Working From Home

If I never turned on the radio or opened a newspaper, I might not know that the whole world is different from what it was a month ago, or a week ago, or yesterday.  The outside world is behaving pretty normally, although spring is in second gear already and not looking back. This morning we all got out earlier than usual because Carrie is on a new schedule, splitting her work day with her wife, coordinating the child care. Her first priority was to spread compost so we can get the field ready for onions next week. My job was to get the compost turned in so the microbes can start jazzing up the soil and get going on chewing up the cover crop.

When the coronavirus news began to affect everyone's daily life, I could see right away that the economy was going to get trashed. There is no way to avoid it.  Our own personal first fear was that the farmers markets would close.  And the second fear is that people won't have any money to spend, so the CSA will wither. These were our personal concerns, but the fear goes much wider than that when you think about all the people who won't have an income.

It is impossible to know what the next months will bring, but I have come to think that farmers may be in the best position of everyone in society.  First of all, we haven't had to relocate our workplace. We are still working from home, working at home.  Second, our workplace is outdoors. Third, social distancing is pretty normal while we are at work.  There are probably few places that are safer than sitting in a tractor seat or kneeling in a spinach patch.

But the biggest reason we are lucky is that we are producing something truly essential. Potatoes, carrots, beans, lettuce. People need this stuff. Our job, no matter what, is to keep going.  In some ways, this crisis comes at a good time, seasonally. We have time to think about how to get the food to the people.  It might not be easy and it might not be the same as usual but people really do want food. Look at those supermarket shelves! It's nuts.  Many local farmers have been bombarded by requests for loads of meat, gallons of milk, crates of cheese.  My sister is all out of live chickens, for goodness sakes. People are really worried about their food security.

Because some of us are actually pretty vulnerable (Mom is our biggest worry), we are following all the instructions, keeping far away from everyone and doing a lot of handwashing and surface cleaning. Alissa has been fierce about telling us to pay attention and not take risks.  We have declared the greenhouse as a safe zone for my mother, which means that very few people are even allowed to go in there and only a few are allowed to work. 

We weren't sure whether people would really come to the farmers market last weekend, but we created a protocol that kept everyone's hands and breath away from the vegetables, and made the credit card process hands-free.  It turned out to be a very busy market. If the government continues to see farmers markets as essential, we will be ready.  The older folks (including me) are not allowed to go to market but we can keep doing the tractor work and washing the vegetables.

I have started to limit my news intake as it was beginning to fill me with dread.  Things will keep getting worse but the peas will sprout and the spring broccoli plants are luscious and vibrant. We are almost ready to put plants in the field. We just need to keep our distance and keep working.  We are super lucky to be farmers.  Who would have ever guessed that a crisis of this magnitude would arise, and that farming would end up being one of the safest jobs, while still statistically the second most dangerous job?

I have to go back out and get on a tractor. While I was sitting here in the Green Barn, Jon was replacing a hydraulic hose. Got to get this field ready for beets and carrots. People need food!