Throughout the next several days, Phil and I spent a lot of time weeding and harvesting crops. Since all labor performed on organic farm operations is done manually, organic produce costs more than commercial produce.
People do the weeding of crops at organic farms, whereas commercial crops are sprayed with pesticides that ward off insects and kill weeds.
There’s something that sticks when you participate in a pesticide-free farming operation. It’d cost large-scale farming operations way too much money to abide by organic produce regulations, but this I’ve become such a fan of WWOOF. By volunteering at Highwater, I was helping with operations on a family farm. At the same time, my room and board, and food (Danielle said we were free to take anything from the garden) were taken care of, and I got to visit a state I hadn’t been to before.
The farm is located a few minutes away from a lake by foot, so we visited it during the earlier half of the trip. Jeff taught me how to cast a fishing line. I’m still not very proficient at it, but it’s something I learned while on the farm.
In addition to weeding and harvesting, Phil and I helped prepare green onions, garlic, and other crops, for sale at a local market and the Seedro-Woolley farmer’s market, which runs every Wednesday from 3 to 7 p.m.
For garlic, the stems and roots have to be cut.
Green onion roots have to be trimmed, as well as the tips if they’ve gone bad from too much sunlight. Then they have to be bunched up
Here are some photos from the farmer’s market:
Carrots
Multicolored potatoes
Vegetables sold at the Highwater Farm table
Organic cilantro
Organic string beans