Unforeseen Complications

I've been in the camper now for three months, and really like it for the most part. It's wonderful to have my own space, not to mention my own kitchen. But there is a side effect - when you use an RV-style toilet* for that length of time, it starts to smell.

After some asking around, I found out that you are apparently supposed to use a toilet treatment in camper-style commodes that breaks down and deodorizes the "contents". But where to find this magical elixir? The RV section at Walmart, I'm told.

So off to Walmart I went.

I'm not normally a Walmart shopper, but I figured I would find what I needed in the Automotive area, which happens to be pretty spacious and full of aisles. I wandered around for a few minutes, but I didn't find anything helpfully labeled "RV Section," so I decided to ask for help.

I found a friendly looking man wearing a Walmart vest, and the following conversation ensued.

Me: Excuse me, sir, I'm looking for the RV section. See, I've been living in a camper for the last few months and the toilet has started smelling a bit, and someone told me I could find stuff to put in it here at the RV section...
Friendly Man: RV section? Dunno if we have one of those.
Me: Well, I was told you did...
Friendly Man: Hold on, let me ask. Pulls out walkie talkie. Hey, Dave?
Dave: Over walkie talkie. Yeah?
Friendly Man: I've got a girl here who says her RV toilet smells. Do we have an RV section?
Dave: Her what smells?
Friendly Man: Her toilet smells.
Dave: What?
Friendly Man: Her toilet.
Dave: Hold on, I'll be right there. Appears. Ok, I'm sorry. What were you saying? I couldn't hear.
Friendly Man: This girls says she's living in an RV and the toilet smells. Do we have an RV section or something?
Dave: Yeah, we have an RV section, it's right here. See, we even have different scents.
Me: Faintly. Thank you. Grabs citrus scented RV toilet treatment and runs away, blushing furiously.

*Picture a holding tank that gets emptied every two weeks. Frankly, I'm a little incredulous that it took this long to start emitting unpleasant odors.

The Digs At Clear Spring Creamery

I have now been at Clear Spring Creamery for exactly one month and one day, and I realized that I have yet to put up pictures of my new digs. For shame! So here we are.

Mark and Clare have put me up in a camper - one of the little trailer-types that you hitch to the back of a husky vehicle. It's quite a step up for me from last year... remember the tent?

Don't get me wrong - I loved last year. And the tent was not bad at all. But at the end of the day, I spent very little time there. We ate all our meals at the house, the shower was at the house, the internet was at the house, my cell phone only got reception on the front porch of the house... I'm sure you get the general idea.

One of my biggest challenges at Brightwood was not having much, if any, alone time. I'm pretty evenly divided between being an extrovert and an introvert, and if I have too much or too little alone time, I start getting cranky. And sometimes, all I wanted was to be able to fix my own dinner and eat it alone, then enjoy a book and some tea and revel in my solitude.

It looks like the pendulum has swung the other direction this year, for I am the only intern. Being the only intern, I have the trailer entirely to myself. This is good, since it is tiny and there is only one bed. A HUGE BED ALL FOR ME.

....and a bathroom! (I'll spare you a picture of the toilet. But it's clean, I promise.)

I'm not too concerned about not getting enough human interaction, since I'm working with Mark and Clare during the day, and I've been eating dinner with their family (which includes their kids, Paul and Paige) once or twice a week. It's a nice balance. The other nights, I'm free to use my tiny kitchen to my heart's content, which can involve some creative repositioning of certain elements.

The camper comes equipped with a stove and a non-working oven, so Mark and Clare got a very large toaster oven (with a convection oven setting, even!) for all my baking needs. I have so far used it to make a sweet onion tart and a spinach-mushroom quiche, both of which were delightful. (It's in the corner, looking suspiciously like a Cold War-era microwave. See it?)

I tend to spend my evenings reading and drinking tea to my heart's content.

And my fridge is full of dairy products. Wonder how that happened?

Visiting Farms 101

Hello again, dear blog. The last three weeks have been a whirlwind. I spent two weeks in Washington DC, drove up to Boston for an extended weekend, and have been in Perryville, Maryland for the last two days, where I attended the awards ceremony and graduation for NCCC's Class XVII. There were lots of friends to see, unending beers to drink, many miles to drive, countless Fresh Air interviews to keep me company on the road, and far too few hours spent sleeping. It was, in short, amazing.

