I didn’t know where bartering labor for local food would lead. In retrospect, it was not about economics, but learning, access to a greenhouse and participating in farm life.
This Feb. 1, 2013 email to Susan Jutz, one of the first organic farmers and community supported agriculture farm operators in the state got things going.
Susan:
Hope you are staying warm. I have an interest in developing a deeper relationship with producing local foods. While our kitchen garden is doing well, I want to explore the possibility of doing more with local foods to provide a source of income. This is a long range project, and if you offer it, I would like to exchange my labor for a share of your CSA this season.
I think you would find this a cheap and reliable source of farm labor, and what I would get out of it would be a deeper knowledge of how you do your work.
What do you think?
Regards, Paul
She accepted my offer and I’ve been working at Local Harvest ever since. When Carmen Black bought the farm and CSA operation from Susan, I stayed on. I plan to return next year.
In seven seasons I’ve learned a lot about food production. This year’s garden was the best ever, and if I had more time it could be better still. The education I gained has been valuable and I’m ready for next steps.
I engaged with three farms in 2019: Sundog Farm where Carmen lives, Wild Woods Farm where Kate Edwards leases land, and at Wilson’s Orchard owned by Sara Goering and Paul Rasch. Before tax income was $2,423.08 in cash with another $861.75 in bartered goods comprised of vegetables, greenhouse space, and soil mix for home use. I scheduled my work to do soil-blocking at Sundog Farm and Wild Woods Farm beginning in March, finishing in June. That gave me a month off before working at the orchard sales barn where the season runs from Aug. 1 through Oct. 31. I plan leave work at Wild Woods Farm in 2020 which frees up a day a week for gardening.
What else can I learn? Having a place to ask questions about vegetable and fruit growing is important to a gardener. The greenhouse space remains important, although eventually I’ll want to do this at home. Perhaps most valuable is participating in farm life, getting to know young farmers, workers and volunteers and the challenges they face in farming and in life generally.
Our home freezer and pantry are loaded with produce and that’s one measure of success of what began as a barter arrangement. As winter approaches there is a lot to consider for 2020.
Incumbent Adam Haluska and newcomer Jami Wolf bested the field of six candidates for director of the Solon School Board.
Preliminary vote totals released by the county auditor show at least 1,174 voters cast a ballot, although the final numbers won’t be available for a few days.
Voter turnout was more than double the last school board election in 2017. With six candidates active, their campaigns boosted turnout by activating networks of friends and family who didn’t vote in 2017. That combined with the aftershock of this year’s contract negotiations with the teacher’s union increased the size of the electorate. That’s good for our governance.
Unofficial Results
It’s about time a woman was part of the school board again. Jami Wolf ran a solid campaign and had a unique personal story and message seeking inclusion of all families and their students in the school. Her hashtag #ForAllFamilies proved to be a winner.
If poorly executed contract negotiations with the teacher’s union drove a high number of candidates, the message from the electorate was that Adam Haluska’s explanations of board missteps were accepted and could be forgiven. That will likely hold true in 2021 for whichever of the three board members whose terms expire run for reelection. In the life of Solon schools, it was a bump in the road, one I believe will fade in memory by the time of the next school board election.
There was no shortage of qualified candidates. I hope Ortega, O’Neil, Stahle and Wear consider running again in 2021 when three board seats will be up. With this election in the books, our attention now turns to the 2020 general election less than a year away.
I congratulate the winners and hope board directors learned a lesson from their mishandling of contract negotiations.
Gold Rush and Snow Sweet apples purchased on the last day of the season, Oct. 31, 2019.
The soybean harvest was disrupted by snowfall.
Several inches fell in the last 48 hours. Farmers came to town, including to the home, farm and auto supply store.
It will be a wet crop, propane prices are already higher. The main worry is when will farmers be able to get soybeans and corn out of the field. There’s no clear answer.
Farmers sought things to help deal with unexpected winter weather: boots, gloves, salt, sand, feed, bedding, shovels, and the like. We do a fair amount of trade during and after snowstorms.
Employees who farm called in asking for an additional shift because they can’t get in the fields. Our pay is meager, but off-farm income is important in the financial calculus of small-scale farming.
In the nearby county seat there is little discussion of the daily lives of row croppers and livestock producers. Those city folk come to our store, but to purchase pet food, shovels for the walk, disposable hand warmers, and ice melting compounds less harmful to pets. We cater to everyone.
After my shift I diverted along the Interstate to visit the orchard sales barn on the last day of the season. While there, I was recruited to work an event in December. Details are sketchy but why wouldn’t I do it?
I picked a dozen Gold Rush apples for storage and another five Snow Sweet for fresh eating. There were still a lot of apple varieties available.
Hurrying home, I made final preparations for Halloween, which included sweeping and salting the front steps, preparing a bowl near the door for treats, and baking pizza for dinner. Our visitors during the two-hour window for trick or treating were neighborhood children, many of whom made a previous costumed appearance on their parents’ social media accounts.
Regarding the Nov. 5 election, I’m settling into choices. I asked around about the election of our trustee on the Kirkwood Community College board and plan to vote for the incumbent, Tracy Pearson. For school board my decision is not final. I’m leaning toward Carlos Ortega and Jami Wolf. I also like Lauren O’Neil. If she doesn’t win this time I hope she runs again in 2021 when three positions are up. I’ve written so much about the school board election I thought it important to communicate where I’m landing. It seems doubtful most of the hundreds of post readers will find this obscure reference to the election. I’m okay with that. It’s not about me.
Today’s edition of the Solon Economist hasn’t been posted on line. The paper copy will arrive with the letter carrier late today, although I may try to find one on the way to my shift at the home, farm and auto supply store.
Once I read the school board candidate questionnaire responses, I will have finished gathering most of the input to determine which two of six candidates for whom I’ll vote on Nov. 5. After determining my votes I’ll begin outreach to friends and neighbors asking them to vote with me. My initial canvass indicated many people don’t plan to vote this election. In a low-information, low-turnout election, that could be the difference in which candidates are the top vote-getters.
When writing about the election there is a line between public and private information. I’ve been diligent about keeping emails, phone calls and meetings private even if they help inform my choice of candidates. It would be unfair and wrong to disclose publicly what someone told me privately. I can see why journalists and responsible bloggers try to keep those separate.
Neither of the major newspapers, the Iowa City Press Citizen nor the Cedar Rapids Gazette, has provided much coverage of the election. There was an initial report after the filing deadline, but since then, nary a printed word. Because of that, readership of this blog, where I am covered major aspects of the campaigns, catapulted to new highs. The blog set records for number of page views of single post, daily, weekly and monthly statistics. Because of the school board articles my annual readership is the highest it’s ever been with 10 weeks left in the year. The number of views rivals my best days as a freelancer at the Iowa City Press Citizen.
I shouldn’t have to fill the gap in news coverage but that’s where this lands. I feel a responsibility to get the story right while knowing my point of view is influenced by living in the community since 1993. Because of relationships with friends and neighbors I have a deeper understanding of segments of our community. I work toward unbiased reporting while my academic studies indicated that’s not really possible. Every writer, including me, has some axe to grind.
Writing about the school board election includes fairness and presentation of accurate information. Without that, what’s the point? I’m working without an editor so I had a misstep or two, which were fixed as quickly as feasible. No one is perfect. I feel a responsibility to our community to create a reasonable narrative from diverse and uneven information from and about the candidates. It is not obvious what that narrative should be.
It has been my pleasure to interact with the six candidates during the last week or so. It takes courage to put one’s name in the arena of competitive elections. As I’ve written previously, there are no clinkers this cycle, only the challenge of securing facts upon which to make our decisions. Hopefully these posts contribute to that endeavor.
Thanks for reading. To view the series of posts, click on this link to the tag 2019 SSB Election.
Stage Crew Reunion, Coal Valley, Ill. Oct. 19, 2019
Over the weekend ten former members of our high school stage crew gathered for a reunion at a private home in Coal Valley, Ill.
I made apple crisp from backyard apples, picked up some sweet cider and a host gift of dessert apples at the orchard, and drove into the Mississippi valley.
It’s been decades since conversing with some of my friends. I didn’t know what to expect. The investment of time and energy yielded a positive return.
Spending time with a specific cohort is a little weird from the get-go. Most of my days are now spent either at home, or with a diverse group of peers whose ages range from teenager to octogenarian. All of us at the reunion had birth dates within a small range. I was the oldest.
