Tonight’s garden salad with thyme, basil, and mint reminded me of my first agricultural job – indeed my first job ever, picking raspberries as an 11 year-old in Washington State. Work began promptly at 7am, and it was a bicycle ride of more than a mile, up and down hills of course, to get there.
The raspberry varieties were of the choicest kind destined for restaurants, such as the giant “Royal Reds.” We picked from 7-3:30 with a lunch break, for a kind woman who later unexpectedly showed up at my home with a Christmas bonus, 5 months after the harvest.
Raspberries are thorny, and our hands bore tiny myriad scratches until they hardened from the daily work. Somehow, the raspberries were so much more exotic than our own hazelnuts, easier to reach than our orchard apples, and definitely smelled better than our chicken coop. With the money, I could see Star Wars (again) or save up for my own AM/FM radio headphones.
Today the argument swirls around whether sustainably-cultivated food is indeed a viable business model. As one acquaintance who works in Public Relations recounted, countless farmers told her, “You, can’t make money that way, you have to grow tobacco.” Happily, this is being proven false.
Organic farms and seed suppliers, farmers’ markets across the country, and food co-operatives are proving that large-scale monoculture is neither the only, nor the best way, to feed a large population. We are fortunate to begin to re-experience some of the foods that we distantly remember from childhood.
Sources: http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/08/sustainable-farming/
http://www.beginningfarmers.org/sustainable-agriculture-policy-news-may-16-20-2011/
http://www.usnews.com/science/articles/2011/06/21/promoting-sustainable-agriculture
Organic "Sweet 100" Cherry Tomatoes
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