Strawberry Stockings in Beerwah, AU ~ July 5-25, 2011

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The Journey Begins…

I spent a lovely few days in Sydney, thanks to great recommendations from Katie for a nice place to stay and Bronwyn for many other practical details. I spent my days running early then walking later through the amazing botanical gardens and harbor – that Opera House is truly breathtaking and I did a lot of happy (though chilly – it’s definitely winter here) reading on the plaza in front. I was excited to get to the farm, though.

Farm #1: Coochin Hills Strawberries

I just finished my second week at the Coochin Hills Organics, a strawberry farm an hour north of Brisbane a bit inland, and am looking forward to one more week here (before I head far north to the tropics of Cairns, above the Great Barrier Reef, to another family farm, and then eventually to the chocolate farm and New Zealand). When I was a little squirt I had a pair of knee socks with Strawberry Shortcake on them, and our town poet saw me kicking them in the post office one day and wrote a poem about Strawnerry Stockings. Now I that I have my feet in the strawberry patch, this has new meaning.

I dig the strawberry farm – it’s run by a very nice couple who work along with us and keep us all focused on working hard but also have us around their dinner table every night for good and friendly meals, and take us on little excursions on the weekend – this weekend we were off to the beach! The farm uses all organic methods which are interesting to learn about -- last week we sprayed seeweed fertilizer and planted predator mites (which are the good guys) to eat the pests that are plaguing one plot of strawberries, for instance. This farm distributes to organic strawberry buyers way down in Melbourne and Sydney, runs an online business similar to peapod with organics, and also participate in one of the coolest farmers’ market I’ve ever seen every Sunday in Brisbane – all organic with a great variety of vendors, super nice patrons, and happy vibe in the air (worth the 2am wake-up call when you’re working market days!). Julia and David who run the farm clearly approach it as a business and they get the most out of their wwoofers – we have clear time schedules and quotas to meet, and they are clear about the fast and precise work they expect. It’s a good deal for them and provides structure for us – you can take it or leave it. I like working hard, although what “hard” means in this context involves about 6 hours of bending standing bending standing bending standing bending standing bending standing bending standing IF YOU’RE LUCKY, otherwise it’s 6 hours of beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeennnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnddddddddddddddddddddiiiiiiiiinnggg; either option makes both bending and standing excruciating. I now have a profound, profound respect for fruits and veggies that are cultivated and picked by hand. Fortunately I can nibble the most delicious strawberries I’ve ever tasted here and there as I bend/stand, and the environment and weather are lovely (kind of like early fall days at home with warm breezy days but very cool nights), and other folks are friendly to work with… so the sum of the work is positive and it’s not actually boring (yet?). Fortunately super-generous Noor and savvy Stacy, & Ben set me up with iPod, so boredom won’t threaten long if/when it strikes.

I made my grandmother’s strawberry pie for the crowds last week and it was a huge hit – they’re going to add it to the farm repertoire .

In terms of my comrades, there have been 6-10 wwoofers on the farm here while I’ve been here – all Japanese, Irish, or English, most in their 20’s backpacking around, and all very good people. At the moment we’re 4 girls, so we’re enjoying girls’ nights with movies, wine, and hot chocolate in the frigid shed that has the TV after dinner – I feel like I’m in college (except half of my comrades don’t speak Enlgish!)!

Other important farm denizens are three frisky little black and white dogs, a cat Smoky who lays low, and most prominently “Bird” – Bird is perhaps the single most memorable element of this farm so this is not a tangent. Bird is a magpie that was pushed out of his nest as a chick and adopted by the family here, is best friends with the dogs and makes barking squalks (really), and generally makes himself trouble by flying straight at your face or feet and pecking like he’s been paid to do it, pooping on your doorstep, hopping into your accommodation for a look around, or snitching a bit of whatever’s in the lunch bowl you’re carrying. Bird has more single-minded persistence and personality than 90% of humans. He bullied me for the first few days by flying straight at my head and pecking me which left a few marks (he especially menaces people with light hair) and all I could do was say “NO BIRD! NO!” in my most serious teacher voice and jump from side to side, clutching my floppy hat that I wear around the property to shield me from sun and crazy bird… But then Bird pulled a clever stunt, trickster that he is: about 5 days ago, he disappeared! Julia was in a tither thinking he had died somewhere, and even the rest of us had gotten a bit nostalgic by the time he returned two days later, first spotted trying to get into my accommodation for a visit! Fortunately my relationship with Bird has improved since his haitus – now he’s only interested in eating my feet and leaves my head alone. I will not use the phrase “bird brained” quite the same in the future…
Life is simple here; it’s like camping. Quick cool showers, creepers, doing dishes in a bowl of water we’ve boiled, and uninsulated everything are offset by beautiful starry skies, views of mountains from the wall of windows in the “studio” I share with my sweet but silent Japanese roommate, lots of hot tea, and the niceness of keeping things simple.

