The future

The future of my education. Over the next few months, I'll be at a transition point. I'll have finished my associate's degree, and need to decide if/where to transfer to, to finish the next two years of college. I'm looking at a practical farming program in Central Massachusetts.   ( http://www.farmschool.org/prog_practicalfarm.html ) I am also looking at other college programs, for the next 2 years. While there are many schools with an environmental/agricultural component, I am averse to going to a school that feels too big. I've only attended small schools, and I feel that it would be better for me to stay in small environments. Once I turn 18, more programs will be at my disposal, for the summers. Once I turn 20, I can hopefully do the ADAMAH program in Connecticut.  http://isabellafreedman.org/adamah For now, I need to figure out what I'm doing for next year. I'm concerned about the immediate future. I'm wondering what program I'll be attending come fall.  I am also wondering what I am doing over the course of the summer. Perhaps a multi-month WWOOF stint. I have options. I am simply trying to decide what to do. 

India, Take Two

After the "failure" of my recent trip to India, I felt discouraged.
I felt bad that I had crossed continents and oceans for an opportunity that didn't exist.
Now, I'm trying to rebuild the motivation and curiosity about the world, that had briefly slipped away after my failed attempt.
This winter, I will hopefully be volunteering at Sadhana Forest, in Aurovillle, India.
This will be an entirely different trip, because rather than simply finding a website of an "organization," I have spoken to people who have volunteered at Sadhana Forest, and had a fantastic experience.
I am truly excited for this amazing opportunity, one which I am so lucky to have.
For anyone interested, here's the website of Sadhana Forest.
www.sadhanaforest.org

Progress

Things are certainly moving along in my endeavor to buy the land in NC.
I had a wonderful chat with the owner yesterday, and he's more than willing to work with me.
My goal is that I will be able to start living and working on the land next summer.
It's going to require a lot of work, as the land is currently overgrown, and there are no buildings.
The property consists of forests and pasture, with a pond in the middle.
It is on these 11 acres where my farming aspiratoins will come to fruition.
Over the next several years, I'll turn these overgrown acres into a place where crops and animals are rased in a socially and environmentally responsible way.
In addition, I am committed to maintaining the peacefulness of the area, both for my sake, and the neighbors.
The neighbors are incredible welcoming and supportive, and have similar goals about organic farming.
I feel that this is a new chapter in my life and for this blog as well.
Prior to this moment, the blog was a series of theoretical posts about my desires for the distant future
Now, this blog will still have posts with my reflections on life, food, and farming, but it will also be a blog of progress, with regular updates as I take this journey.

Buying the place in NC

I'm sending this message out to friends, family, and others.
If you can help, either by donating, or by spreading the word, it would be much appreciated.

"Since you have to be 18 to fund a project through Kickstarter, I'm going to try funding my own project through another grassroots method. Good-old word of mouth.My goal is to raise enough money so that I can purchase 11 acres of land in North Carolina, with a pond.I am trying to fundraise so that I can create an organic haven, where good, clean food grows everywhere. It's a large goal, but I have hope that enough people are willing to help me make a difference in the food system.Currently, the asking price is $179,000.I don't expect one person to give the entire amount, but I believe that this can be accomplished through many small gifts.Similar to Kickstarter, there would be rewards for each level of donation, such as a farm tour, organic produce, ceramic pieces, and other itemsIf you are interested in helping me in this endeavor, please email me at drouaultfarm@yahoo.com.(please feel free to distribute this message as you wish) "

Back in the "normal" routine.

I'm back to a "normal" routine, in which we are expected to eat food, and just think of it as food. We're not supposed to ponder the quality or its origins. We're just supposed to fill our plates.
I'm fed up with this. I like eating meals that I have prepared, and that I know all sources of the ingredients.
For example, while in North Carolina, I ate fried green tomatoes, which I had picked off the vine that afternoon.
Outside of farms, there's always a vast disconnect, and people don't think about what they are ingesting.
The only time that they ponder their food is when the add heaps of salt to the food, as a way to mask the blandness.
I urge everyone who can to try a farm-fresh egg.
You will discover what an egg is supposed to taste like. The color is different as well, a deeper yellow, if not orange.
If you have the opportunity, eat real, farm fresh food, while it's still available.
And going back to the main point of this blog, that's why I want to farm.
I want real, healthy food, in its purest form, to be available.

From idle chatter to reality.

I feel that this blog is moving in a great direction.
Roughly two years ago, this blog started as an expresion of just ideas, with no practical basis.
Now, after spending time working on farms, these aspirations seem to be coming to fruition, especially after finding the parcel of available land in North Carolina.
As peculiar as this may sound, I feel that I've found a path that I'm meant to be on, and I feel quite content.
After each hour of farm work, I feel even more joyous.
I've received some criticism lately, claiming that my area of focus isn't a "real cause."
I am deeply puzzled by this.
My goal is to help provide clean, healthy, organic food.
How is this a misdirected cause?
It's making a positive difference in the food system, which is definitely flawed, as we can see by the thousands of pounds of food recalled each month.

