The Forty Days

As a Jew boy from the rough-and-tumble suburban streets of Dallas, Texas, I am not really into the whole manual-labor thing.  That’s not to say that my father didn’t teach me a lot about manual labor.  He taught me how to change a tire–call AAA.  He taught me how to fix a sink–call a plumber.  Honestly, the first time I learned what a screwdriver was, I drank so many that I passed out in our neighbor’s front lawn.  But these forty days are all about pushing myself to engage in new experiences, so I got ready to literally get my hands dirty and signed up as a workshare volunteer for Johnson’s Backyard Garden, who, according to a friend of a friend, will “work your ass off, if that’s what you want.”  Unfortunately, it is.

Johnson’s Backyard Garden is a twenty-acre certified organic farm located a mere five miles from downtown Austin.  Workshare volunteers spend a half day on the farm–8am to 1pm–harvesting and packing veggies in exchange for a box full of fresh, organic veggies.  I stumble onto the property at about 8 am in the morning, ready for work.  I even buy some work gloves the previous evening.  Wait . . . there exist gloves for purposes other than protecting my baby-soft hands from the biting cold of the occasional forty-degree Austin winter day?

I briefly meet the other volunteers and then hop onto some sort of metal thing attached to a tractor.  (I’m sure this thing has a technical name, and I’m equally sure that I don’t know what that name is.)  The tractor begins to pull us out into the fields.  I am being pulled by a tractor!  Sure, many of you may have been pulled by a tractor during a sorority hay ride or something of that ilk.  But I’m not being pulled by a tractor so I can get drunk and hopefully make out with that cute Alpha Beta brother Stan Gable–I’m being pulled by a tractor to go to work!  (Yes, that was a Revenge of the Nerds reference.  If you got that before this explanatory parenthetical, give yourself a big pat on the back.)

Our first task is to harvest purple and black eggplants.  I slowly move down my row lifting up the leaves of the eggplant bush(?) and plucking nice, big, shiny, organic eggplants.  I move slower than the other volunteers, but that is only because I believe in the adage that slow and steady wins the race–and because I don’t really know what I’m doing.  I’ve never even been able to pick ripe produce from the supermarket, much less straight from the vine.  After about an hour, I am dirty and sweaty and thirsty.  Only four more hours to go!  I have the overwhelming urge to yell out to Brent (the owner of the farm and our supervisor for the day): “Takin’ it off boss!”–just like George Kennedy in Cool Hand Luke.

We eventually move on to picking hot peppers and green beans.  Brent shows me the difference between a ripe and unripe pepper.  You understand? he asks.  Ummmm, yes . . . ?  Upon receiving further explanation from a co-volunteer, picking peppers is not that bad.  Then we move onto green beans.  Although I love green beans, and although we are allowed to eat some straight off the green bean plant(?), picking green beans is back-breaking labor.  I alternate between squatting and hunching over to harvest those pesky, little beans.  As I pick green beans, I talk to a co-volunteer about her job, her experience volunteering at the farm, our respective travels in Africa, and how sore my back is going to be later.  Upon discovering that she is only twenty two, I ask her if she thinks I sound like Old Man River complaining about my aching back.  She nervously laughs.  Please, if anyone has $30,000 to loan/give Brent to buy a green-bean-picking machine, it will be well worth it.

As I am about to keel over, Brent picks us up from the fields, and we begin to box up the veggies for Johnson’s members.  Johnson’s has the largest Community Supported Agriculture program in the Southern United States, whereby members pay in advance for a share of each harvest–ensuring a consistent market for Johnson’s and high-quality, local produce for the members.  After the boxes are packed, Brent gathers the volunteers, gives us our own box of fresh veggies, and thanks us.  He tells us that Johnson’s could not operate without volunteers and is glad that we had the opportunity to come out and see where our food comes from.

After we finish, I talk with Brent about the farm and its history.  Brent Johnson– a former water conservation program manager for the federal government and Grateful Dead follower–started gardening in the backyard of his East Austin residence–hence the name “Johnson’s Backyard Garden.”  He sold the fruits of his labor at farmer’s markets in Austin, and eventually his love for growing produce and the size of his garden grew.  The garden ultimately overtook his side and front yards, and in 2006, Brent moved his operation to its current twenty-acre location.  Brent is clearly passionate about farming, and it seems that he is truly living out his dream–working the land, growing large quantities of high-quality produce, and feeding the people of Austin.

After our pleasant conversation, I leave Johnson’s Backyard Garden with some dirty clothes, a slightly sore back, sweat on my brow, a box full of fresh veggies, and a smile on my face.  All in a day’s work.

Johnson Backyard Garden is hosting its Annual Fall Open House and Potluck this Saturday, October 17, from 3 pm until dark.  Bring a dish and some drink, and Johnson’s will provide farm tours, games, and music from Gringo Sol.  Should be fun!

Also, Johnson’s needs volunteers over the next few weeks for their upcoming sweet potato harvest.  For more information about being a workshare volunteer, click here.