Today I worked a full 5 hours on a lovely farm outside of Athens, Georgia. You would expect, I'm sure, for me to express my new found appreciation for ethical farmers but all I can say right now is "ow." I might fall asleep while writing and the time is 3:30 pm. I want to sing their praises, true, but I can't right now because I'm tired to the bone. My fingers seem to be the only appendage with any energy left, and my brain just misspelled it's own name as "brian." (I corrected it for you so you'll take me seriously.)
Lets be honest here, shall we? I spent five hours on my knees pressed hard into the rocky soil: they ache. When I shifted my weight to the side, my neck started cramping: it aches. When I looked down at my arms, they were sunburned: they'll ache tomorrow. When I changed clothes, small pebbles of dirt rolled off my jeans like a dirty brown avalanche. I am one blog away from crashing into a death-like midday sleep.
BUT, when Boo, the farmer I'm proud to be working for, handed me a carrot, rinsed free of dirt with the water from their well, leafy top snapped off and ready to eat (still kind of dirty though, oh well) I took one bite and looked at him and said, "are you kidding me?" right as he was mid sentence apologizing for it not being their best bunch of carrots.
To be honest, I don't even like carrots that much. They're the usual reject-food in my house, the last resort with hummus. But this carrot, oh man...Bugs Bunny himself would've stolen it, were he not a cartoon. The taste lingered in my mouth for at least an hour, teasing me with it's fresh sweetness. Now I know why I never liked carrots much: they weren't the real deal. As much as my body doesn't want me to admit it, fact is, the work is brutal but the rewards are "crazy delicious." Where do I stand now? Hi, I'm Annie: will work for (real) carrots.
My body is beckoning me to rest now, and a part of me feels bad for all the complaining. Once I'm acclimated to the labor and the heat maybe I'll grow to love it. All I know is today I didn't have to endure a stuffy office and I ate the best carrot in the world.
Night, night.
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1 comment:
I had a very similar experience in Ipswich when we were harvesting literally thousands of carrots in the rain. Digging and getting soaked wasn't fun, but snacking on tasty orange treats later was. Somehow, it turns out to be more than worth it.
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