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yeah for Lynn!
*sigh* doing what most of us are wishing we were doing…
Congrats for both of you! I would LOVE to do like Lynn. I hope I manage to do that one day here in Egypt.
That’s the smile of a satisfied soul. Bless those that farm small in this world and give them each a hug.
:) Laurie
looks like happy helpers. ……we certainly find it a challenge to find willing help even when we pay them $$/hr.
cathy: Well, this is Year 2 of…People in the Field, and I’m so far doing fine (knock on wood!). It’s a bit scary facing your season needing just the right person to be there from start to finish. Last year worked out great with Conall, this year, there was a critical gap for full-time in June, but Lynn in the early season, Shannon SOLID in May, and now Lynn for five days should all even out. There was a comment here on the blog that stuck, after one of my posts about how cool it was to have great people to work with, something to the effect of: there are good years and bad years! I really don’t even like thinking about bad people years, now that I’m relying on more than just me.
The paying issue is also a big concern. I posted about that at some point, how I’m not at all comfortable with the “organic=volunteer” thing. On the other hand, even at minimum wage, I can easily sink myself in quite a hole if I’m not careful, so I’m happy for volunteers! Where I’m at now is that I don’t think in simply $$ terms, if I can exchange experience, veggies, expenses (gas), and cash in various combinations, I believe everyone gets fair value. I don’t think I have much to TEACH, this is hardly a model garden, but I do manage to hit the basic marks each season, like, good variety and quality, consistent supply, and so forth, so allowing someone full access to whatever I do I trust has value (as opposed to getting volunteers to just, like, weed all the time). So that’s good.
Then there’s the WWOOF/”long-distance farming” side, which is another thing I’m not comfortable with (especially with the cost of travel soaring). Still, providing good room and board has real value, so if that’s combined with a good farm experience, I’m comfortable with that sort of volunteering being a fair trade.
The rest, I guess, is just…good karma attracting good people. Hope that holds up! :)
i’m sure that you will continue to attract good folk…we had wooffers, interns, family, customers, all the above at some point over the course of the last 25 years. we have been known to be gentle bosses……we always refer to our paid help as helpers
i guess when we have wholesale orders and time lines we need to have help here.
even last week one fellow asked to go fishing for a couple of days with his dad….. we said okay but it is hay time…..he took the whole week off…..and didn’t return phone calls we made inquiring as to when he would be back.
we pay our helpers $10.oo/hour.
there have been years when we pay the help to help plant,weed etc…have make work projects for them only then to have drought or low yields (that is where we are to make our income from)