9-13-10

THRESHOLD FARM

WITH A MOO MOO HERE AND A MOO MOO THERE

THIS LITTLE PIGGY WENT TO MARKET

COMICE PEARS

APPLE RECORDS

Threshold Farm is our new home. It represents the 20th and final farm on our WWOOFing adventure. In two weeks, we will no longer be volunteer migrant farmers. What we will be in two weeks remains up in the air, but seeing how we've lived the past 9 months of our lives floating in the breeze, we see no reason to panic and plan out our entire future. Let come what may!

This farm just south of Albany is biodynamic. Hannah (originally from Germany) and Hugh (originally from Australia) know Jeff "The Barefoot Farmer" Poppen, who we stayed with this winter. They also know Luke Frye, the winemaker who purchases biodynamic grapes from Annelle and Thurston at Clover Creek Family Farm. The biodynamic farming community proves it is a small world after all.

Perhaps the most important resource a biodynamic farmer uses and learns from is Steiner's Agriculture Course. On this trip, we have looked for the famous work. We saw it once out west, but never had proper time to read through it. Of all the book stores we've visited and searched through, we have never been able to locate a copy for ourselves. But Eurika! At last, we have found not one, but three copies here. One edition is an advanced printing, one is a British translation, and one is an American English translation. Steiner delivered eight lectures during a week in the summer of 1924, and we intend to read one each night (from the American English translation) for the next several days, all the while asking Hannah and Hugh to help elaborate on topics and ideas we have trouble understanding. Agriculture Course is a bible of sorts, and just like that slightly more famous text, people live obsessively by its words, re-reading over and over and over. We'll admit, it's a little crazy, but we must read it once in order to form our own opinion.

The farm here is beautiful. There is an apple orchard, pear orchard, and peach orchard. There are 3 pigs, over 20 cows, over 20 chickens, several ducks, and many acres of vegetables. Hannah and Hugh have two young children, Christopher and Emma, who are in 3rd grade and 2nd grade, respectively. Our first day on the farm saw us changing a fence enabling the cows to graze in a new area, and harvesting carrots, tomatoes, and green beans. After a siesta, we cleaned onions and tied corn ears together for drying. Our initial impression here is extremely positive; we suspect we'll get along very well with this family, and learn a tremendous amount about biodynamic farming.