New England Visits: The Farmers

The greatest “winging it” aspect of the trip was the plan to visit a farm or farms that supply produce to the Park Slope Food Coop. After experiencing reluctance (or outright refusal) to welcome visitors, the Coop wasn’t comfortable suggesting any of their farms. But they do list their suppliers on their website and with some creative internet stalking, I was able to track down the address of about a half dozen farms that were in southern Vermont and along the Hudson River Valley in New York. We crossed our fingers and started driving.

Our first attempt was the Harlow Brother’s Organic Produce Farm and Farmstand in Westminster, VT. We would learn later that the key was the farmstand, where they were at least set up to receive the public in some capacity. With some friendly greetings, we were introduced to Abby who, without much hesitation, offered us coffee and sat with us to chat. She admitted that she wasn’t psyched to hear that there were “two guys visiting from New York who wanted to talk to someone about the farm”, but when she saw we had no agenda or pretension she warmly and enthusiastically took us out on to the farm in her dusty pickup (with a screwdriver in the ignition). Abby was about our age, and had been a Vermont farm girl all her life. In fact, she and the other farm workers all live on or right near the farm’s land. The work eventually took it’s toll and she ruptured three discs in her back a few years ago and realized a career change was necessary. She just finished nursing school at a nearby college and will soon split her time between the farm and a local hospital. It seems unfortunate, as farming is clearly her passion.

She showed us the freshly planted herbs, giant heads of cabbage and yellow squash, rows of developing corn, and a field of flowers that they grow to maintain their cut-flower business catering primarily to the local wedding industry. Abby also explained to us Vermont’s exchange partnership with Jamaica. Ten Jamaican men come to live and work on their farm for the summer and fall months every year, and then return to their families in the winter. The program stipulates the men’s wages, which actually meant wages across the farm were raised when they began involvement with the program.

She then offered us a dip in their water hole, which was pretty idyllic, before sending us on our way with a bag of bright greens and soil-covered beets straight from the ground.

It was an extremely lucky first stop, as the other farms we dropped by were actually people’s homes and I didn’t have the gall to walk up and knock on their front door. As Joe said, the mission is to forge a connection with people, not piss them off.