Week 3, Spring 2024
Hello everyone, it’s me, Ayden! Welcome back to the farm journal.
Last Friday Martina and Margalit prepared us for Shabbat by making dough for olive and rosemary challah. Eric and I joined in to braid the challah and got creative with some different 3 and 4 strand plaits. As usual, we brought in Shabbat in song and made blessings over the candles, wine, and challah. Our M&M chef team prepared some lovely shakshuka for us which paired perfectly with the challah. Over dinner we talked about our weeks and had some good laughs.
The rest of our cohort joined us later on Saturday. We started preparing for our Purim festivities which meant making another batch of Hamantaschen, lucky me! Remi and Grace joined us as well as Jesse and Casey, some friends from The Land Connection in Illinois. We signified the end of Shabbat by holding the Havdallah service in the silo. The experience of all of our voices together in the resonant space, only lit by candlelight, was truly magical. Chefs Gavi and Acacia prepared some curried lentils with rice and salad. Acacia also cooked up some of our remaining spaghetti squash; it was a truly delectable dish.
To start off our Purim celebration, we all got into costume. The story of Purim is full of motifs about concealing and revealing our identities and about subversion of expectations. For this reason we are encouraged to wear masks and costumes. For our group costume, Gavi assigned each of us one of the tribes of Israel to dress up as. For example, mine was Judah, whose symbol is a lion. Once we were all dressed up, I chanted some verses of the original text of the Megillah of Esther. We also had a great time performing a Purim spiel, a satirical skit, retelling the Purim story, with plenty of allusions to Sheldon, Illinois and regenerative agriculture. Other merriments of the evening included singing, dancing, eating Hamantaschen, and looking at the full moon from out on top of the hay bales.
On Sunday morning we were so lucky to have Jesse and Casey give us some extensive pointers on how to prune our fruit trees. I learned that there are so many things to consider when deciding how to prune and shape a tree. How many branches are helpful but not too crowded? Which direction should the branches be facing to ensure the right amount of sunlight? Which branches should we encourage to bear fruit? We worked through all these questions and more while getting so many helpful tips and tricks to keep our fruit trees in the best shape possible. After we said goodbye to Jesse and Casey in the afternoon, Margalit and Martina prepared to celebrate another Purim tradition: Mishloach Manot. Translating literally to “the sending of portions,” this practice involves sending gifts of food to members of our community. In addition to yet ANOTHER batch of Hamantaschen, our Mishloach Manot team prepared some portions of our very own apple butter and popcorn to send out to some of our friends in town.
Invigorated with newfound knowledge and confidence, we started our work week by getting some new files and shims to prepare for the many hours of pruning ahead of us. We have a general set of guidelines to help make decisions about how to prune each tree. But each tree tells its own story and requires us to make different choices. Most of the time there isn’t one clear, right answer. In small increments the process can be pleasantly philosophical, but after long periods can become taxing on the mind. I’m glad I had a chance to take a break and soak some straw to prepare for our upcoming mushroom inoculation.
On Tuesday Acacia and I got started cleaning the basement to ensure it would be in tip top shape for mushroom production. In the afternoon, we all got together to discuss Context Conversations, a way that we at ZA like to incorporate some kind of group learning into our workflow. Other activities for the day included mushroom inoculation, compost check-in, high tunnel prep, and thinning our seedlings in the greenhouse. We were so excited when Lexi arrived in the evening and we all got to enjoy the microgreens that were thinned from the greenhouse with dinner.
Wednesday morning was frigid. After a short-lived pruning attempt, we decided to spend some time on indoor tasks. Sophie and Margalit started working on some resources to get everyone familiar with the Jewish terminology and practices that we use here on the farm. Acacia, Eric, and I met with Lexi to talk about our plans for mushroom production this season. Margalit joined JR, Johnny, and Mark in working on the new fence going up in ATR to protect our trees from being snacked on by local deer. Who knew deer could jump as high 7 ft?! After the workday was over I joined Lexi, Acacia, and Gavi for a long walk in the depths of the woods. As the sun started to set, I worried about finding our way back until I looked up at the clear, night sky and found it filled with stars. Coming from New York City, a bright, starry night is a rarity for me. We returned from our adventure to find fresh bread and hummus prepared for us by Martina and Margalit. We then closed out our evening by putting on some candles and journaling together.
I started Thursday by meeting with Lexi to discuss what mushroom-related responsibilities I will be taking on this spring. Mushroom maintenance was a big part of my experience in my past season here at ZA, so I am really excited to be more involved in the process from start to finish. In the afternoon all hands were on deck to help with the fence. The fence crew had been drilling holes into the ground for the whopping 8 foot fence posts. Then the posts were pushed into the ground before being hammered into the ground with the bottom of a backhoe. It was pretty cool to see all the big farm equipment at work. For dinner Eric and Martina fashioned some more of our remaining squash into a delicious sauce to serve with some pasta and salad.
And with that we’ve made it to Friday! Today we’ve been putting our all into the fence. I took some time to reflect on this week so that I could share what we’ve been up to with you all. Have a Shabbat Shalom, and come back for more next week!
