worked a pretty physical job as a land surveyor for the previous 12 years, and the standing, bending, lifting and carrying were all things I was accustomed to. However, I have quickly learned that farming body mechanics are completely different from any other activity that I have experienced. I have found myself sore in ways and places that I have never experienced before. My body has surely gotten stronger, more limber, and more durable over these first six weeks, and I look forward to the further transformation over the course of the season. I felt that the communal living on the farm would be a rather easy transition. Katie and I have lived by ourselves for a long time going into this, but we have spent a lot of time travelling and have kept a fairly social lifestyle. Thus far it has been a good experience developing working relationships and friendships with our fellow interns and the farm family.

View from the road, across the big field,
with the 3 Sisters Mountains in the background

A few of the things that I enjoy the most about the program and the farm are the views, the food, and the opportunity to take on a season long project that is our own. The scenery out here is stunning, the mountains and Smith Rock stretched across the farmscape is truly breathtaking. The food that we have access to is likely some of the best that I have eaten and cooked with. The idea that we have not even sniffed the bounty of goods to come this season is so exciting. The freedom to explore an idea, or hobby in my case, as an independent project away from farm tasks is exciting. I have decided to establish a hop garden on the farm, and further my knowledge of homebrewing this season. The anticipation is to create beers with as many on farm ingredients as possible over the course of the season.

Some of the challenges on the farm so far are the weather conditions, the monotony of some tasks, and the true learning experience. I have lived in Central Oregon for a few years now, and have seen quite the extremes. Living and working outside for most of the day has taken some getting used to. The first week or two after arriving on the farm were cold and wet, but it has started to change for the better. I knew that there would be tasks in farming that were not going to be my favorite things to do. And I knew that I would probably do them often. Such is the case. I have quickly learned that these things are an important factor in the success and sustainability of farming the way that we do, and that is good with me. I have been doing a job for a long time that was right in my comfort zone. Sure I learned as I went, but I had confidence in what I was doing and I was good at it. Here, it’s all brand new to me. It is a challenge for sure, but I really feel like I have a solid interest in what we are doing and I desire to develop new skills and build upon the ones that I have. I don’t know that I am going to be a farmer in the future, but if I am, I want to be the best one that I can. Until then, I am an intern at Rainshadow Organics. I am going to learn, embrace the experience, help the farm have a successful season, develop new friendships and professional relationships, and enjoy myself.

Cheers to 2018!

Kevin Cunnagin

Future Farmers in Training - Part 1

View from the perennial flower patch,
through the triticale and wheat
into the 25-Acre "Big Field"

Lettuce Beds in the 2-Acre Garden

Well, it's been a few years since we posted here but we've recently embarked on a new kind of adventure and I thought it might be nice to document it.  I don't know if anyone is still interested in following this... but I'm posting anyway!!

This April Kevin and I started a season-long (April-Nov) internship on a full diet organic farm between Sisters and Terrebonne in Central Oregon.  What is a full diet organic farm you ask?  We grow/raise pretty much everything we consume right here without using herbicides or pesticides.  This includes almost any vegetable you can imagine, plus some fruit, pasture raised chickens (for meat and eggs), hogs, and beef, grain for flour and even a dairy cow for fresh milk and dairy products.  We live in a tent and share communal kitchen and bath space with the other 7 interns.


We are working through a program called Rogue Farm Corps and our farm is Rainshadow Organics.  I'll include links to these in case anyone's interested in checking them out.

http://www.rainshadoworganics.com
https://www.roguefarmcorps.org/

I also want to say that we are incredibly busy and absolutely exhausted at the end of every day.  Taking extra time to write a blog is really not what either of us want to do right now.  However, our host farmer/mentor, Sarahlee Lawrence, likes to hold our paychecks hostage until we right a monthly reflection for her.  My thought is that I can use these reflections for the narrative, and then include some pictures.  If you have any questions about what we're doing or want to hear more about something in particular, let me know and I'll dive in!  So... here's the first instalment!

Hawaii Life

Honaunau, HI

January 7 - February 19, 2015

The beach has gotten the best of us and we have fallen into "Hawaiian time". We just realized we have been here over a month, and really haven't checked in. Sorry about that. We are absolutely loving it and feeling right at home... here's the scoop.

Place of Refuge at Pu'uhonu o Honaunau Park

We live in a two bedroom house on a five acre farm in the Honaunau neighborhood of Captain Cook on the big island of Hawaii. The farm overlooks the "place of refuge" so we have beautiful views of the water from our living room and our bedroom. The farm is mostly macadamia nut trees and coffee, but there are also banana plants, papaya, a couple avocado trees, mango, lilikoi (Hawaiian passion fruit), dragon fruit, and my friends the chickens. Lori and Cameron, our hosts, sell their Mac nuts to Hawaiian Host... so you've probably eaten one.

Our first roommates were a Polish couple who were kicked off the farm after only a couple days. Cameron has as strict non-smoking policy which goes beyond not smoking on the farm and extends to not smoking at all...Richard (the polish man) was a smoker. Our next roommates, who just left yesterday were a fun Slovenian couple, Nic and Natasha. We got along great and had fun Uno and puzzle nights to complement our beach days and island adventures.  We go down to Cameron and Lori's house a couple times a week for dinner and campfires, and the company is always great fun!

Lori teaching Katie how to roll pizza dough

We are typically required to work 4 days per week, and the work is varied... which is nice. When we do farm work we typically work from 7:30-12:30 which gives us the rest of the day to go to the beach or do whatever. When we work farmer's markets at their mobile pizza kitchen the day is a bit longer, so sometimes we only work 3 days. Some of the other farmers on the island require their work-exchange helpers to work 30-35 hours a week picking Mac nuts/coffee only... I would die. Mac nut picking is awful. It's not really that hard...but the nuts are all on the ground so you are either squatting or bending over the whole time, and it's BORING. When we pick nuts I put my audio book on and I'm good for about 3 hours. The fourth hour is rough and the fifth is almost unbearable. On the flip side, I love everything about working at Pizza Rovers in the farmer's markets! 

