Article:

Moving Onward

Autumn is a time for closure, rest and a renewal of the essential. The work of the season has been full, challenging and rewarding to folks out here and we posed a question to the crew what experience they would take with them as they leave the farm. We appreciate the dedication and hard work of our staff whether it be during the glorious days of summer sun or the freezing cold mornings. 

Arturo

Regardless of what we think of our surrounding, our surrounding affects who we are. Its almost like, the more one stays in a particular space the more one starts to resemble it. I hope this theoretical principle applies to me. For the last year in a half my surroundings have been vegetables, fruits, animals, soil, insects; dark almost black purple egg plant with green spiky tops. Radishes that pop out of the ground ruby red, never ceasing to capture you with there color. Bunches of chard thrown on dewy dark soil highlighting there translucent red stalks. Frosty freezing Fridays. These our the things I take with me and hopefully resembling them. 
 

Cara

This season I have learned a lot about myself through the work we do here at the farm. It is an interesting phenomenon that when you begin to focus on a very specific object or activity, you uncover some universal truths. The knowledge I have gained here working in the vegetables will be applicable in any job I choose to do in the future. 

For me this season has been a process of letting go. I have let go of attitudes and ways of thinking that do not serve me well. At some moments it was a painful process but ultimately invaluable. Those days when I got lost in the zucchini and thought that I may never make it out, I realized that the tools that had served me well in previous work situations were of no use here. My perfectionism, attention to detail, and thoroughness have won the approval of supervisors in my past. But here they are not helpful unless they are tempered with accurate body movements, an ability to make quick decisions, and an overall quick but efficient approach to each task. It is good if the zucchini or onions that I am harvesting are perfectly clean and sorted by size and shape, but it is not so good if one task takes all day to complete.

A kind of balancing act is necessary for almost everything we do on the farm. It does not serve you to focus on any one element; you must juggle several ideas and skills for each job. This push and pull can be a difficult rhythm to get used to. However, once this approach is understood it can be applied to anything you want to achieve. So as I leave this season I am taking with me a more refined approach to work that can be applied to any part of my life- career, cooking, art, writing, even relationships. I am very thankful for this experience. 
 

Matthew

I visited Horton Road on a crisp & sunny day last January. As I drove out Hwy 36 towards the farm, I felt a gathering sense of draw and excitement. The firs and cedars were the same that loomed over me as a child on the Puget Sound. The clear cuts, the same that exposed the hillsides around the farm where my grandma and father were raised. Both comforting in their ways. As I walked the farm with Bill and Alex that day and sat and talked with Debra and Bill at their kitchen table, it was obvious to me that this was where I wanted to start learning how to farm. As I reflect on the season, the many tasks & details, aching muscles, sliced fingers, amazing meals, enamored market shoppers, sharing their appreciation, glorious CSA boxes, and barn living, I can’t wait to do it all over again. 
 

Stacey

I have been coming back to “the farm” for the last five years, some years to stay, others to just visit. Each year new plants, people, ideas come to be. 

Winter offering time of rest for the land and the people. Time to let go of the past, and reflect and make changes for the future. Spring “buds” appear: sun, old friends and community gather again to support the farm; farmers come back refreshed, re-energized, and ready to endure the burst of energies of the Summer; new apprentices arrive to learn a hand at farming. Seeds are sown in the mind, the heart, the soil, and friendship. Summer in it’s abundance of food & responsibilities, growth, and pressures & struggles to keep going to the end –the harvest of the seeds sown. And Autumn, the harvest of the fruits of our hopes & ideas, our labors, our training, our friendships. Take a deep breath and inhale the WHOLE experience. Welcome it in. Sit on it. Let it reemerge on it’s own bringing answers, detachments, excitements, inspirations, an end . . . 

Something happens -a beginning that was just a dream has become a reality through a giving and taking between the people & themselves and the people & the land. We can only watch & listen & carry on . . . 
  

Stacey and Kris were married earlier this month at her folk’s home in Reno complete with Horton Road veggies they hauled with them for the event and turned into a luscious feast. They met last year here at the farm. Chris Manley left the farm early to take care of his father in San Francisco. He left with sincere wishes for his journey and expressed appreciation for the experience here to all. Each year we have a whole new mix of folks which largely defines the year and is always an adventure and unforgettable connection sharing this earth.