When’s the last time you got dirty?  I mean dirty as in real honest-to-goodness DIRT.  Covered in it.  Honestly, I can’t remember the last time I was this dirty.  I’d forgotten how much fun it is.  The cause of all this talk of dirt?  Because I was digging red potatoes.  Farmer Dave explained that the best way to get to them without hurting your back was to kneel in the dirt and dig what’s in front of you.  So we did. I was in shorts.  Thus, I got pretty well covered in dirt.

Who is this Farmer Dave?  Well, he’s the guy who’s in charge of the Sisters Hill Farm in Standfordville, NY where I’m volunteering for a week.

Why farming?  Well, why not?    I am, after all, a Renaissance Soul and this was just another in a long list of things I’ve wanted to try.  So when Mom saw the ad for volunteers, she called me up.  Not just because it was a farm with a CSA program, but also because it’s run by the Sisters of Charity – and I’m a big fan of volunteering with Sisters.

So here I am, living in a turn-of-the-century house, rising at 5:30AM, digging potatoes, cutting zucchini, cleaning garlic, and doing whatever else needs doing.  Today the shareholders come to pick up their produce so our first two days have been filled with harvesting.  Later we’ll get into some weeding and maybe even some planting.

I’m off to meet the shareholders – they’re the folks who paid money at the beginning of the season for a share of the bounty every week from May til October.  On the left, you see just some of the food they’ll get today.

In the meantime, for info on CSA’s near you, click here.  And if you haven’t been in the dirt in a while, I highly recommend it.