Lori and Cameron left corporate jobs in California about 5 years ago, and without any prior knowledge to farming bought this place and moved over. Cameron bought the oven a few years later from a pizza restaurant that was upgrading so they could have pizza nights on the farm... later they thought it might be a good way to make some supplemental income, and without any experience making pizzas, Pizza Rovers was born. Our experience working with them and with Pizza Rovers has inspired us to start our own mobile food business in Bend. We are working on our business plan and recipes with the intent on being ready to operate during the upcoming farmers market season serving up gourmet grilled cheese. I have already started learning how to bake artisan bread, and we had a grilled cheese night at the farm on Wednesday where everyone created a sandwich and we invited guest judges who rated them on appearance, taste, and originality... and mine won! Woot Woot! It was a delicious combination of brie, Granny Smith apples, arugula, and honey mustard on my own bread. If you have any company name ideas or sandwich ideas, please send them our way! We are nervous about this endeavor, but also extremely excited! I knew opening and running that gym was getting me ready for something... I just didn't know what!

Aside from working on the farm, we have also done a lot of exploring on the island (this part will be more interesting when I publish the blog and there are pictures...).

The Mongoose

Mauna Kea Beach

We realized right away that the bus system is awful and hitchhiking is annoying. We wanted the freedom to explore everything on our own timeline... so we bought The Mongoose, a 98 Subaru Outback.  Hopefully it will continue to run smoothly, and we will be able to sell it when we leave and make our money back. So far, it's been a great purchase! We've explored a lot of beaches, and

Manini Beach Park at Kealakekua Bay

done some snorkeling and boogie boarding. The other morning we were on our way out for a run, and got a text that the dolphins were at Two Step beach. So we abandoned our run, and went to exercise with the dolphins...it was surreal!

Getting ready for entry at 2-Step

You could hear them talking under water, then all of a sudden they would be swimming under you, then jumping out of the water and spinning in the air! At one point, there was a dolphin swimming circles around Kevin and me! They are extremely curious, and as long as you don't chase them and are not aggressive, they will come to check you out! They often come to rest in the bay here, so hopefully this will not be our last dolphin encounter. We've seen quite a few sunbathing sea turtles, but none in the water yet...that's on my list!

Turtle at Kaloko-Honokohau

We took a road trip to the Hilo side of the island to check out the waterfalls, but there hasn't been much rain (we are in the dry season), so they were less than impressive... we'll have to venture

Waipio Valley overlook

Rainbow Falls

that way again once the rains come.

We drove up to the visitors center at Mona Loa to watch the sunset and stayed to start gaze through their big telescopes.

View of Hualalai Volcano from Mauna Loa

 We visited Kilauea and watched the glow from the crater.

Waiting for Kiluea with roomies Nic and Natasha

Beginning to see the glow at dusk

And we jumped off the cliff at South Point, the southern must point in the United States. As it turns out, jumping off is the easy part ... it's climbing back up that horrible moving ladder that's the real challenge!

Locals on the road south... his friends were buffaloes and a zebra!

Sunbathing turtles at Black Sand Beach

The most impressive thing is just the landscape in general. It is so varied! Vast lava fields that look like they could be on mars... cliffs falling into the blue blue ocean, jungle scapes, beaches of every color, and the black lava rock right up to the edge of the blue and aqua water... love it! So far that wraps up our adventures... many more to come!

Quetzals to Dollars - Exploring El Salvador

El Salvador
November 29 - December 15, 2014

I know, I know... we are failing at maintaining our blog.  To those of you who are still reading this and to our future selves as we look back on our adventures... don't forget, we went to El Salvador.

After a smooth border crossing, we began and ended our El Salvador adventure in the small surf town of El Tunco, just outside the port city of La Libertad.  We spent our days playing in the surf, relaxing in hammocks, and searching out the best pupusas in town (which we found)! We would ride the bus into La Libertad for groceries and haircuts (word of advise: just say no to the tempting $3 haircut... I lost almost 8 inches after all was said and done and fixed), and did a little hiking to a cool cliff jumping and swimming spot outside of town. Inicially we thought we might take this opportunity to learn how to surf; but after playing around in (and getting beaten up by) the waves... we decided boogie boarding was more our speed.

Local fisherman perched for a good view

Our beach friend, Uva

Pick-Up "football" game

At sunset, everyone stopped what they were doing, and enjoyed the beauty... every night.

 El Tunco is known as a great place to learn to surf because the waves are big enough to get up, but not so huge as to intimidate beginners... They are still to strong for me.  I'll just appreciate their power and beauty.

Boogie boarding fun!

 

King of the waves

Sometimes the waves got a little too big.

 

 

 

 

Cliff jumping at Tamanique Waterfall, and fish drying at the port in La Libertad

We followed La Ruta de Flores through several small towns, enjoying the scenery, the street art, a gastronomy festival in Juyua, and a coffee plantation in Ataco.

Food Fair in Juayua

Coffee processing plant

At work, drying coffee beans

Taste test!

Coffee cherries

 

 

 

 

View of Volcan Ixtapa

We spent several days in Santa Ana, and took day trips to climb Volcan Santa Ana, and visit some ruins.

It was extremely windy at the sumit

Trying not to fall into the crater... inside was a beautiful blue lake the we got a glimpse of, but no pictures.

Tazumal

Merry Christmas, from El Salvador!