Harvest

August 8th, 2011 § Leave a Comment

Work work work. Isn’t that the opposite of summer?

While most days I get to gaze out at the heat from my over-air conditioned desk at a school district Child Nutrition office, I occasionally get to venture across the highway to the World Hunger Relief Farm for a morning of harvesting. (Sometimes I get to move out there altogether!…for office work. But still, the laid-back farm atmosphere is refreshing, even without much a/c)

Harvest Day

The World Hunger Relief Farm is a farm with a mission to end hunger worldwide. They research sustainable farming practices and equip adventurous people from all over the world who are daring enough to live on the farm, eat off the farm, and learn their skills. They’re pretty legit. The garden that we help harvest is part of a 60 share co-op and grows such interesting specimens as cowpea greens, peppers, beans, and basil to name a few….

Currently going on at the farm…they have an excessive number of bunnies and cute grubby little pigs! One of the guys at the farm has taken on nine pigs as a personal project. He’s done a lot of mission work deep in Mexico and sought more sustainable methods of development than even building houses, so he came to the farm with his family to learn some tricks of the trade. Pigs are very sustainable, as they will eat just about anything….but i was surprised to find that they’re sensitive little creatures too. If you move them too often, if they’re lonely, or just over all sad…they die. He keeps these pigs awfully happy with molasses and whey, and endless places to graze and wallow (indicated by their curly tails!). I can’t imagine killing a pet and eating it (AH!) but with all the love he’s given these pigs he’ll just make someone else kill them – an inevitable occurence; when they’re happy with room to move and wallow they never over eat (surprise!) but they will grow and grow and grow….seemingly endlessly. Anywho, at about nine months old they’re still cute: