OT: who picked my strawberries?

[Climb01742]

for the last few nights, we've eaten wonderful strawberries from a local farm stand. it is a family-owned farm that's been in the family for generations. the parents and the kids work the farm and the stand. all around us, farms are being bought by developers and turned into mcmansions. as we drove away from the farm stand two days ago, i looked out at the field where the strawberries grew and were being picked. given the debate over immigration lately, should i care who was picking the strawberries?

one summer in oregon in high school i couldn't find a summer job. so i signed up to pick raspberries. i lasted one day. it was some of the most miserable, back-breaking work i've ever done, and when i went to get my pickings weighed, it blew my mind how little all that work got me.

i want this local family farm to make it. i don't want another farm to become mcmansions. i want fresh locally grown picked today strawberries. i don't want them to cost anymore than they do. but i can't stop thinking about those dudes out in the field -- it's over 90 again today here -- doing what i know is back-breaking work to pick me some amazing berries. immigration isn't an simple issue.

[Bruce K]

Oh Climb, are you out of your mind? :eek: ;) You don't really want to start this debate, it will give Serotta James and Serotta Andrew ulcers of epic proportions! :D

It's a beautiful day, enjoy the strawberries.

Like local bike shops, support your local farm and they will hopefully survive for quite a while. Internet purchased strawberries will never taste as good.

Do you smell tunafish?

:banana: :banana:

BK

[coylifut]

one summer in oregon in high school i couldn't find a summer job. so i signed up to pick raspberries. i lasted one day. it was some of the miserable, back-breaking work i've ever done, and when i went to get my pickings weighed, it blew my mind how little all that work got me.



Climb. I grew up on the east side of town and a buddy and I would rush to deliver our newspapers (my dad would help roll em) so we could catch the berry bus. We picked strawberries, rasberries, and marion berries. The best money was picking green beans. we always had extra cash all summer long. it was great.

The last few years we did it, I noticed women from south east asia picking. they were always separated from us in the far corner of the field. i remember the farmer telling us that if he could find more of em he'd hire em because they picked almost twice as fast as us teenagers.

Fast forward nearly 30 years and it's all guest workers picking. it's now largely automated for raspberries.

btw. the first house i ever bought was right on top of that field. it wasn't a mcmansion though.

[Climb01742]

Oh Climb, are you out of your mind? :eek: ;) You don't really want to start this debate, it will give Serotta James and Serotta Andrew ulcers of epic proportions! :D

It's a beautiful day, enjoy the strawberries.

Like local bike shops, support your local farm and they will hopefully survive for quite a while. Internet purchased strawberries will never taste as good.

Do you smell tunafish?

:banana: :banana:

BK

bruce, i truly don't want to start a fight or a nasty political discussion. i was just struck by how life is much messier, more complicated than it seems on TV news. maybe it's naive of me, but thinking about those guys picking the berries, i don't think politics, i think human beings...it just hit home for me. so please, kids, let's not let this get nasty or political. that honestly isn't the spirit in which i raise it.

[Ginger]

Next time you get locally picked asparagus, and other high labor farm items, contemplate the same thing. And, as you note, this is nothing new. Many people won't stoop to farm wages, sometimes even if they grew up on the farm.

Tell me if it bothers you that those same farmers you don't want to go out of business get pennies on the dollar for goods unless they're growing something niche like mint or lavender? The American farmer is stuck competing with produce grown around the world and shipped in by the boat load. Sure, there are subsidies, but if you really want to farm without that support, it's a very difficult row to hoe.

I'm not getting nasty or political here really. It's just reality. There are many issues that you touch on Climb. Farm Labor (including Farm Labor wages which are less than minimum wage) Family farming, small farms vs corporate farming, competition from overseas, overdevelopement and urban sprawl. Immigration is getting plenty of air play right now. Heck, Michigan had a huge population of migrant farmers come through each year to pick crops. I went to school with their kids. These people have always been humans to me.

I'm glad you stopped to think about this Climb. And I'm glad you shared.

Former organic farmer
Ginger

[bcm119]

If you haven't already, read Reefer Madness (http://www.bookpage.com/0305bp/eric_schlosser.html) by Eric Schlosser, the guy who wrote Fast Food Nation. He describes the reality of the strawberry industry in CA (which produces the store-bought competition to your local farm). Good read.

[Too Tall]

ClimbingJuan - It's not all bad. Mennonites and Amish have clued in to the organic and niche market yrs. ago. You won't find their land changing hands to developers.

Tell me you are NOT thinking about becoming a land owner :rolleyes:

[Fixed]

ClimbingJuan - It's not all bad. Mennonites and Amish have clued in to the organic and niche market yrs. ago. You won't find their land changing hands to developers.

Tell me you are NOT thinking about becoming a land owner :rolleyes:
sweet bro good for them
cheers

[Bruce K]

Climb, I figured I would say something to keep us off the political side, but in some ways we can't.

The fact that we, as American Consumers, want things cheap and easy leaves us open to the other issues such as low wages and "guest workers".

It's funny that many of us are willing to pay large sums of money for hand made bikes and the quality behind them, but would scream bloody murder if we had to pay $5.00 per head for high quality lettuce. Instead, we are willing to tolerate "guest workers" at low wages and no benefits to keep our produce cheap.

We then decry the agro-conglomerates for killing the family farms when most of the FF's don't have the economies of scale to compete with the big agro businesses or imports from all over the world.

Pick a product. Cranberries, apples, oranges, whatever and most of what you see in the store now comes from overseas or out of state, wherever more can be gotten for less.

Does anyone remember the "Produce Man" who would drive into your neighborhood and sell fresh produce out of the back of his truck? How about the milk man? What happened to that simpler, gentler life most of us grew up in?

For good or bad, it's all slipping away in the name of faster, cheaper, and, hopefully, better. But the life-style cost is probably not better.

We run around like lunatics trying to juggle all the balls we now keep in the air.

It's one of the primary reasons I treasure my time on the bike and try so zealously to make it a regular part of my life.

Soap box gone now.

BK

[Ginger]

ClimbingJuan - It's not all bad. Mennonites and Amish have clued in to the organic and niche market yrs. ago. You won't find their land changing hands to developers.

Tell me you are NOT thinking about becoming a land owner :rolleyes:


Well...that is one way to keep land from developement. Buy it and place it in a non-developement type trust...
But getting laws in place to limit sprawl is more to the point. Who do you want to penalize? The farmer who can't afford to farm anymore, so chooses to sell to a devloper, the devloper, or families who have to buy higher priced housing because the developements have been limited in your area.

You know...I grew up on a farm. I miss it. But at the current cost of aerable land, I'll probably never be a farmer myself. The cost is too high.

[Kevan]

a fine little cornfield about 5 years ago. What a treat it was...

[bcm119]

a fine little cornfield about 5 years ago. What a treat it was...
Is that where Bill and Hillary moved to? ;)

[Frog Hair]

I was in China once. Along a busy highway stood a glass building that was the very signature of today's technology. Inside it was sterile and all sorts of high-end computer parts were being engineered and produced. Immediately next to that building, and I mean immediately was some sort of agricultural field. Not sure what they were growing. But the grasses grew right up to the very edge of the glass encased super-building. In the ag field Chinese laborers were busy moving water from one side of the field to another. They wore yolks(sp) with a bucket of water hanging on each side. They would then have to sprint across the busy highway, avoid being killed by a car and proceed to dump their water into an irrigation trench on the other side. These people literally had straw sandles on their feet, the little coned pointy hats and had to run across the road to transport water.
2 feet away, on the other side of a glass wall, men in suits and ties sat with computers and worked inside sterile environments producing hi-tech gadgets. There could not have been a greater contrast. It was stunning to see.

This morning I passed a local berry field that I pass every day on the way to work. It did not look to unlike that scene in China.

[Tom]

Where the farmers fields used to be.

Is OK. I'm looking forward to the day when I'm doing the morning river loop and going over the bridge above I-87 I look down and the road is full of nothing but bicycles.

We may be getting things faster and cheaper but are they really better?