Another year.

It appears that another academic year begins in the morning.
Another year of purely theoretical learning, devoid of the practical.
I realize of course that theoretical learning is enough to be fulfilling for most people.
I, however, don't feel fulfilled just by "studying."
When WWOOFing in NC, i felt fulfilled, because I had done physical, tangible work. I could see the results of my work. The work wasn't in a document stored on a hard drive of a computer. The results manifested themselves in a pile of weeds. I could actually see and feel what I had accomplished. To me, that's learning, because I felt truly happy with what I had accomplished.
With typical collegiate learning, it's hard to reach the same sense of fulfillment, because there's really nothing to show for it, except a piece of paper, four years down the road.

Leaving North Carolina

My five day stint WWOOFing in North Carolina draws to a close tomorrow, when I will board a northbound plane. I have benefited greatly from my time here. I did a lot of fulfilling farm work, which I greatly enjoyed. In addition, I had some leisure time, which I spent fishing. This evening, I had an eighteen inch bass on my line, when it snapped, less then 6 inches out of my reach. 
In addition to the physical activities, we had great discussions about food and farming. 
Also, I found that amazing plot of land, and I'm currently in the process of talking with the owner, which is so exciting. 
It would truly be starting from scratch, as it's just land, with no buildings, and all the pastures ate overgrown. It would be a wonderful opportunity to start a farm. 
I greatly benefited from this time in NC, and I hope to return soon. 

Eureka. I have found it.

I feel that I have found a physical location for my aspirations and ideas. While wwoofing here in NC, I saw a "for sale" sign, just across the road. I took a brief look from the road. It looks like paradise. 
There's a pond, several wooded acres, and a fair bit of pasture. 
This area is so tranquil and serene. At night, the crickets are the biggest noisemakers.  The air is clean, the summer days are warm and the nights are cool. 
This 11 acre lot is where i'd like to turn my ideas and dreams into crops and food. I hope it's still available when I turn 18 in March
To quote James Taylor, "in my mind, I'm gone to Carolina."

Conscientious purchasing.

After camp, I'm going to be working on a farm in NC for a week. 
I'm greatly looking forward to doing farm work, and learning a lot. 
I just wish others would do the same. 
I know I've spoken at length about the lack of young farmers, but it's really irking me even more. 
I feel like I want to put signs up everywhere, asking people to care and to eat with a conscience. 
The mentality is always "someone else will grow it, all I must do is pick up a styrofoam wrapped package, and swipe my card."  
Most consumers buy without thinking. They look for key words on the labels. They don't seek out organic, they just look for the word "MILK."
Conscientious buying is only one part of the solution. 
In addition, as I've expressed, we need more farmers. In an article on the Huffington post, I read that, "for every one farmer and rancher under the age of 25, there are five who are 75 or older, according to Agriculture Department statistics." 
As these farmers continue to age, we need replacements. 
Oh well, as long as a gallon of chemically treated milk was available at the store, all is happy in American consumer land

Bad Experience

I'm currently in India, after having a terrible experience at an "organic farming ashram." I was expecting to be able to learn more about farming, and perhaps relax, but it was a place devoid of agricultural learning. It was also stressful, due to the rage of the leader of the program. In terms of learning, the only thing that took place was a two second interaction in which the leader said "we grow lentils and corn."
That's it.
There was no opportunity to learn, or to work, as he had paid farmworkers doing all tasks. This instance, however, doesn't make me shy away from agriculture. It makes me determined to find more opportunities to pursue farming, which I am working on.
I now just dismiss that program as a sham, and try to plan the rest of my summer, as I have two more months.

Familial criticism.

That was an irksome dinner. I was dining with my grandfather and discussing the summer program which I'll be attending at Sterling. He kept shrugging and rolling his eyes, as if to suggest that I was presenting a paper on neurology in Aramaic. I told him that agriculture is still something that I want to pursue. The look of discontent and disapproval was stunning. I made a comment about the stigmatization of agriculture, and how some don't view it as a respectable career. He told me that in comparison to science or psychology, he doesn't see farming as a respectable career. I am truly irked by such hateful behavior. I'm not asking him to start planting seeds, or pull up a three-legged stool and milk a cow. I'm simply asking for respect, which I guess is such a hard thing to ask for. Because, of course, we no longer have a need for farmers, ever since the iFood App was created for the iPhone. Or maybe if enough people play online farming games, all our food woes will be solved.

