Day Two on Da Farm (Alive and Well)

I'd reckon I'm even thriving on the farm. (A little sore, but good-to-exert-and-move-body-sore) Because where good people are, even hard work isn't bad and you have a good time in the open air. PLUS being everywhere with ANNIE KEITHLINE is really really really great. I've been deprived and now I'm overdosing, (No bad symptoms though, just happier Svet.) I even get to sleep with her and we talk like little girls at a sleepover!

This morning the sky wept drizzly tears. With no rain boots I was a bit worried, but the weather was so nice and balmy (mid fifties in the morning, but the humidity made it feel warmer) that I abandoned myself to wet feet in exchange for overall warmth. Good deal.

Because of the rain our work consisted mainly of greenhouse tasks and stuff under the other roofs--there's a work station type area with tables and a vegetable wash across from all the rows and Annie and I created Harris (family that owns and operates White Oak Pastures) logo stencils to spray paint on all the CSA (community supported agriculture) boxes that would go out to memebers of the CSA hopefully beginning March 14.  Our projecto was called off because the logo on the plastic crates was too scratchable, so to the greenhouse I went.

Green house with the babyy plants

But not before learning about the eggs. "Doing eggs" as they say on the farm, is a weekly affair. White Oaks has over 600 laying hens, (!!!)  Egg duty consists in collecting all of the eggs, washing them a few times, sorting them, and packaging them to go to Whole Foods, a restaurant in town called The Greasy Spoon (hehehehhe I like this name), and to be sold to employess and at the White Oaks grocery store (which is new--name to come). This was an amazing experience. I felt like I was participating in a PBS documentary on egg production. Frankie told me all about the porous egg shell and looking for cracks and seeing the bubble on the bototn of the egg which is one of the indicators of it being good.

Frankie at the beginning of the egg assembly
line, inspecting for cracks and putting them
through the wash.

 

Cindy sorting eggs by weight
and packaging

 

Lori packaging like a boss

After lunch, which came quick today, (Annie says this is because we were working on less tasks today, and theorized that task variance causes time to pass slower. I think it depends on the task. Whether you are in the FLOW. I think we were flowin with those stencils though.) we ate at the farm restaurant/cafeteria called Pasture to Plate (clever name, right?! More on this restaurant soon, cool story behind it.) Then I planted Shanghai Green Baby bokchoi and Nancy lettuce seeds in the greenhouse with Lori, Annie, and Gil. I love the greenhouse it's ridiculously warm in there. Tempting nap spot. Working on getting a hammock.

Annie and Frankie yesterday, next to the potato rows

We were let out one hour early today because we stayed after yesterday for potato planting. So Annie and I sampled wine, drank tea, and read at the table with beautiful afternoon sun illuminating the kitchen table and the azalias set upon it. Gah beautiful. I'm a corn ball, but it was a perfect moment setting there reading with Annie K. Feeding the intellect and the social self in silence. Woahhh.

We went for a walk down the (dirt) road before dinner (barefoot!) with Onyx the dog who I keep calling a he though she's a she. She has so much ENERGY. The Georgia landscape here is startlingly gorgeous.  Love to ya from the land of pecans and peaches.

--Svet--

Look at the color