giving in to the monster

As all of you must know by now I have accepted an apprenticeship position a small-scale organic(but not certified) farm a couple minutes outside of Hot Springs, NC. I am reeling about what has to come and contemplating what I have gone through to get here. Part of what simplicity means to me is shedding some of the excess technology...or as my mom calls it "screen time"...in my life, but here I go plugging away on my first blog. So many people have been asking me about the farm, what I am going to be doing there, why I wanted to leave Belmont, etc. and I cannot answer everybody because neither you nor I have the time. So I gave into the blog monster. I think it is so cool that so many people are interested and want to be involved with what I am doing, so here it is...my very first blog post. I apologize for my rambling style, poor grammar, and run-ons, but please keep in mind that after all I am a college drop-out:) In this electronic form on communication I hope to not just give a boring week update of what life on the farm is like, but also share some of the things that I am learning and experiencing over the next 8 months.

First, let me tell you a little about the farm. Mountain Harvest Organic is a small-scale primarily vegetable farm about 7 minutes outside of Hot Springs, NC and an hourish from Asheville, NC. It is in a valley-like area surrounded by beautiful North Carolina mountains. All of their produce is sold directly to consumers taking out the middle man. They cater to two Asheville tailgate markets each week, and have a CSA as well. They have about 10 acres of tilled land 3.5 of which are in production at any given time. They also have four 100ish feet by 40ish feet greenhouses with two more on the way, which they heat with a wood boiler...very toasty:)! They have two horses, several chickens, and a couple goats for their own personal intake, but they have recently purchased three pigs which they plan on using to till their fields(hopefully more on this later). Many people have been asking me what they grow, and I always say "Well, they grow everything," but nobody seems satisfied. They actually do grow "everything." Carl told me that at any given time they have roughly 40 different kinds of vegetables in the ground...that doesn't include the different varieties of each vegetable either! The whole idea of small-scale agriculture is diversity, so when one plants fails another with flourish. They also grow a small amount of fresh cut flowers which they make into beautiful bouquets for sale at the market. That's a rough overview, but I will tell more in later posts.

Second, let me tell you a little about my job on the farm. The difference between an apprentice and a farm hand is that us apprentices are there to learn as well as work. Carl seems like a great teacher who will lead us once a week in a sit-down, class-like seminar where we will learn about things like fertilization and crop rotation that aren't really learned in a hands on manner. Also, MHO is about of a group called CRAFT connected to the Organic Growers School in Asheville. CRAFT is a group of 10 or so farms with apprenticeship programs who have a monthly seminar for all of the apprentices at one farm about a specific topic within sustainable agriculture. Most of what I will be doing though is hands-on! I will simply work on the farm doing everything that farmers do-living like farmers do-with a wage like farms have. I will be living in a three bedroom apartment above the equipment barn with a girl named Sabrina and another person who will start in June. I am very excited about living a working on the farm...more info and updates will come I promise.

I don't think that there is a third....hmmmm....I covered everything that I can think of at the moment, but I will try my bestest to post at least once a week about something that I think you guys will be interested in.

Have great days!
Noah

P.S. Keep in mind that not all monsters are bad.