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September 28th 2007
St. Francis Farm
Life is breathed into St. Francis Farm by the hard work of the Land Family (Joseph, Catherine and their 6 children, their daughter-in-law and child; Andrew, Val and their 4 children; and the parents of Joseph and Andrew). They are an extraordinary people who practice voluntary poverty and believe in the simple way of life.
It is in the daily tasks that you begin to glimpse what life is like on the farm. So you can get a sense of the essence of daily life here, I will share a typical spring day with you:
I wake at ten to seven to the sound of chooks (chicken) in the yard and birds in the surrounding bush (forest). Its promising to be a sunny day, yesterday it was raining. I put on my cloths and head across the field to the house where Joseph and Catherine live. On my way, as I pass by them, I say “Good morning” to the two horses, the pig the chooks, the dog, and the cats.
I enter into the house, a simple structure that holds a lot
I get the oppertunity to milk this lovely cow. |
of warmth (not just physical warmth, but a home full of goodness). Our breakfast of maize porridge, grown here on the farm, is cooking over the fire. A cup of tea is the first thing I break my fast with. The next 30 min are spent in prayer and sharing. After morning prayers: a breakfast of porridge, homemade/milked yogurt and, when we are lucky like today a jar of fruit bottled from last season’s harvest. Well fed and caffeinated, I walk out the door with one of the Lands to help milk the two house cows. These two cows get milked twice a day and provide plenty of milk, butter, yogurt, for everyone on the farm. It is really amazing how much milk comes out of a cow!
After this interesting chore, I go back to the kitchen to help prepare lunch and make bread for the next couple of days. The Lands grow all of their produce and most of their other staples, like potatoes, kumara (we call them yams in the sates), beans, pumpkin, and maize. What little they do but they get in bulk, like wheat flower, from the organic wholesaler.
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The maize in storage |
The maize kernels (for the bread), along with wood ash, which breaks down the hard barrier that protects the seed, have been cooking over the fire since early this morning. They are ready to be rinsed after about three hours of cooking. Once the kernels are put through the grinder, they are ready to be mixed with the wheat flour yeast, sea salt, and water.
As the bread making is happening, someone else is cutting pumpkin, which is still in abundance from last season, for the soup being made for lunch. After the bread is put to rise in the hot water cupboard, the making of lunch is well underway. Today is a special day for soup, we get to use one of the jars of tomato sauce that was bottled last season.
Over the course of making the bread and lunch, Catherine and I have been discussing the “supermarket culture” that most people live in. Meaning the most people in the western world now have the mentality that you can have what ever food you want when ever you want it. You buy a can of corn and, almost instantaneously, there is another one put on the self to replace the one you just bought. Well it doesn’t work that way on a farm that solely eats food from the land and seasonally. Once the bottling of the harvest is done, that is it until next season. If there are 100 jars of tomato sauce on the self, they will have to sustain you until the next tomato season. Once upon a time, not so long ago, but long enough that is seams a myth to many people under 40, people actually depended on there local areas for their food needs Now, the average distance that a can of food, or even fresh produce, travels is in the thousands of miles. In our commercial food market it takes about 10 calories to produce 1 calorie of food. Something doesn’t quite add up there! Knowing this, it feels really good to be here at the Land’s having direct contact with the earth, where the food I am eating, is being grown.
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Joseph (left), Andrew, Brandy, and Major Making their first few passed on the feild |
While we were making lunch, Joseph and Andrew were ploughing the field where they grow maize, kumara, pumpkins, and other staples. To accomplish this task, they have the help of Major and Brandy, the two horses I mentioned earlier. They can work up to two hours before the horses get tired. Within 3-4 days the initial ploughing is done. Disking is the next phase. Then in roughly two weeks it will be time for planting. It is quite pleasant to be in the field while they are ploughing. The peace of the valley is not interrupted by loud smelly tractors.
Everyone tends to feel when lunch is ready, and congregate in the kitchen area. After Joseph says the Karakia (prayer), everyone tucks in. Soup made from veggies in the garden, homemade bread, fresh butter, and blackberry jam, YUM!! Then of course it all gets washed down with a cup of tea. The Lands sure do love their tea!
The afternoon is spent in the main veggie garden. A lot of the beds had been cover cropped over winter. So, yesterday, Joseph passed over them with the scythe and today we are digging in the cover crop, while turning over the soil. The next step, plant the beds with the multitude of seedlings waiting to be planted out.
It’s a wonderful day to be out in the garden and everyone is lending a hand doing various jobs like: weeding the beetroot (it is being grown for seed to be sold through Koanga Gardens), feeding the garlic with compost tea, mending the shade house, and mounding the potatoes.
As the shadows grow longer, everyone is keen on a cuppa (cup of tea) and a break. After a rest, some go back at it in the garden. I decide to take advantage of the remaining rays of sun and have a wash in the river that runs through the property. It is still very cold, but also refreshing.
Cleansed, clean, and content, I reflect on the day and write a few letters to people trying to convey the beauty of this place and this way of life. I can complete the day feeling satisfied that I have been such an integral a part of the cycle of food and nature.
The smell of food in the air enhances the rumblings in my stomach, it must be time for dinner! As I head over to the main house, the smell of dinner grows stronger. Catherine has cooked us up the bounty from the land: kumara and potatoes, pumpkin, Silver beat (Swiss chard) quiche, and a big salad (flowers and all).
With our bellies satisfied and muscles relaxed, Joseph opens the Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, and begins to read aloud where he left off last night. As I hear about Frodo and Sam in the land of Mordor, struggling with the darkness of it all, I give thanks that I am here in this place, living a life of simplicity. I know I will be leaving soon, but this gratitude I will hold onto and strive to share with others in my daily life.
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Looking across the river at the main feild where the staple crops are grown. In this picture it is covered in Lupin |