Week 3, Fall 2022
To start off our week Stephanie gave Mira a tour of our lovely farm. After that Mira and I (Ayden) got to work picking shishito and melrose peppers until we got rained out. One big task that we worked on throughout the week was continuing to weed our carrot and beet beds in Goat garden. We packed our order for Mary, our distributor, and Mira made some soup with lentils and some of our squash along with roasted shishito peppers.
Spending so much time on the task of weeding gave me lots of time to listen to music and podcasts. But it also gave me an opportunity to think critically about the practice of weeding.
On my initial drive down to the farm in August, Lexi and I had a really interesting conversation about the topography of rural Illinois, and how this area wasn’t always corn as far as the eye can see; human beings have made the land this way. A big part of ZA’s mission is having an intentional relationship with the environment and promoting biodiversity that helps the land and the local ecosystem. Weeding is a way that we manipulate our ecosystems to optimize the growth of the crops that we want. It is definitely important for us to weed here on the farm so that our plants have more resources to grow, not to mention in the case of plants like invasive species that cause harm to their environments. But many of the plants we consider “weeds” occur naturally in our environments and play a part in a well-rounded ecosystem. For this reason I think it’s helpful for us to contextualize our weeding as a form of ecological manipulation, instead of simply a way to get rid of “bad” plants so that “good” ones grow.
On Tuesday Stephanie drove Marya to the airport, sending her off to the East Coast. We will miss her very much until her short return in November, but we are so excited about the awesome research she will be conducting very soon! Mira and I spent the morning weeding and harvesting tomatoes. In the afternoon I packed up some tomatoes, melrose and shishito peppers, and cucumbers for the food pantry. For dinner Stephanie made us dinner with some fresh tomato sauce and our swiss chard sauteed with miso and liquid aminos.
I spent Wednesday morning at the pantry and got some new and familiar faces excited about our shishito peppers. Stephanie picked me up along with some fresh local eggs which I scrambled up for lunch along with some rice and a salad with fresh heirloom tomatoes and basil. In the afternoon Mira and I helped Lexi prepare some buckets for oyster mushroom inoculation. Our cohort and Lexi watched the premier of a great video from fellow Jewish farming organization, Linke Fligl, and discussed it over dinner.
On Thursday we spent most of our morning weeding. For lunch Stephanie roasted some of our shishito peppers, including some orange ones that were quite spicy! In the afternoon Mira and I learned from Lexi how to inoculate shiitake mushrooms in logs that came from trees in the area. The process involved drilling holes in the logs, inserting mushroom spawn, aka mycelium that have already been growing, into the holes, and sealing them with wax. The mycelium will feed on the moistened wood and in about a year shiitake mushrooms will begin to emerge from the surface of the log. How cool!
On Friday, you guessed it, we continued weeding! Mira made a delicious lunch of curry with some locally-sourced tofu and our swiss chard. As we prepared for Shabbat Stephanie made some challah dough which I later braided and put in the oven. After lighting the candles and blessing the wine and challah we enjoyed some sesame peanut noodles for dinner. Our Shabbat was very relaxed and unstructured. I spent my Shabbat finding things that brought me joy. I really love animals so I made sure to get some cuddles from our barn cats and I introduced myself to Johnny’s calves with an offering of some hay. I also walked through the Bayit garden to feel the earth on my feet and I sat in the grass to meditate. I especially appreciate this opportunity coming from New York City. On Sunday we made a group excursion to a local fall fair. We had a really fun time exploring the vendors, snacks, and even a local youth circus! Then we headed home and set our sights on all the exciting things we have in store for the next week.
Image credit: Stephanie Berger
Image description: Orange tabby cat peeking through leaves
