On Friday, Jbird and I attended another international student event. I
am always a little apprehensive about these events beforehand, whether I'll enjoy my time, and have anyone to talk to. The cons of going seem to outweigh the pros yet I tell myself to go and attend with a mixture of both scepticism and enthusiasm. At least I have Jbird, he's in it for the free food and the games. I ended up being happy I went despite my scepticism, finding a community of people that lean on each other for support and have not-being-American in common.
The event on Friday was a picnic at a 'real American farm'. Can you hear my sarcasm? I was sarcastic because of the need to authenticate the farm by calling it 'real' and 'American'. I guess I'm not used to being treated alongside a group of other internationals. I also think a lot of the people that attended may have never visited a farm before while I lived on one until I was 5 when we moved to the city. Then I visited it bi-weekly.
It was a family farm, not far from here. And it was exciting. These people are growing their food they way it should be grown. The grass grows waste high, they keep all the animals in one section of a paddock but they move them every day to a new section. If the weather's good, it can take them up to 90 days to return to that first section. They're eating grass the way it was meant to grow: tall with long roots. When the animals have been moved, the roots fall off, and the chickens are put on their old section to scratch up all the seeds, preparing it to sprout fresh grass. They're happy on that section because they're omnivores and it's covered in left-over grass seeds and bugs that have come for the dung.
Do you remember my recommendation for the book: The Dirty Life by Kristin Kimball? It made me want to grow more than a few mere vegetables. This farm wasn't the size of the farm in Kristin's book, but it was as inspirational. It was neat to be on such a farm after I'd spent all that time enjoying the story of one.
That farm sounds so nice!! Even though I don't like nature... ahhahaha
ReplyDeleteYeah, I took an antihistamine to avoid the effects of nature on me...if you read the book, you might 'hate' it a little less (and live it intrinsically). Though it's probably outside your genre!
ReplyDeleteGreat blog Annabel! But we had to laugh, while you were worrying about forming relationships before the event all JBird was thinking about was his stomach and having fun, this seems to be the ever-ending difference between men and women.
ReplyDeleteKen & Sue
yes, ain't it the truth. He likes to be around crowds of people, too, I think, whereas I prefer more intimate settings of just 2 - 4.
ReplyDeletesounds like a wonderful farm, Annabel. I get so excited about food grown properly. Am I strange? :)
ReplyDeleteNo! It's so exciting. I get depressed about all the food that is labelled as 'organic' and 'free range' because even though it's better than the other kind, unless you personally know the farmer, it's not necessarily MUCH better than the other kind.
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