Today was our last day at the farm – a bittersweet
feeling for all of us. We did look forward to not being covered in dirt and
under the scorching sun, but we agreed that we would miss Farmer Miguel and all
of his adorableness. We planned to start our day even earlier by arriving at
Amy’s Farm at 8 o’clock – when they open for the day – and then leave around 1
o’clock in order for us to make it home in time for an event at 4 o’clock. We checked
out of our hotel and made the drive to Amy’s farm - without getting lost! Well
you know what they say – the third time’s the charm! We snacked on Cinnamon
Toast Crunch and Fruit Loops as we passed by the hundreds of cows that populate
rural Ontario. We greeted Farmer Randy once again, and he set us on our first
task: planting garlic. We were handed a box of whole garlic cloves and were
puzzled as what to do with them. Little did we know that to plant garlic, you
peel apart each separate clove and then plant it in the ground. As we peeled the
garlic, Miguel told us about how one of his old co-workers used to eat a whole
clove of garlic every morning to help his heart - you learn something new every
day! The rich smell wafted into our noses and made us crave our favorite
Italian dishes – lasagna, spaghetti bolognese and garlic noodles. Yummy! There
was another field waiting for us, ready with multiple rows of the drip
irrigation tape. We lined up the cloves of garlic along four of the rows and
began planting (our favorite….) once again. Farmer Miguel showed us how deep
the hole should be and how to position the garlic in them. I picked it up
pretty quickly (maybe because all of the holes I dug were so shallow….) but it
took Jill and Kimberly a little longer to pick it up. Kimberly had still not
gotten the knack for it by the end of the first row, but Jill and I were pros
and finished each of our rows in about half the time Kimberly finished hers (we
did not spend our left over time idly waiting for her but instead spent it
teasing her “planting” skills (something we very much enjoyed while Kimberly
did not)).
Next was our favorite part of the day – lunch! We made yet another trip to our
favorite restaurant chain, Subway, (it was either that or Carl's Jr. - and since reading Fast Food Nation none of us are ready to go back to any burger joints anytime soon) and ordered the same sandwiches as the day
before…. (Let’s just say that we haven’t eaten a sandwich since…) While we went
to lunch, Farmer Miguel and Farmer Randy dug four trenches for us to plant
potatoes in. We reluctantly left our air-conditioned car and headed back to
work. Farmer Miguel once again demonstrated how to plant the potatoes as we diligently
watched, and then left us to finish the rest of the planting. We began to
plant, but found this task much more difficult and challenging than any of the
others we had completed. The dirt in the trenches was dry, rocky and packed together,
making it rather difficult to dig deep holes. We struggled, but working
together, we were able to finish the planting before 1 o’clock. Right next to
the field was a pig pen so we ventured over there and made friends with a muddy
pig that Kimberly named Wilbur (it licked all of us which we thought was so
cute!) We had extra time to spare so we filmed tutorial videos for all of the
tasks we did at the farm. We filmed tutorials
about weeding, thinning, drip irrigation, cows and planting. After such a long (ish) and hard day, we were
glad to wash our hands and be semi-dirt-free. We found Farmer Miguel in order
to say goodbye and he begged us come and get some fresh peaches and apricots
for our trip home. With our fresh fruit in tow, we left Amy’s Farm and waved goodbye
to the cows, horses and chickens. We were all thrilled to go home and be clean for the first time in a week.
Although we did not work with animals at Amy’s Farm this week, we might go back
next week to go on a tour/ work with the animals.
~Kristy
~Kristy
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