In four cases attendees resembled other siblings closer to my age. Once I got through the kinship embarrassment we moved on to more positive topics. The afternoon into evening was a series of individual and group conversations set in different parts of the property, culminating in a potluck dinner and photo. There were a couple of takeaways.
As I drove through the Illinois side of the Mississippi toward the reunion I noticed high water from flooding. Some parts of Rock Island County have been flooded for more than 100 days according to one reunion attendee. On Sept. 27, Michelle O’Neil of National Public Radio reported the administration granted Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker’s request for a federal disaster declaration there. River flooding has been particularly bad in the county this year.
While our conversations were not “political” the way Facebook, Twitter and other social media are, we covered a number of politicians, including Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds, and Governor Steve Bullock and Senator Jon Tester from Montana. I was pleased to hear Mike Matson won his Oct. 8 Davenport mayoral primary. The Elizabeth Warren bumper sticker on my vehicle went unmentioned and despite the fact most present live in Iowa, there was no discussion of the February 2020 Iowa caucuses.
A group gathered near the smoker where our host was preparing hot dogs and beans for the potluck. The conversation turned to answering the question “which types of medicine are you or have you taken?” It was a very long conversation, complicated by various maladies and medical conditions of group members. Taking only a lose-dose aspirin and a B-12 vitamin, by the end of the conversation I felt I had escaped something.
As we settled inside for dinner, the soundtrack was music that included drummer Ginger Baker who died Oct. 6. Four of us played together in a band during the early 1970s. Our set list included songs by Cream’s Eric Clapton.
The reunion was a reminder of the mostly male environment in which we attended high school. Only two female spouses were present, our host and another who came so the host wouldn’t be the only female in an otherwise male group. Until senior year our high school segregated men and women in different parts of the building. By being on stage crew and in my case, in chorus, we did see some of the women in our high school. As I went on to military service after college, the mostly male upbringing continued.
Our society doesn’t include many stage crew reunions. A lot of folks don’t attend more inclusive high school reunions. If our host Mike hadn’t been motivated to get the crew together this one wouldn’t have happened either. I’m glad it did.
Daylight remained as I drove into the driveway after a shift at the orchard.
If the garden appeared scorched by the previous night’s first frost, some tomato plants survived and the kale looked resilient.
The weather forecast is a couple of days without rain. I scheduled garlic planting for Tuesday when the ground should be dry enough. Fingers crossed I get a crop in this year.
I picked another bushel of fully ripened Red Delicious apples yesterday morning. This morning I used apples knocked down and damaged during the picking process to make an apple crisp for the county party’s fall fundraiser. In September I bought 30 aluminum food service trays for potlucks. This was the fifth one used.
We were busy at the orchard Saturday. Because of rainy weekends there is a pent up demand for the u-pick apple experience. I was tired at the end of my shift. I fixed eggplant Parmesan for dinner and could go no further. I was so tired I left the dishes to clean this morning. If there was any doubt, autumn has definitely arrived.
Hot peppers gleaned from the garden before the first frost.
When we had insufficient income to pay bills few errands were run.
We made almost no home repairs, delayed maintenance on everything, and minimized activities that required resources not on hand.
Now that our retirement income is set, and supplemented with a couple of extra jobs, I can afford to run errands. Yesterday I did so for the first time in a while.
The day began in the kitchen. Using onions and Swiss chard from the farm I made frittata for breakfast. Next, I sliced apples and filled the dehydrator. Sunday is the county party’s fall barbecue so I tested a recipe for applesauce cake to see if it would fit in the foil pans I bought for potlucks. The recipe fit without modification. In between this cookery I managed to glean the garden, bringing in peppers and tomatoes that would be damaged by frost. The kale looks really good right now and a freeze would make it taste better.
I cut five pieces of applesauce cake, put them on a plate, covered with foil, then delivered them to the public library while still warm. The librarian was making tea so the timing was perfect.
Next stop was the orchard where I hiked half an hour up and down hills, picking five varieties of apples: Regent, Crimson Crisp, Mutsu, Fuji, and New York 315. I also got some Snow Sweet and Honeycrisp in the sales barn. The season is about over yet there are lots of apples remaining on the trees.
From the orchard I drove to the recycling center in the parking lot of the former Hy-Vee supermarket on North Dodge Street. This is my go-to place for paper and magazine recycling. With our new clean-up project we are getting rid of lots of old magazines, too many for the curbside bin.
