Farming is the Future, Man

My typical shift at the coop is Sunday afternoons, usually working the coolers in the basement sending up crates of produce, cases of juice and boxes upon boxes of dry goods. This morning I had the opportunity to do the opposite: help fill those coolers back up.

When I told Allen Zimmerman, the Coop's produce buyer, that I was interested in meeting some of their farmers and delivery people, he suggested I come in early one morning when the folks from Hepworth Farms would be bringing by a shipment. Not only was I amazed by the quantity and variety coming off the truck, my sleep-busting efforts were well rewarded by Jay: an ex-LA recording artist and neo-farm loving truck driver extraordinaire.

He was a riot. Jay is from El Salvador by way of LA, who now lives in Upstate New York and works on Amy and Gerry Hepworth's Farm with his wife and daughter. He's as excited by juicing wheat grass or onions and apple juice ("gotta make it sweet"), as he is by the huge bundles of dark kale he carries ("this would be two bundles anywhere else, man, they love the Park Slope Coop. But it's bitter, man, anything good for you tastes bad, you know, but you juice it with apple juice to make it sweet"), to their program for kids in Harlem in which they set up a roof-top garden, teach them to grow tomatoes and other produce, and check in on them regularly ("kids love it man, you know, but they expect me to be in overalls"). Get people talking about something they're into and they don't stop. I heard about his mint and thyme plants, how to grow parlsey, that they donate extra crop to a church in New Jersey, that you can fool bees into pollinating apple trees nearly year round, and about his restaurants in LA and Florida.

Growing up in the self-sustaining agriculture community of El Salvador, he was taught that fruits and vegetables grew anywhere. He grandfather would tell him to plant a mango seed anywhere and in a couple weeks come back and there'd be a tree there. Though farming in the States is commerce-driven, and vegetables are planted in neat little rows not wherever you might feel like it, he maintains a desire for his daughter to know where food comes from. "Money comes and goes, but if you know how to farm, how to grow food, you're all set. You'll be good."

Bittersweet Ice Cream

Sometimes it just falls into my lap, and just in time for summer. Joe and I are often on DeKalb Avenue in Fort Greene (Bonita and Urban Spring are both there) and he stopped into BitterSweet for ice cream after a slew of 90° days. I was pretty jealous because he can eat whatever he wants while I adhere to this crazy project. But as he was sampling the Coconut Vegan Ice Cream and Passionfruit Sorbet, we realized quickly that the woman standing with the hipster at the counter was the ice cream maker herself. Her Mexican accent was a struggle for me but my Texan boyfriend was able to keep up and "translate" when necessary. And he got us an invitation down to the basement where the ice cream is made. Dish of Coconut Ice Cream in hand, we followed her down.

Adriana works in the basement. Not a kitchen, not even a storeroom, it's a basement. One small fridge, one ice cream churner, a freezer of frozen passionfruit, and that's about it. But she seems to have a ball with it. As long as the flavor sells, she can make up whatever she wants (though it seems customers mostly just want vanilla and chocolate, much to her disapproval). It's one of two jobs she juggles as a single mother of a nine-year-old and a thirteen-year-old whom she just sent off to visit family in Mexico for the summer so she can spend more time working here and at a retirement home for women. Talk about bittersweet. Adriana has a big smile, teasing us about our lack of culinary skills and taunting us with ideas of Tequila Ice Cream and Avocado Ice Cream. As we walked back into the heat, she said "Someday you'll come back and make ice cream with me!"

If there is tequila and avocados involved, count me in!

On Press

I've spent much of the last few weeks preparing for upcoming trips and events. As I have mentioned before, I've got a trip up through New England that I'm working out details for, and tomorrow I'll be at the Food Coop early early to meet the farmers and truckers who deliver their goods there.

What I haven't spent much time writing about, however, is how much energy I've suddenly found myself spending keeping track of, dealing with, and coordinating press. After a mention on GOOD Magazine's website a few weeks back, a storm of blog postings hit in a matter of days. I received phone calls from national television and newspaper outlets asking for details for possible stories. I was pilloried by arm-chair critics on a website known for its venom and sarcasm. (These are all on my Info page.) It was a roller coaster. Yes, I am thrilled and validated in seeing that what I'm doing is something people care about, and others think is as important as I do. But at the same time, I don't really just want to be a human-interest story on a couple rss-feeds that no one wants to talk to in six months or a year when the project really has legs and knows where it's going.

My biggest concern lies in how publicity is going to effect the project itself -- my ability to make a personal connection with a factory laborer or farmer. I haven't even been taking out my camera on most visits because the tone suddenly changes when someone feels they are being put on the spot. I can't imagine what a CBS Evening News camera crew would do to someone's nerves, never mind my own.

Do I think having coverage in the LA Times will help me get into bigger companies like Converse and Apple? Probably. Would I like to explore writing a book and think that this exposure could help that? Yes of course. But do I want to jeopardize the integrity of the project, or do I want to appear to prove the critics right that I am in this for some spotlight? Well, not so much.

It's a series of questions I never foresaw having to deal with, and something that everyone seems to have an opinion on. For disclosure, I'm forging a relationship with GOOD Magazine, which I feel is completely in line with my efforts. And I've been cooperating with LA Times, because, well, they're the LA Times. Who knows what opportunities will come out of an article there.