It hasn't all been partying hard with old friends, though. Last week, I visited three farms in the DC area to interview for apprenticeships next year.

See, here's the thing: I can only work through the end of July, since I should be starting grad school in late August, pending my acceptance. That makes finding a farm job a little awkward, to say the least. No one wants a worker who will leave right when the harvest is ready. So as I started my search, I kept that in mind. In the end, I had interviews with three farms: Clear Spring Creamery in Clear Spring, Maryland; Whitmore Farm in Emmitsburg, Maryland; and Waterpenny Farm in Sperryville, Virginia.

Clear Spring Creamery is a small family operation run by Mark and Clare Siebert. They have about forty milk cows, which are a mixture of Jersey and Holstein. They took me for a tour around the farm, which has been in Mark's family for more than a century. Housing is a camper with a full bed, a bathroom and shower, and a kitchen (although the stove doesn't work). Meals can be on your own or with the family (they have two kids, 10 and 13).

The day is about half farm work and half in the creamery, pasteurizing, bottling, and making cheese and yogurt. I got to try some of their milk, cheese and yogurt, and all of it was quite delicious. Interns get two full days off, usually Sunday and Monday.

The farm itself is quite nice, but the surrounding area doesn't have a whole lot. There is hiking nearby - the Appalachian Trail is about twenty-five miles away, for example. And DC is just a two hour drive.

Overall, I liked Mark and Clare a ton. They were incredibly personable, and answered my rapid-fire questions without batting an eye. They get 100% of their income from the farm, and I think I would get an in-depth look into not only the business of running a small farm, but also the ins and outs of working with government agencies and all the accompanying bureaucratic shenanigans. They also attend three farmers markets, so I would get more experience in that aspect of farm work.

Whitmore Farm focuses on animal husbandry, and has a very diverse operation with chickens (layers and broilers), rabbits, pigs, sheep and goats. Almost all their livestock are heritage breeds, including fainting goats. Sadly, I didn't get to see them. (YouTube them if you haven't already.) One really cool thing about this farm is that they do their own breeding, rather than buying chicks or stockers from an outside source. They also do a little bit of vegetable production.

The housing was a beautiful old home that Will and Ken, the owners, restored a few years ago. Interns get their own rooms and share a bathroom. The area is pretty rural, but being Maryland, you don't have to drive too far to find something.

Ken works full time off-farm, however, which makes me a little leery, since I specifically want to learn more about the business of making a farm profitable. Additionally, Will described their meat products to me as "boutique" and quite high priced. The question of how to price organic products is something I think a lot about, and while I think there is definitely a place for products like this, it's not what I'd like to focus on. I see my farm jobs as much or more about educating myself as being employed, and I believe firmly that organic food can and should be affordable for the majority of people out there.

Additionally, Will told me that they might stop doing their only farmers market and switch to entirely wholesale to high end restaurants next year. While the farm, the housing and the people were all very nice and while Ken and Will are running their farm in a very sound and ecologically friendly way, I don't think this is the farm for me. It's just too different from the food system I want to learn about and work in.

Waterpenny Farm happens to be just half an hour up the road from Brightwood Vineyard and Farm, where I worked this past year, and is run by a couple by the names of Eric and Rachel. They specialize in vegetable production, and get 100% of their income from farmers markets, CSA shares, and on-farm sales. They're also very open about the financial aspect of their farm, and I know I could get an excellent education about the business of running a farm and running it well.

Housing is a house that I would share with the other five interns, complete with kitchen and two bathrooms. I would only get one and a half days off, and they probably wouldn't be back-to-back, which would be problematic for visits to DC. Also, my leaving at the end of July would be more problematic for this farm than the other two, since they're entirely vegetable production and late summer is their busiest time.

Other than the farm itself, which is great, one thing I love about Waterpenny is the surrounding area. Sperryville is a fantastic little artistic community pretty much entirely comprised of local businesses - not a chain in sight. Also, Shenandoah National Park is just a few minutes' drive away. Unfortunately, however, I do not get a lick of phone service there, which - not gonna lie - would be a little difficult for me.