[William]

A local 100 acre farm was bought by the town that I live in not to long ago. A care taker/farmer was hired to run it and keep it up. We recently received a pamphlet that asked us to "buy" produce grown on this farm. Pay up front at the beginning of the season. I don't remember the dollar amount, but it was all laid out as to what vegetables and how much you would get over the course of a growing season. The pamphlet also gave comparisons to what it would cost compared to store bought produce. Seems like a good way for local farmers to pre-sell their goods, save the land from developers, and sell any excess produce at a road side stand. Regardless, I'm sure it helps some folks feel like they are doing their part to support the local farmer and preserve some green-space


William

[67-59]

We purchase our veggies by the season from a local organic farm under the type of arrangement you describe. The total cost is probably more than we'd pay buying stuff from the local mega-market, but we subscribe in large part to support this small local farm - and the veggies aren't bad, either. They get the benefit of cash up front (we usually subscribe the preceeding fall), and we get a great box of local produce every Wednesday during growing season. We also end up eating more veggies than we'd probably otherwise eat, and we experience new things. The first season was a challenge because we didn't always know what to do with the stuff, but we're in our third year now, and plan to keep it up. If you (or others) have a similar option, I'd urge you to give it a try.

[William]

We purchase our veggies by the season from a local organic farm under the type of arrangement you describe. The total cost is probably more than we'd pay buying stuff from the local mega-market, but we subscribe in large part to support this small local farm - and the veggies aren't bad, either. They get the benefit of cash up front (we usually subscribe the preceeding fall), and we get a great box of local produce every Wednesday during growing season. We also end up eating more veggies than we'd probably otherwise eat, and we experience new things. The first season was a challenge because we didn't always know what to do with the stuff, but we're in our third year now, and plan to keep it up. If you (or others) have a similar option, I'd urge you to give it a try.

I think it's a good idea and we'll join in next time around. Believe it or not, Rhode Island has over 850 or so farms in this state. Doesn't seem like a lot, except when you take into account the size of the state. Much of it is still amazingly rural..but the developers are building fast.


William

[OldDog]

http://www.thelandsathillsidefarms.org/

My 'hood. Local family farm recently moved into a land trust and now being run as a non-profit. Cool idea.

[Climb01742]

http://www.thelandsathillsidefarms.org/

My 'hood. Local family farm recently moved into a land trust and now being run as a non-profit. Cool idea.

looks like a beautiful place. there's just something about how farm land looks that just strikes me as peaceful and tranquil. literally, a breath of fresh air in a world getting more congested all the time. neat link, olddog, thanks.

[Marcusaurelius]

for the last few nights, we've eaten wonderful strawberries from a local farm stand. it is a family-owned farm that's been in the family for generations. the parents and the kids work the farm and the stand. all around us, farms are being bought by developers and turned into mcmansions. as we drove away from the farm stand two days ago, i looked out at the field where the strawberries grew and were being picked. given the debate over immigration lately, should i care who was picking the strawberries?

one summer in oregon in high school i couldn't find a summer job. so i signed up to pick raspberries. i lasted one day. it was some of the most miserable, back-breaking work i've ever done, and when i went to get my pickings weighed, it blew my mind how little all that work got me.

i want this local family farm to make it. i don't want another farm to become mcmansions. i want fresh locally grown picked today strawberries. i don't want them to cost anymore than they do. but i can't stop thinking about those dudes out in the field -- it's over 90 again today here -- doing what i know is back-breaking work to pick me some amazing berries. immigration isn't an simple issue.


A lot of the small local farms around here are importing workers from Mexico to harvest their crops. The wages are very low and the work is very hard. If they were to raise the price of the berries so they could raise the wages, everyone would just buy the much less expensive california produce that all seems to come from a few very large farms (corporation).

[alancw3]

Well...that is one way to keep land from developement. Buy it and place it in a non-developement type trust...
But getting laws in place to limit sprawl is more to the point. Who do you want to penalize? The farmer who can't afford to farm anymore, so chooses to sell to a devloper, the devloper, or families who have to buy higher priced housing because the developements have been limited in your area.

You know...I grew up on a farm. I miss it. But at the current cost of aerable land, I'll probably never be a farmer myself. The cost is too high.

ginger i hear what you are saying but it really gets me when the dairy farmer down the road from me gets $325,000 in subsidies and has the state peg his milk priced per gallon. i hate urban sproul more than you can believe! i don't profess to know what the answers are but i do not think subsidies are. i guess it gets down to a free enterprise system w/o government intervension. oh, and you can count you're blessing to have grown up on a farm. you are very lucky to have had that experience!! the rest of us only dream of that opportunity!!

[Ginger]

ginger ... oh, and you can count you're blessing to have grown up on a farm. you are very lucky to have had that experience!! the rest of us only dream of that opportunity!!

The subsides to tobacco farmers...now *that* is something I don't get...