I pulled into nearby Hy-Vee where I bought organic celery and a packet of Morningstar Farms Recipe Crumbles for a pot of chili planned over the weekend. I’d been discussing nutritional yeast with one of the orchard owners so I bought a small container of Bragg’s brand to try it. The recipe we discussed was serving boiled or baked potatoes with a sprinkling of nutritional yeast and a dollop of yogurt. I’m now one step closer to trying it. They did not have the organic mayonnaise I sought, so I continued to Trader Joe’s.
Trader Joe’s is a store on the island that is the Iowa River Landing. This 180-acre mixed use development borders on the weird side. An arena is being built there and there are high rise apartment buildings, a hotel, a university-affiliated clinic and retail outlets. Despite having a range of activities, there is no sense of community at Iowa River Landing. I picked up two jars of organic mayonnaise and two of French Dijon Mustard. Staff was very friendly.
Westward to a big box home improvement store where I sought a replacement baseboard register for one of the bathrooms. Borrowing a tape measure from staff, I found the one I needed. On the way out I made an impulse purchase of a small bottle of 50:1 fuel mix for my trimmer. Expensive, but the right fuel is important for high-speed, small engines. My trimmer has been repaired twice since I purchased it so paying extra for proper fuel.
Final stop on the loop of the county seat was a drug store where I bought sundries, then drove home through three roundabouts and over two lakes.
Later that afternoon we went to the public library where Jacque delivered a book project she’d been working on as a volunteer and picked up the next. While she reviewed things with staff, I browsed the used book cart to see what was available.
I eschewed community cookbooks this time (how many of those can a person digest?) and bought good copies of a couple of works on my reading list. I also bought Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick and In Her Kitchen: Stories and Recipes from Grandmas Around the World by Gabriele Galimberti, the latter of which I read last night. What a marvelous book of women’s stories, recipes, and photos of the women with their ingredients facing a photo of the dish they created.
Moving from low wages to an adequate retirement income won’t make us rich, except in the ability to get out, run errands, visit with friends, and buy things we need to sustain our lives in a turbulent world.
Despite the changing season there was local lettuce, bell peppers, radishes, kohlrabi and tomatoes to make a fresh salad with last night’s pasta dinner.
I made the pasta sauce with fresh tomatoes as well.
Red Delicious apples are at peak ripeness. As I picked another bushel under an azure sky, I couldn’t resist eating those I knocked to the ground. The variety is unjustly maligned… and delicious.
Three things stand out in the second half of 2019: coping with diabetes, Mother’s death, and increased political activity.
When I was diagnosed with type two diabetes on May 13 I reacted with a lifestyle change. I counted carbohydrates consumed, then in September added counting calories. At around 200 carbs and less than 1,800 calories per day, I shed 15 percent of body weight since May 6. While my daily numbers are not exact, they accomplished what we hoped. I also keep track of exercise and work toward getting at least a half hour done daily. On Aug. 19 my A1C had reduced from “diabetes” to “prediabetes.” I’m hoping to get a clean bill of health during my November doctor’s appointment, fingers crossed.
I haven’t processed Mother’s Aug. 15 death. I feel her absence yet I’m not sure what it means now or going forward. My own mortality is in relief. I want to phone her, but she’s not there.
My calendar is filling up with political work. I decided to support Elizabeth Warren in the Feb. 3, 2020 Iowa caucus. My Warren organizer provided tools to begin a precinct canvass. I look forward to making the initial contacts. The presidential race is only part of it.
U.S. Senator Joni Ernst has been popular in the state so making her a single-term senator will be challenging. Five Democrats announced campaigns for the nomination which will be decided in the June 2, 2020 primary election. In order for a potential Democratic president to make progressive change, a Democrat-controlled U.S. Senate is required. Unseating Ernst will be a high priority after the February caucus.
My congressman Dave Loebsack announced his retirement. Retaining control of this seat is a high priority. There are two Democrats competing for the nomination with Rita Hart favored to win over Newman Abuissa. This race will also wait until after the precinct caucuses.
Yesterday Iowa House Republican legislators chose their leadership team. Democrats hope to regain the majority in the lower chamber. Our state senator Zach Wahls is not up for re-election in 2020, and no one has been able to beat Rep. Bobby Kaufmann since redistricting after the 2010 census. If there is a viable candidate for state representative this cycle, he or she will require some bandwidth. Kaufmann hasn’t announced a re-election campaign, but it is expected.