In addition to bending/standing, dodging Bird, learning about organics, hanging out with the 20-year olds and family, and learning to take 4-minute showers, I’ve also had some time for nice runs, laying on the grass reading, and lots and lots of knitting and audiobook . There doesn’t feel like quite as much down-time as I initially thought there would be here – a lot is dictated by daylight hours, after which is basically just dinner and bed, and since it’s winter here it gets dark fairly early. Anyway, on the up side, I’m making a snazzy scarf – a crucial trip into the town thrift store (which immediately made me feel at home ) yielded knitting needles, snipits of colorful yarn, and cutlery with red stars. I’ve become super excited about Virginia Woolf and Haruki Murakami, a funny mix but both phenomenal. If anyone happens to be reading or interested in reading anything by either of these authors, please let me know and I would LOVE to discuss over e-mail. My abbreviated booktalks are below ;). I’m in the groove with VW and HM and think I might read one or two more by each before taking a break for other goods, but I’d be up for jumping on your reading wagons too – mainly I’m really enjoying the opportunity to read a lot over here, but I’m missing the element of having someone to discuss it with. Maybe we could even start a virtual book group!?

Books!

I’ve been reading Mrs. Dalloway and To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf in hard copy -- I’m actually in the middle of my second reading of To the Lighthouse, it’s so complex that I just got the feeling for it the first time and now I’m seeing how it’s really put together and exactly what it’s saying… Virginia’s a bold genius in style and profound understanding of human nature, and the Isle of Skye setting brings me back to delicious memories of hiking there with Caroline. To the Lighthouse is a story of an eclectic extended family summering up at the Isle of Skye in the Heberdies off of Scotland, and basically explores the psychology of the times on issues of love, art, gender, social justice, and war through the lense of the various characters’ perspectives. Woolf’s prose style is SO unconventional though – she has sentences that go on for a page with stream-of-consciousness writing that makes perfect sense if you’re paying full attention but is impossible to skim or read sleepy, I think…

And, I’ve been listening to The Wind Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murikami on audiobook which provides hilarious voices for all of Murakami’s wildly fantastic characters – this book seems to be all about women; other than the protagonist who’s a sweet clueless guy, all of the other important characters are vivid women who are exploring their identity -- my favorite of these is a teenager through which Murakami delivers some of the best teenager-thinking-philosophically writing I’ve ever read. Beware that Mirikami seems to love to include some sections in all of his books that are grossely gruesome or graphically sexual – he seems to pride himself on throwing in gratuitous “eeew” moments – but it’s certainly not in the majority of the book. This novel is long and, in translation, is much more about the story line and key details than about the phrasing or prose, which makes it fun to listen to and would be easy to read quickly I think. It’s hilarious and interesting and reflective, and Murikami is the most prominent Japanese writer right now both in Japan and abroad; since I’ve started paying attention to him I see him mentioned by lots of folks in the US.

Art… and Life

My ambition for the illustrated travel journal is getting off to a slow start… I do have one illustration, and have faith that more will follow soon. It takes time and energy to paint, and this particular farm doesn’t leave a ton of these left over at the end of the day… Right now I’m just focusing on enjoying the day and listening to myself to stay happy day to day with enough rest and relaxation to make the work pleasant and interesting. I feel great, so I think I’m doing this well… After a very fast-paced end of the year and pack-up and fun-with-you-guys time, now I’m unwinding and understanding the nature of this adventure. It’s kind of an unusual adventure because it involves an intense but very quiet and reflective lifestyle on the farm and is only really an “adventure” when several farm and travel experiences will have accumulated. So basically, after a focused period at home of thinking about the long-term adventure I was embarking on, I’m now in the close-up day-to-day moment that feels mundane in a nice but not adventurous way. For now I’m enjoying the retreat, simple lifestyle, predictability, learning new things about farming and small business, and knitting and reading and being outside!

LOVE YOU ALL! Thank you again for your love and support – I can feel it over here .