“It’s avalanche season, work-wise [at Essex Farm]. As long as the weather holds we are all under pressure to get things plowed! composted! planted! weeded! fixed! moved! while simultaneously keeping up with all the quotidian work that the great living machine demands. This avalanche happens every spring, and every spring, the intensity of it takes me by surprise. Corn planting is the most pressing emergency this week. The fields are now just barely dry enough to work, and every day that goes by without seed in the ground is a loss of yield. So now every step must be done at once. Yesterday, Cory and I spread compost on the corn ground in front of Chad, who was using the two-bottom plow. It was a serious mixed-power moment: Cory drove the little red International tractor, I drove Jake and Abby, Chad drove the six-horse hitch, and Mark filled our spreaders with a skid steer. (Meanwhile, Courtney was cultivating the vegetables with Jay and Jack – a platoon of 10 horses, fully employed.) Over the course of the day, several things went wrong, as they always do when the pressure is on…” [Continue reading at Essex Farm| Kristin Kimball.]

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