“Two or three times a day my dad would check the fields. Sometimes I’d walk with him. He didn’t talk much, just look at the fields and then the sky, then back to the fields. Like a black jack player in Las Vegas, he was weighing the odds. If he cuts today is it ripe enough? If he doesn’t, will a tornado or heavy rainstorm hit and flatten everything? Will it rain so the grain will rot in the fields? He had invested a lot of time, money and energy into getting the crops planted. His decision now would affect whether there would be any money for extras such as the purchase of a new tractor.” This story is part of the memoirs Sally Salzl Thelen wrote about her childhood, growing up on her family’s farm in Stearn’s County in central Minnesota.

Sally’s sister, Marilyn Salzl Brinkman, also wrote a book entitled, ‘Aprons, Flour Sacks & other Folk Histories’ a collection of articles about the everyday men, women, and children and about the farming communities in central Minnesota not from a scholarly perspective she said but from a folkloric perspective. As I read her stories it reminded me of stories I heard in my own family about farming in Alberta. The stories also reminded me of my childhood growing up eating fresh fruits, berries and vegetables from our family garden in the summer with the excess being canned by my mother and the aunties so when winter rolled around we ate the preserves of their labor.

It was churning around in me when I read Sally and Marilyns’ stories…I realized that engaging in the process from growing food to eating food gives us the connection we need to make food important, something we value rather than just a commodity, that we stuff ourselves with with no real interest as to where it comes from. I believe that it takes time, it takes people, and it takes working together with nature to grow food to nurture people.

Marilyn Salzl Brinkman, Aprons, Flour Sacks & other Folk Histories,Sentinel Printing, St. Cloud Minnesota, 2008
Sally Salzl Thelen, Thrashing Time on the Farm, Stearns History Museum, Crossings Volume 34, Number 1, 2008

How can you really tell all there is to know abour being a farmer? How can you tell others how ‘to see’, with knowing what is important in the non-verbal world of plants telling you they are hungry, thirsty, diseased, virused? How much time is there to respond to the plant’s needs, immediately, soon…..too late?
Dan is one of the those special people that know plant language. He can spot a critter on a plant from a mile away…….like microscope vision! Of coarse it helps when you are a young farmer with good eyes and a keen sense of affinity with plants that produce food. I think he is a wizard with plant /seed selection, always on the lookout for the strongest , the most deliscious, the most plentiful varieties to grow. And grow he does….organic ginger, organic tumeric, tomatoes, peppers, squash.

Between watering cycles one day, I had the opportunity to sit down with Dan and ask him a few questions, starting with what motivated him to become a farmer (he’s a young farmer in his 30’s who is a full time farmer)). “Lazines…hahaha”, was his off hand reply. His background in agriculture stemmed from growing up next to an agricultural community in southern California, where citrus and pomegranit grew. His neighborhood friends families had farms. Now those areas are all concrete and buildings he said. Dan paused and then refected, ” Eventually I gravitated to farming because I felt it fit into my attitude towards life…I enjoy plants, they don’t talk back, I can pick my favorites and cull the rest.” There was a lot of humour during this interview which I took as a balancing mechanism to the seriousness of farming because as Dan put it, ” Get ready to fail, there better be more reasons to want to be a farmer than money because there’s a million things that can go wrong in growing plants.” I asked him if he introduced himself as a farmer in social situations. He said, “It depends who I’m talking to. There is a connotation of ‘hippiness’ if you say you are a farmer, sometimes I say I’m an Agricultural Technician.” ………….to be continued

The curious and the devoted came together yesterday to learn and share their interest, knowledge and experiences in a seminar/workshop  taught by Master Cho,  founder of Korean Natural Farming.   The organizers of this event had expected maybe 100 people, but the phone was ringing off the hook with people who wanted to register.  The numbers quickly exploded to over 300 people who  attended this first day, which didn’t include those  unable to attend, because the seminar was already filled.

What an encouraging sight to see…..  a sea of enthusiastic people,  gathered to learn about this  ‘New Wave of  Natural Farming’.  I was impressed at the diversity of those I saw there:  many energetic young and older, women and men, locals and transplants with a desire to learn a completely sustainable system of farming.

Friday was the first day of this one week long  seminar of workshops & farm tours entitled ‘ Natural Farming with Master Cho…A New Wave: In Harmony with Nature’.