So. What does all this mean? All three farms would be a good experience, and I'm especially drawn to Clear Spring Creamery and Waterpenny Farm. I can expect to hear back from them in January, pretty much across the board. In the meantime, I'll keep my eyes and ears open for other farms where I can apply.

In the meantime, I'll be heading back to Indiana next week for the holidays, applying to grad school, and cooking my little tushie off. Expect lots of pictures of baked goods in the upcoming weeks.

Little Cabin in the Woods: A Practical Guide to the Farm B&B

So in an interesting twist on the traditional farm business plan, Susan and Dean also have a cottage that they use as a B&B. And this week, I had the opportunity to stay there when my parents came to visit for a couple days.

Normally, my experience with the cottage has been limited to cleaning it. Staying there was phenomenal - leisurely breakfasts of farm-fresh eggs, sitting on the back deck with a steaming mug of tea and seeing a bald eagle fly down the Robinson River, staying up until midnight (gasp!) to finish reading my book. No internet, no phone. Pure heaven, if you ask me.

But quite apart from the very enjoyable act of inhabiting it, the cottage has something else going for it. It happens to be the most profitable enterprise on the farm.

A little background: the cottage started out as a small, delapidated A-frame back when Susan and Dean bought this property ten years ago. Based on the original cottage, they designed a new and improved model with significant expansions, including a kitchen, bedroom, bathroom and back deck. Their daughter and her boyfriend did the actual construction, which included using timber from the property and reclaimed lumber (including chesnut).

Once the construction was finished, they had to purchase everything that goes inside: furniture, decor, linens, microwave, refrigerator, oven, plates, pots and pans, cutlery, games for the kids... well, to make a long story short, they dropped a pretty significant chunk of change on the place to get everything ready. And now, five years later, they have just finished paying it off.

That being said, the amount of money that they must put into the cottage now is minimal. Cleaning supplies, cute little bars of soap, food for the breakfasts (some of which - eggs, for example - comes from the farm)...it's easy to see why, in terms of net profit, the cottage is the most profitable thing happening on the farm. It's also one of the enterprises that takes the least amount of time... and time, as we all know, is money. Especially on a farm.

So how much does an evening in the cottage go for, anyways? I think it's actually pretty reasonable. Sunday through Thursday is $110 a night, and Friday/Saturday are $150 a night, not including a 10% lodging tax.

Mostly the cottage guests are what Dean calls "refugees from DC". Lots of couples out for a romantic weekend, and families with small kids who want to help feed the animals. In any case, it's the perfect getaway for anyone who wants to turn off their phone and laptop for a few days.

It's no Red Roof Inn, thank God. You definitely get what you pay for, and then some.

Rugs, Yurts & Wasps - Living Accommodations on Brightwood Vineyard & Farm

I realized that I haven't posted anything about my living accommodations here. I know that all of you, faithful readers, are intensely curious, so I'll do my best to correct this egregious error immediately.

Some of you may remember that I was weirdly excited about the yurt, which Susan told me was where the interns live. As it turns out, my excitement was a bit premature. Brian and Autumn, the other two interns who arrived last week, are living in the yurt. I was a little disappointed to start, but now that I've settled into the platform tent next door, I'm completely over my sadness.

It's a very spacious tent, and - for now, at least - I have it all to myself. I can hear the creek, which adds to the ambiance, but has the unfortunate side effect of making me need to get up in the middle of the night for potty breaks.

Susan bought rugs to spice up the inside of the tent... when I first got here, it was pretty spartan inside, but the coverlet and rugs go a long way to make it quite homey.

Eventually, I'd like to visit a Goodwill and get some shelves or a dresser to store my clothes, and maybe a few other little things, to add more color and give it some personal touches. For now, though, I'm content.

I even have a tulip on my bedside table.



My only complaint thus far is that wasps seem to find the inside of my tent highly desirable. After cleaning yesterday, I went to grab my bag, and closed my hand around a wasp. Little bugger stung me on the finger, and I did what was probably a very entertaining dance routine, sprinkled liberally with expletives.

Luckily, a nice man named Josh who's working on a patio for Susan and Dean came to the rescue. He gave me a wad of chewing tobacco from his pocket, which I applied to the sting. Immediately, I could feel the venom (or whatever it is) traveling back down my arm and being drawn out. It was an incredibly weird feeling, but infinitely preferable to the sensation of being stung.