I left my Dr. appt today during a thundering downpour. I was thinking about how much I missed farming and really, if I did or not. Rememberances of working in pouring rain, and actually working in that sort of weather are very different things.
People think they'd like to live on a real farm, usually a farm with some sort of animals, and they think you're lucky if you grew up that way. But until they've moved 1000 60lb bales in one day just to turn around and move the same amount tomorrow and the next day just to have the priveledge to get frostbite taking it out of the barn all winter to feed animals that would just as soon trample you as look at you, had a life/death/amputation type encounter with a 2000 lb bull, been charged by a 1000lb mama cow while you're carrying her hypothermic 100lb dead-weight placenta-slippery new born baby through knee deep mud or over an icy field because she dropped it early and in the back of the back 40 and won't feed it and it's too cold and dumb to figure out nursing so you have to get some colestrum into it and get it warm and dry, watched the brilliance and stupidity of newborn animals, had your arm in up to the shoulder playing midwife for a cow that has "given up" pushing, dealt with the heartache and gore of the stupid/ugly/gross things animals do to themselves and each other, talked to the vet at 3am, or dealt with fly strike just to get paid .56 cents per pound for meat on the hoof that's going for $4 in the store...they have no clue.

So...in many ways you're right. I was lucky to spend 20 years of my life growing up on a farm and farming. In many ways it taught me a lot of practical things in life. It taught me the value of manual labor and the value of an education. It taught me to be open minded and cynical at the same time. And that laughter doesn't pay the bills, but it makes going without a lot easier than worry. Given a chance, I would probably go back to that life.
Real farming on a real farm isn't the box of crackers people who haven't lived the life think it is. My hats off to all the farmers out there who still have the tenacity to continue trying to make a living at it in a corporate world.

Off my soapbox.

Ginger

[William]

On the farm lived a chicken and a horse, both of whom loved to play together.

One day the two were playing, when the horse fell into a bog and began to sink. Scared for his life, the horse whinnied for the chicken to go get the farmer for help! Off the chicken ran, back to the farm.

Arriving at the farm, he searched and searched for the farmer, but to no avail, for he had gone to town with the only tractor.

Running around, the chicken spied the farmer's new Harley. Finding the keys in the ignition,
the chicken sped off with a length of rope hoping he still had time to save his friend's life.

Back at the bog, the horse was surprised, but happy, to see the chicken arrive on the shiny Harley, and he managed to get a hold of the loop of rope the chicken tossed to him.
After tying the other end to the rear bumper
of the farmer's bike, the chicken then drove
slowly forward and, with the aid of the powerful bike, rescued the horse!

Happy and proud, the chicken rode the Harley back to the farmhouse, and the farmer was none the wiser when he returned.

The friendship between the two animals was cemented: Best Buddies, Best Pals.



A few weeks later, the chicken fell into a mud pit, and soon, he too, began to sink and cried out to the horse to save his life!

The horse thought a moment, walked over, and straddled the large puddle.

Looking underneath, he told the chicken to grab his hangy-down thing and he would then lift him out of the pit. The chicken got a good grip, and the horse pulled him up and out, saving his life.

The moral of the story? (Yep, you betcha - there IS a moral!)







"When You're Hung Like A Horse, You Don't Need A Harley To Pick Up Chicks"

[catulle]

On the farm lived a chicken and a horse, both of whom loved to play together.

One day the two were playing, when the horse fell into a bog and began to sink. Scared for his life, the horse whinnied for the chicken to go get the farmer for help! Off the chicken ran, back to the farm.

Arriving at the farm, he searched and searched for the farmer, but to no avail, for he had gone to town with the only tractor.

Running around, the chicken spied the farmer's new Harley. Finding the keys in the ignition,
the chicken sped off with a length of rope hoping he still had time to save his friend's life.

Back at the bog, the horse was surprised, but happy, to see the chicken arrive on the shiny Harley, and he managed to get a hold of the loop of rope the chicken tossed to him.
After tying the other end to the rear bumper
of the farmer's bike, the chicken then drove
slowly forward and, with the aid of the powerful bike, rescued the horse!

Happy and proud, the chicken rode the Harley back to the farmhouse, and the farmer was none the wiser when he returned.

The friendship between the two animals was cemented: Best Buddies, Best Pals.



A few weeks later, the chicken fell into a mud pit, and soon, he too, began to sink and cried out to the horse to save his life!

The horse thought a moment, walked over, and straddled the large puddle.