Today presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard is scheduled to appear at a house party hosted by a long-time neighbor. I’m making an apple crisp for the event. Macoun and Northern Spy apples are warming on the counter after storage in the ice box. When I publish this post I’ll head upstairs to make the dessert and hope something meaningful came from this piece of writing.
Elizabeth Warren not speaking for a moment at sunset. Iowa City, Iowa, Sept. 19, 2019
Even a grumpy Gus takes in the hoopla of the 2020 Democratic presidential nominating process going on in Iowa this weekend.
Ann Selzer’s Iowa poll, released last night, shows the top tier of candidates has been reduced to two: Elizabeth Warren with 22 percent, and Joe Biden with 20 percent. Warren’s lead is within the four percent margin of error for the poll.
The next nearest competitors begin with Bernie Sanders at 11 percent and results rapidly descended from there. If these results persist, and I believe they will, the two tickets out of Iowa, arguably the most important ones, belong to people who are definitely Democrats, and could be supported by rank and file.
The reason I get grumpy about Iowa presidential politics is it’s the rank and file that matter most. Despite thousands who traveled to the Polk County Democrats fall steak fry, and largely felt positive about our prospects in the general election, most rank and file Democrats don’t attend these sorts of political events.
A study of my precinct election results reminds me President Obama just barely won his 2012 re-election campaign here, and Donald Trump won in 2016. In 2018, Fred Hubbell beat Kim Reynolds by a handful of votes. I don’t know if this is a swing district or one that is steadily turning more Republican. While I work toward the former, it may be the latter and I’m just in denial.
To put the weekend — with its multiple forums, town halls and the big speeches by 17 presidential candidates at the steak fry — in context, there was enough news for rank and file to be aware of the activities. Hopefully there is or will be engagement in the selection process.
Elizabeth Warren’s rise to Iowa poll leader is due to the smart and challenging work of a campaign organization led by Janice Rottenberg. Rottenberg led the effort that gave Hillary Clinton the nod in Iowa in a close 2016 race. Her experience is paying dividends for Warren. My interaction with Rottenberg has been limited, but she is the type of person who makes the campaign interesting, engaging and sometimes fun. She knows how to “dream big, work hard and win.” Her campaign staff and volunteers have been enthusiastic, smart and accommodating whenever I encountered them. They listen.
I heard Warren speak in public twice this cycle. A key reason she is gaining traction in Iowa is her ability to frame the campaign as one of people first in a way that is meaningful. She is an excellent speaker with an engaging personal story to tell, one that includes her fight against corruption in politics and her plan to fix it if elected president. Because she has been in the public eye at least since 2012 when she was elected to fill Ted Kennedy’s U.S. Senate seat, we know she is as good as her word.
Warren stayed after her speech in Iowa City on Thursday to meet with individual voters and take a photo with anyone who wanted one. That meant an evening with voters (and staff) that continued until 11 p.m. This type of personal campaigning has been hard to do for presidential candidates spread thin over the four early states and the immediately following Super Tuesday ones. The only other candidate I’ve seen stay around like this to shake hands is Joe Biden. A personal connection with voters contributes to Warren and Biden leading in yesterday’s poll.
On the last day of summer I feel good about backing Elizabeth Warren in the February Iowa caucus. Because of her smart work and persistence, she seems increasingly likely to win the most convention delegates. With yesterday’s poll it seems clear she will get one of the tickets out of Iowa.
My comment from Facebook account: “IMO a single poll doesn’t mean much this far out, even if it is Ann Selzer. As I mentioned in my post, Warren’s lead is within the poll’s margin of error. It is accurate to say Sanders has slipped, not only in the polls. He began with a very strong list of 2016 supporters (~ 70,000, I heard), some of whom have become refugees to other candidates, including Warren, Buttigieg and likely others of which I don’t have visibility. I don’t see him picking up new support. I am skeptical of the “different kind of campaign” because when I discuss with Pete organizers and supporters, I don’t see much different about it. I will say Buttigieg’s supporters are very enthusiastic. As I said in my post, I’m more interested in rank and file Democrats than in people who engage in all the forums, speeches and events of this past weekend. What they do will determine the two or three tickets out of Iowa in February.
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