Accepted

Today, I received the news that I was accepted to the summer program at Sterling College. I'll be attending a five week program, in which I will study sustainable agriculture. In addition to learning about sustainable agriculture, I'll learn more about Sterling College, and this will help me get a better understanding of whether or not I'll matriculate to Sterling. Sterling College is a small, environmentally-focused college, in Vermont. Here's an excerpt from the website describing the program. "At the end of the summer, students will have: • Worked a full season with vegetable production, livestock, and draft horses • Managed a contract with the dining hall • Seeded, planted, weeded, harvested over 40 different types of crops • Handled sheep, chickens, turkeys, pigs, goats, cows, horses • Farmed and logged with draft horses • Operated a tractor cultivating fields • Created and executed a Personal Learning Plan (PLP) • Baked bread in a traditional wood-fired oven • Visited several VT farms learning from those farmers who have been doing it for a long time • Managed a Passive Solar Hoophouse to learn season extension and growing food year round in a cold climate • Learned the principles of root storage in traditional root cellars • Engaged in food preservation – canning, freezing, drying, etc • Employed the principles of permaculture through the management of an Edible Forest Garden." This sounds like the perfect summer program for me. I feel that this is a fantastic program, and one which I'll enjoy attending this summer. After doing this summer program, I'll make a decision regarding whether or not I'll attend Sterling full time, and if so, when I'd start. http://www.sterlingcollege.edu/summer-ag.html

You are headed in the right direction. Trust your instincts.

At a Chinese restaurant this evening, I got this fortune, "You are headed in the right direction. Trust your instincts." Normally, I wouldn't think very much about a random slip of paper, in a random cookie from a random box, however this one resonated with me. For the past few weeks, I've been pondering my desire to do agriculture. My instinct has been saying "yes, I want to farm." I may have had some doubts in the recent past, but they've resolved. This is not to say that I don't have any other interests. I do, but I feel that agriculture is what I want to pursue, for it's what will allow me to change the current state of affairs in this country for the better. This summer, I'll do a program that will allow for agricultural learning. My goal is still to major in Sustainable agriculture.

Desire to pursue an agricultural lifestyle.

In her post in January 2010, Jenna Woginrich called it Barnheart. I, personally, don't have a catchy term for this state of being, but I have an anecdote, stemming from personal experience. A perfect example is found when going grocery shopping. While people are picking up foods grown thousands of miles away, and grown with a copious quantity of pesticides, I am pondering. I am thinking about the desire, in our society, to have such consistency in our stores, that we cease to realize that seasons should have an effect on anything other than our attire. We buy imported tomatoes and berries in January. So sustainable, and so good for the local economy. In addition to pondering, this state of being also manifests itself by causing an unstoppable yearning to pursue agriculture, which can cause "interesting" reactions from friends, family, and others. Surprise and scorn are common. If we were to classify this state as a malady, the only treatment is an experimental, experiential remedy. This remedy involves working in a field, or in a barn. Your HMO likely won't cover the costs of this treatment, so it can occasionally appear unattainable. Working on a farm can temporarily allow the "symptoms" to abate, however, they will still remain present.

Making a Difference in our Food System.

My goal is to make a difference in the food system, so that one day, local, organic food will be readily available to the masses, as opposed to its current status in our society, which is that of a luxury item. In order for this to occur, many more members of my generation need to take an interest in agriculture. Only when we have an increase in the numbers of small farms will the accessibility to this food increase. Otherwise, we'll be stuck in the current system, and there won't be hope for an improvement. The activists in this movement aren't holding signs, or occupying parks. The activists in this movement are collecting eggs, digging rows, or making cheese. In this movement, farmers are the activists, and farming is the activism that will bring about change in the system.

Another vacation

Another vacation is approaching. This one is for 8 days. I'm hoping to use this break in a productive way, thus, I'm looking for farm work during that time period. I'm in Massachusetts, but have the ability to travel, within the Northeast/Mid Atlantic states. My goal is simply to work and to learn. I want to learn practically. I learn by doing. I would be open to work on all kinds of farms, but ideally dairy. I could arrive on Saturday the 18th. If anyone has any ideas, please let me know. Here at my school, I'm taking Agroecology this semester. The description of this course reads "based on a participatory learning model, Introduction to Agroecology investigates the philosophical and social underpinnings to the ecologically sustainable farm movement." An important part of this class is the designing of a project, which the student creates and runs. For my project, I'm thinking about raising a few meat birds on a small plot of grass. Due to the time constraints, I'm thinking about the Cornish Cross. Does anyone have any ideas, suggestions?

College

Some students enter college with ideas about their future, and those ideas change. The students are exposed to subjects that they haven't learned about before, and these subjects help shape their future career choice. For me, in the first semester, I learned a lot of new things, but I still want to pursue agriculture as my career, because I continue to see the problems in the food system, and I still want to change them. Yahoo News posted an article about the most "useless" majors. This elitist attitude completely ignores the fact that people need to eat, and food will only be provided through agriculture. When I mention my continued interest in agriculture to family or friends, I find it to be dismissed, often due to the fact that I'm "only" a first-year student in college, and that my interests will potentially change. Whenever someone implies this, I see the true insinuation. They're trying to subtly express disapproval of my career goal. Honestly, it doesn't matter. It's my career goal. Yahoo Article. http://education.yahoo.net/articles/most_useless_degrees.htm