Week three - Box days

(This week’s blog comes with a warning – in that it was written last minute to replace the note I had intended to publish. Perhaps at some point I will share the other, but for the time being it seems wisest to keep to observations and descriptions of my life here in the earliest days and perhaps my more in depth considerations will follow later - cryptic)

As those of you who are in regular comms with me will know, I have been AWOL on Thursdays and Fridays and shall be for the foreseeable future. Not sheltering in my caravan from the impending winter but busying away in the packing shed preparing Farm Boxes to go out on delivery. Interns here are expected to muck in with all aspects of the farm business, including the shop, cafe, pub, admin and box schemes.  It makes sense; we all buy into the ethos of the farm so we should all chip in to make it work – though it’s a harder pill to swallow for some than others. Easy for me to say, I don't have any pub shifts...

Luke and Fran 'packing'

The lovely Fran runs the box scheme and drafts a happy bunch of helpers in to pack up and ship out our produce. This photograph might give you the wrong impression of her, but believe me, there is something about the long hours, rising long before the sun and the pressure to get delivery vans out on time that sends us all a bit loopy.  That said, it’s quite a pleasurable way to spend two days because the four of us get along so well. The long hours do take it out of me, and by the time I roll around to my day off on Saturday I’m about ready to sleep. The boxes themselves really showcase what this farm has to offer and though largely delivered locally there are drop off points in North London as well.

 

With all this time on my hands for contemplation, my mind has been heavy this week with thoughts of the future and what this jaunt in the countryside is seriously leading to. I won’t outline all of my plans here, there is much time for them to unfold and I’m happily adapting them the more I talk and mull over the matter. I have however had one brainwave which could just help me to raise cash for land; this is to slowly build up enough entertaining/potentially raunchy pictures of vegetables to make a book – don’t go stealing my idea now, I’ll share a couple with you to give you a taster... there is potential that with enough time and dedicated veg observation there could be enough material for a vegetable kama sutra :)

Carrot love

 

Celeriac (for those who don't know)