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!





Katie's Week 6 Reflection:

What am I doing here?

Home Sweet Home
(And yes... that's snow you see.  It was a tad cold when we first moved in.)

Panoramic view of the abode

I have been asking myself this a lot lately.  How did I end up a 35 year old farming intern living in a tent?  Similar to most other people I know, I grew up with a vague outline in mind of how life goes after high school: go to college, get a job, get married, buy a house, start a family, save for retirement...  I started out down this path, but always felt a little restless and unfulfilled. I went through the motions and graduated college, earning a degree I have yet to use in a vocational setting but for which I will pay monthly installments until the day I die.  I worked my way up the ladder in the company I started with in college to a senior management position with health benefits, profit sharing perks and a retirement plan. I got married. Luckily, I married someone with a nomadic spirit who brings out the wanderer in me.  Realizing we were not satisfied with the status quo we had created for ourselves, we quit our jobs, packed up our belongings, and set out for a year long sabbatical followed by a relocation and career change.

Pigs on Pasture
"Cuddle Puddle"

"Heartbeet"

Herein began our journey and quest for a life of purpose.  When we moved to Bend, I enrolled in massage school. An unexpected part of the curriculum focused on approaching health from a holistic viewpoint... and it all starts with nutrition.  Shopping at the grocery store became a 3 hour unbearable experience involving scrutinizing every label and trying to decipher the difference between “pasture raised” and “free range” and weather or not they meant anything anyway. “Organic” doesn’t tell you how a farm treats its soil, and whether or not there are enough nutrients that even make it into the food. And what about the impact that my love of year-round mangos has on the environment when they have to be shipped to my local grocery store?  So, we signed up for a local CSA and started a backyard garden. Watching “The Walking Dead” didn’t help matters; those who survived the zombie apocalypse spent all their time in search of food. The drive to grow my own food and be more self-sufficient was reaching a boiling point.  However, based on the success level of my garden I was going to need some help and it was apparent that reading a book was not going to cut it. I needed some hands on experience. My husband came across the Rogue Farm Corps internship program, and soon it was all we could talk about.

My favorite row on the farm!
Tiny salanova lettuce accented by volunteer poppies

So here we are, 35 year old farming interns living in a tent in Central Oregon for 7 months.  In these first six weeks I’ve already learned enough to have the best backyard garden on the block!  But there’s so much more to learn! Everything we’re doing is so far out of my range of experiences that every day is a challenge.  Everyday I am doing things I’ve never done before. My biggest obstacle is trying to balance doing a task well and doing it efficiently.  I am, apparently, the world’s slowest farmer. The work is humbling and rewarding. At the end of each day I feel like I did something worthwhile.

Kevin manning the wood fired pizza oven

Pizza made entirely off the farm

The fruit of our labor is apparent at each meal.  We nourish ourselves with food grown and raised right here with sustainable, organic and compassionate practices.  We cook with what is available right now, and supplement with treats preserved from last year’s harvest. So what am I doing here?  I’m still not entirely sure. But I’m going soak it up while I’m here, enjoy the best food of my life, and learn enough to take it with me and apply it to my own life of purpose.