Beginning my first busy year of university the last thing I wanted to do was volunteer 10 hours of my own time picking weeds and vegetables, especially as midterms were approaching. However even after the first visit, volunteering at the farm began to grow on me. (Pun intended)
My jobs at the farm included harvesting potatoes, squash, tomatoes, washing vegetables, sorting good vegetables from the seconds, and setting up or the market that was held every Thursday. I would say the most urgent job was harvesting the vegetables in time before they began to over ripen on the vine. I remember the first visit I had we had a big rain that day and the dirt was compact. These conditions were not ideal for harvesting potatoes because the potatoes were all caked in the mud. However, with myself and two other volunteers we plowed through them fast. Doing this type of difficult, hands on work really makes you appreciate teamwork. Teamwork is exactly what you need to run a farm, it is definitely not a one-person job.
The market was one of my favorite days to volunteer. Getting everything set up nice and pretty was when you really saw all the hard work pay off. It was something about seeing the abundance of produce on the tables that gave you a sense of achievement and a sense of pride. Whenever someone bought some tomatoes, a little thought popped up “Hey I helped pick those!”. On that note, I never knew about the organic farm before this class, so I was surprised how many locals came out every Thursday!
Seeing all of the beautiful vegetables harvested I couldn’t help myself but to by some to bring home to my family to show off what an awesome farm we have here at Guelph! We cooked up some butternut squash, spaghetti squash, and a pumpkin! The butternut squash was a denser squash while the spaghetti squash was something a little lighter. Spaghetti squash is one of my favorite’s because it is so versatile. You can make so many different recipes with it. With the pumpkin I made a DELICIOUS pumpkin pie from scratch and brought it to my family thanksgiving. Everyone loved it! I thought it tasted that much better since I knew how much hard work it took to grow, wash, and harvest the pumpkin.
In the end I am so glad I got the opportunity to work on this farm, and I plan on doing it next year too!