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Day 3, 4, 5: Relationships and food

The days are pretty packed here. There is so much I could tell you about. As I was saying in my last post, on Monday we went to a large scale mushroom operation. The owner's son showed us around. Yes, mushrooms are grown in chicken poop, like I thought, but it's also mixed with hay, gypsum, compost and other stuff. And put into these beds which are stacked one on top of another (like bunk beds)in a climate controlled concrete room. Inside the room we saw the pickers putting the white button mushrooms directly into those little plastic boxes you buy at the store. We could hear several different languages being spoken, as most are recent immigrants. It was a fascinating operation. Low in terms of chemical inputs, but probably high in terms of energy needed to keep the rooms at a particular temperature (and sterilize each room after each batch. By heating it up tso 160 degrees!). Also the fact that immigrants are used, and are paid so little created lots of debate about workers rights, fair wages, etc. among us otesha tour members, etc.

Later in the day we had a workshop on how to save seeds (which was given by a dedicated woman who has the seeds for 310 different varieties of tomatoes). People like her are doing amazing work maintaining the genetic diversity of our plants. So much of it has been lost already. Her bean collection - just the small part that I saw - was astounding! Other than say kidney, black, navy, and maybe green beans - we're just not exposed to all the diversity that has evolved. That night for dinner our guest was a man from the Seneca first nation. He told us story after story of his people and their relationship to eachother and to the land - they are and were farming. Their staple crops were the three sisters (beans, corn and squash). I wish I could adequately convey his stories. But the main impression I got was just how connected to the land and all living beings. It also reminded me of something said by the young farmer working at Roots and Shoots: the difference between industrial agriculture and organic is that industrial agriculture feeds the plant (and often depletes the soil and hurts the environment) organic agriculture feeds the soil. In fact, these farmers hope to leave the soil healthier than when they found it. It's all about rethinking our relationship with the earth. And changing your perspective. It is not something many of us think about, but if pushed to define it, I think I probably grew up thinking the land was something you either used or protected. Using was necessary but bad (like building roads, etc.). And therefore, we need to save it and protect it. But using and protecting and even better, respecting and nourishing the land at the same time just didn't seem possible. But it can be -- if we change our perspective. If we work with natural processes and honour them. But it's not easy. It takes a tonne of knowledge. And some of it I think has been lost and some of it needs adapting to our time and place.

Days 2 and 3: Dirty hands and gratitude

Hello,

I was simply too tired to write last night. I'm also too tired tonight, but know I could use some time to reflect.

Day two was spent on the farm. It was a full day. An early start of hot brown rice cereal and then the owner of the farm (one of them), met us to give us a tour and lead us in weeding onions (for about 2.5 hours). And by weeding I mean on our knees or crouching down pulling at a huge variety of greens with our bare hands. We worked in pairs but kept tight as a group so we were able to keep morale high by talking and laughing together. Got me thinking a lot about the issue of how hard a time farmers have trying to get locals to do this kind of labour and how they now rely on temporary foreign workers. It is hard work, but there are ways to make it meaningfully and fun.

The work left me very dirty - my hands stained with greens and browns. But that was just the beginning. After lunch, we had a bike maintenance workshop - which got my hands all greasy. :-) Oh my, I learned so much! The main thing being how to fix a flat tire. Awesome. Feels so good to start to learn this stuff. Takes away the intimidation and need to rely on others - rather empowering actually.

And finally - just when I thought there couldn't be another way to dirty my hands, I helped to make thank you cards (with glue and scrap paper and random grass from the farm) for our evening speakers. Who were so amazing! One was from Oxfam, another speaker had a diverse background including working with the organization Food Secure Canada (I had met her before in my Kingston food activism days) and the third speaker was another owner of the farm where we're staying

Such a fun full day! So much more I could say about it. But getting so tired, since today we actually did some biking - I did about 52 km to a mushroom farm! Will have to tell you all about this amazing, pretty large- scale operation tomorrow. Saw their hard work in windowless rooms, cutting mushrooms by hand, earning less than minimum wage (cause they are paid by how much they pick). So as I ate my mushroom risotto I felt pretty grateful for all their hard work.

Good night!



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August 4, 2010 - An Update

I'm so pleased that people have been reading the blog and it's even created some dialogue!  Just the other week I found out that the fellow at the mushroom operation who gave us the tour has been reading my posts and has had some comments, which have been passed along to me from the folks at the Otesha office.  Dialogue on these issues is important, so here is what he had to say (particularly with regards to the last paragraph in the post above): 

"After reading your site, I decided to subscribe to the blog to follow along with the rest of the locations the group was going to see & in doing so I came across perhaps some confusion when reading Holly's blog. She referred to our employees working in large windowless rooms, which is correct because in order for the product to grow that is the environment that is required. However her comment that they make less than minimum wage is inaccurate as all of the harvesters go through a 3 month training period before switching over to piece work where they get paid for how many pounds they harvest. The majority of the harvesters make well over minimum wage and are encouraged to take breaks as often as they like. I feel as though maybe there was a misunderstanding when I was talking with the group and wanted to clarify this. It was a lot of fun giving the tour as this group asked many intelligent questions & I hope that Otesha may use Continental as a location for future tours."

I do hope Otesha continues to go to the mushroom operation as it was fascinating, and I thank the mushroom operation guide for these comments.

Day one from my tent at Roots and Shoots Farm

Hello from my wee tent in the field at Roots and Shoots farm. I'll tell you more about the farm tomorrow - after our weeding fun in the morning. Todays highlights: Lunch in a children garden on Main St. in old Ottawa East. Beautiful garden where neighbourhood kids can learn about veggies and herbs - watch them grow first hand. A volunteer mother told us how even a little one year old who attends the gardens play group has learned what a strawberry plant looks like - and tastes like! - so now when this little munchkin goes to the garden, she plops herself down by the strawberry patch waiting to be fed! Garlic scape pesto! Amazing!! Kale chips - I'm sure you're all aware. Kale + olive oil + sea salt + baking = best new snack I've tried since, well samosas dipped in garlic scape pesto! Thought for the day -- moving slow can be a good thing. Bikes are kind of slow compared to well, cars. But you see so much more. You can smell the warm summer scent. I like moving slow sometimes. I thought about that as I washed my face tonight with the cold water from the sink at the farm and just took a moment to enjoy the feeling if being refreshed! Reminds me of one of my favourite chants from a foodie friend: Oh what am I rushing to? Oh what am I rushing for? Slow down, slow down and savour. Good night!