It is being held in a pavilion at the UH-Hilo Agricultural Experimental Farm in Panaewa,  sponsored and coordinated by a host of agencies, a couple  of which is the College of Tropical Agriculture & Human Resources  (CTAHR) and Cho Global Natural Farming.  Anyone interested in knowing more detail about this seminar, can get more information by going to www.localgarden.us

I sensed an air of hope amongst the people present as it seemed as though they were given the chance of a new way of seeing plants grow, as Master Cho says , ‘in harmony with nature’.  I felt the message was to listen to the plant (observe the non-verbal),  become the plant, find out what it needs and nurture its life force. ” Start growing plants now, later is too late”,  Master Cho remarked!

During breaks I was able to connect  with a lot of people, some I already knew , some I had just met, but with everyone, I could feel a  new swell of farming interest.  This is so timely considering everyone’s concern with the economy, the future of food and food production.  It was also timely to hand out to people,  my new bumper stickers and bookmarks with my blog site address on it:       whosyourfarmer.info   and briefly explain the  direction of the blog and  directed study research project.  I felt the people I talked to had a  genuine interest in the content of my study which is researching consumers in farmers markets about their interest in where, how and who grows the food they buy there.  I look forward to posting more information as I come across it, connecting resource people and creating an opportunity for people to gain perspectives on their own food purchases at farmers markets.

( January 13, 2010 Journal entry written prior to setting up my website)

We flew into Fort Lauderdale Florida today,  shivering in the unseasonably cold weather of 30 F degrees. We came here to attend the Florida  Nursery Growers and Landscapers Association (FNGLA). While this group’s focus is not food growing they share the same woes, as all farmers in this region are experiencing, that of plummeting cold temperatures,  for an extended two week long duration causing significant set back, die back and or total loss of crops. Whether it be  the giant citrus industry or the landscape industry, small farmer or backyard grower….all farmers are worried about their crops.  Such is the life of a farmer, integrally connected to natures cycles of weather phenomena. While farmers do incorporate man made mechanisms like greenhouses, to have more control in their growing environments,  nature’s weather still is a major player in a farmers career, and shows its impact like it is showing now  in Florida this early January. Consumers of food will probably feel the negative impact on availability and price of food grown in this region.  Tomorrow I will search out where and when the Farmers Markets are happening in this area, and see how the people there are faring.

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(January 06, 2010 Journal entry written prior to setting up my website)

Today I launched my 499 ‘Directed Research Course’ at UH Hilo. I registered today, but in actuality my interest in this subject matter has been simmering for years.

The core subject  of my research is one that I think we can all relate to….food! More precisely, I am on a quest to find out what the motivating factors are that influence people when they choose the food they buy for themselves and their families in open markets. What is their interest in where the food is grown, how it is grown, who grows it and what does it cost? I decided to focus my research areas to open market locations on Hawaii Island, where I live, and other areas that I will be traveling to within this semester: Spring 2010.

My work is in agriculture, and I am connected to the agricultural community here in Hawaii. There is a growing concern amongst our agricultural leaders today that there is a trend toward fewer people in the next generation, choosing farming and/or ranching as their careers. So if this trend prevails, in the future  where will our food come from ? What kind of food will be available? Who will grow it? How much will it cost? I began to realize I needed to go out into the public and hear what people are thinking about the food they buy, what they value in their choices, and do their choices have any relationship to  encouraging and supporting the next generation to become  future farmers?

The web-blog style of my research project  was conceived a few months ago when I saw the movie ‘Julia and Julie’. I was inspired by this movie depicting Julia Child’s passionate relationship  with food, cooking and the people surrounding her.  I found Julie’s character soulful as she creatively communicated her culinary experiences, relating to  her personal revelations in the form of a blog, as she cooked her way through Julia Child’s “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” cook book.

Julie’s blogging drew my attention even more so, as I conjured up thoughts of incorporating  this blog format into my independent study that I was just beginning to formulate then.  Inspiration comes from interesting sources doesn’t it?

For me, to research in text and conversation and record the process as it is happening feels much more natural and meaningful.  I am fortunate and thankful that my directing instructor, Dr. Catherine Becker is willing to monitor my directed study as my research and experiences emerges on my website created for my blog.

I registered the name:             whosyourfarmer.info                              as my blog site and am excited as I embark on this journey to dialog with people at open markets about “ Who is your farmer? “

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