Looking underneath, he told the chicken to grab his hangy-down thing and he would then lift him out of the pit. The chicken got a good grip, and the horse pulled him up and out, saving his life.

The moral of the story? (Yep, you betcha - there IS a moral!)







"When You're Hung Like A Horse, You Don't Need A Harley To Pick Up Chicks"

ROTLMAO....!!!!!!! Thank you...!!!!!

[catulle]

A few years ago I was at the Hertz or Avis or something rental office at the Miami airport picking up a car. The lady at the counter was Cuban, and she had the ease of word to prove it. We got to talking and after solving the world problems a few times she told me about what she meant to do with the money saved from her car rental salary.

She said: Look, this is a crazy world full of crazy people. My sister rents a small plot of land not far from here where she planted some tomato plants. She sits all day under an umbrella watching soap-operas on a small TV, while rich people on Jaguars, BMWs, Mercedes Benz and all that stuff drive up and pay anything to buy her tomatoes because they are "natural". She sprays the ants a little so they won't eat the plants, but other than that the tomatoes pretty much grow on their own; so these people buy them because they like them that way. And I'm planning to do exactly like my sister is doing. Can you imagine? Just sit around and watch TV all day?

I guess as long as enterprising people are around, there will be "natural" tomatoes to be bought. At least that's the neo-liberal theory, atmo.

[alancw3]

The subsides to tobacco farmers...now *that* is something I don't get...

I left my Dr. appt today during a thundering downpour. I was thinking about how much I missed farming and really, if I did or not. Rememberances of working in pouring rain, and actually working in that sort of weather are very different things.
People think they'd like to live on a real farm, usually a farm with some sort of animals, and they think you're lucky if you grew up that way. But until they've moved 1000 60lb bales in one day just to turn around and move the same amount tomorrow and the next day just to have the priveledge to get frostbite taking it out of the barn all winter to feed animals that would just as soon trample you as look at you, had a life/death/amputation type encounter with a 2000 lb bull, been charged by a 1000lb mama cow while you're carrying her hypothermic 100lb dead-weight placenta-slippery new born baby through knee deep mud or over an icy field because she dropped it early and in the back of the back 40 and won't feed it and it's too cold and dumb to figure out nursing so you have to get some colestrum into it and get it warm and dry, watched the brilliance and stupidity of newborn animals, had your arm in up to the shoulder playing midwife for a cow that has "given up" pushing, dealt with the heartache and gore of the stupid/ugly/gross things animals do to themselves and each other, talked to the vet at 3am, or dealt with fly strike just to get paid .56 cents per pound for meat on the hoof that's going for $4 in the store...they have no clue.

So...in many ways you're right. I was lucky to spend 20 years of my life growing up on a farm and farming. In many ways it taught me a lot of practical things in life. It taught me the value of manual labor and the value of an education. It taught me to be open minded and cynical at the same time. And that laughter doesn't pay the bills, but it makes going without a lot easier than worry. Given a chance, I would probably go back to that life.
Real farming on a real farm isn't the box of crackers people who haven't lived the life think it is. My hats off to all the farmers out there who still have the tenacity to continue trying to make a living at it in a corporate world.

Off my soapbox.

Ginger
amen ginger!!!! i could not agree with you more. i get so disgused with all the people out there that read their yankee magizsine or order from their ll bean catelog to experience the country life or drive their shinny $50,000+ suv. they wanted to experience the fun make believe side of country and farming life. real farming is WORK and hard work at that. i do think that there is a certain "innocence" to the farming way of life that most of us do not get to experience. so count your blessings. my grandmother lived on a farm and i can remember visiting her once a week from the city. i just loved going to her farm. anyway i do hope you have that opportunity some day to return to that lifestyle. you may have to get dave kirk to build you a mountain bike then! :)

[Climb01742]

for 8 summers as a kid i worked on a farm in wisconsin. each summer, after we had baled the family's hay, 3 of us would hire ourselves out to neighboring farms to bale their hay. one statistic stands out: one summer, we baled 21,000 bales for 12 cents a bale. on a great day, working from first light until 11pm, we could bale and stack in a barn 1000 bales. and we split that 12 cents a bale 3 ways!!! it built muscles, farmers' tans and (sorta) character. but farming has been the most "honest" work i've ever done. human beings just have a connection to the land and critters that is deep and fundamental.