tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6343122535318547716.post7995927319701209863..comments2024-02-25T13:25:26.434-08:00Comments on Owl's Farm: Good GrowthOwlfarmerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15373358232893937182noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6343122535318547716.post-63247251253682531632011-11-01T11:29:29.120-07:002011-11-01T11:29:29.120-07:00A little late with this comment but when I was in ...A little late with this comment but when I was in my wild and crazy youth I moved back to California with a boyfriend to make it big in San Francisco (those glorious days of being a hippie). Instead we wound up being so incredibly poor we went off and became migrant farm workers. Migrant because we lived in our car while doing it. What an eye opener - it changed a lot of how I think about respecting others, work, and even how started me towards a path of more like Buddhism. I was crop dusted, discriminated against and met wonderfully kind and friendly people. Thanks for the words.Nancyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13200245194489874517noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6343122535318547716.post-90538753782984117092011-10-09T11:33:27.202-07:002011-10-09T11:33:27.202-07:00I always know when I come over here to read Owl...I always know when I come over here to read Owl's Farm I will find two things,thoughtful writing and a kindred spirit.<br />People ARE lazy and would rather hire someone else to do those jobs around the house that were once only thought of as family chores.If you were fortunate enough to own a home however humble you took care of it yourself. The only people who didn't were the very wealthy (and some of those still did their "chores") and the frail elderly.<br />This is about not passing on skills that should have been taught in childhood. Many parents coddled their kids in the notion that they were providing a better life for them.It so happens that it is only softer not better. <br />I am the last person in my family to work for wages in a field. Yes my daughter is willing and able to go spend a day picking apples or berries as a foodie outing and enjoy the actual fruits of that labor but perhaps not willing to get up in the foggy dampness of an early October morning,grab a thermos of coffee and head out to turn the harvested Pumpkins in the straw so they do not mold and spoil. <br />People mostly get their "Harvest" fruit as decorations from the grocer or worse from a very insincere pumpkin patch on an asphalt lot with blow up slides and a mid-way of games.<br />They are so disconnected from the where,what,when and why of how their food is grown. They have never had soil under their fingernails that was not purchased at a Lowes or Home Depot in a clean 1.5 square foot bag. They have never ached from catching pumpkins being unloaded by hand off a field truck and tossing them to the next person down the line into the patch so children could choose a lovely orange globe without fighting their entangling vines. Our local ranch is gone now,sold to downsize and retire by the last owner in the middle 1990s. I harbor a little hope though because a few years ago another longtime local bought the remaining couple acres,the Foothill ranch name and began anew. He sells at farmers markets right now and if ever he gets a chance to expand into a fruitstand I will be right there to apply for work as a cashier,ambassador,fruit tosser and squash roller!<br />I cannot even begin to tell you what I think about GMOs here it would fill pages!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6343122535318547716.post-51709720504185866012011-10-05T19:29:40.704-07:002011-10-05T19:29:40.704-07:00We have been living in an agricultural area for a ...We have been living in an agricultural area for a few years now. We see the incredibly hard work it takes to grow the chiles, cotton, alfalfa, cabbage, and pecans that grow around us. Although I wish to buy our food locally, the stuff that's grown in the nearby fields has been sprayed with chemicals that make me choke and then is trucked far away, so we buy from the tiny organic farm a few miles away. The cabbages across the road probably end up in a Walmart in another state. <br /><br />Here is something that struck me when I read your post. Just as young people are reluctant to till the fields because of the hard work involved, they are also reluctant to raise children. I may be generalizing, but it seems to me that families are shrinking while potential parents concentrate on their own lives and upward mobility, perhaps because they think that children are just too much trouble. They are right, of course: Raising children is hard work, unprofitable, and the parents may not live to see the harvest. I wish they could all read Wendell Berry.clairzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12076402619649343527noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6343122535318547716.post-86844627604862435282011-10-05T18:20:11.951-07:002011-10-05T18:20:11.951-07:00My forefathers were farmers on both my mother'...My forefathers were farmers on both my mother's and father's side. Of course, during the time they came to this country, that's what most people did. I have inherited that green thumb and I love to garden. I also enjoy taking photos in the Coachella Valley of the various crops. We have a 365 day growing season.desertsandbeyondhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11861734579985048446noreply@blogger.com