Day 146, October 11, 2010

Seems like this Blog's post frequency's fading faster than the colors of our zinnias. Just yesterday, we pull all of our tomatillo plants, ending up with two Milk crates filled with around fifty pounds of fat, green tomatillos. We drive the tomatillos, along with twenty pounds of jalapenos to Martine at Milagro Mexican Restaurant in Stonington Borough. Of course, Martine is busy - families are waiting for a table out on the sidewalk - but appreciative that we'd worked so hard in our field, had chosen him for our harvest. "Well," I think, "It's Deb's birthday on Wednesday... maybe we'll come enjoy our harvest, and we can sample Martine's talents then."

It is amazing, nearly mid-October, and we're still harvesting tomatoes, and the flavors are quite good. I realize that a frost could come at any time, so we're pulling stakes, gathering hoses, and thinking about a future from all of this. Most folks seem to to be embracing the concept of "The Farming Community Foundation of Eastern Connecticut." I was asked to write an op-ed article for our local newspaper, and I'm hoping they'll run it next Sunday, October 17th.

Amazingly, I am starting to see opportunities coming from my farming experience. I have met different farmers, and an occasional opportunity comes along... like raising livestock... how can I help use my marketing background to sell it better, raise it humanely, and market it with integrity.

Of course, I always seem to get the tougher, more controversial assignments, like raising veal. That is until I learned more about the direction other farmers have taken it. Marian Burros wrote a story in The New York Times called "Veal to Love, Without the Guilt:"

( http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/18/dining/18veal.html ). After reading this, and after studying approaches to humane raising of veal calves, I believe that the male calves should be allowed to grow humanely, that if they are to give their lives, to feed those who wish to eat meat, then it must be with dignity, and hopefully on a smaller farm where someone actually likes animals. Clearly, 45% of dairy offspring are male. A baby bull is doomed at birth, as all but a lucky few are suitable for breeding.

I have decided that every experience is a chance to do better, and that if I summarily abrogate a category, before learning about it, then I am not being objective. There is plenty of room for activism, but I do not believe in taking a whole category of food off the table, this early in the game. At the same time, I am not yet certain how I feel about raising another creature, knowing that I am planning to kill it. I have always enjoyed the warmth of a cow's sour, silage breath on my hands, the chewing on my shirttail... but I also realize that there is a right and a wrong way to raise and process all that comes from a farm, and I am not ready to let go of any possibilities, just yet.