Farm Work (and last day to order!)

Today is the last day to place your orders for pick-up this Tuesday, March 15th. Shop here

So many vocations in this world! Some indoors, some outdoors, some mental, some physical, some tedious and boring, others fast paced and socially intense. Any given job might be a combination of several or all these qualities. Some are considered more lowly and menial, while others are held up as paradigms of talent and achievement.

That some jobs are valued more than others is unfortunate because all work (inequitable pay rates notwithstanding) is important to society in one way or another, regardless of social status – and every working person is deserving of respect for that fact alone. And we should have compassion for those unable to work. The majority of them want to work.

And let’s not forget how very much important unpaid work goes on in this world!

A sometimes-humorous reference is that my off-farm wage work supports my “farming habit”. I’ve had lots of different careers and vocations over the decades, mostly a rich store of experiences. My present occupation of farming is more a fortuitous confluence of events and a kind of personal evolution than any long-term plan, at least previously. And so, I find myself immersed in what some consider menial, low social status work. Perhaps it is, though not among those enlightened consumers who buy from local farms!

There is dignity (and health benefits!) in physical work, particularly outdoors – being intimately in contact with the air and weather, seasons, soil, plants and animals…its own reward, as they say. A great deal is un-glorious, solitary, and distinctly uncomfortable on occasion. But what comes to the fore is a kind of persistence that takes a longer/alternative view of effort and reward, investment and return, and working for something beyond yourself: I think that’s the crux of our mission here on earth. We may or may not find it in a given occupation, but the opportunity is always near, in or beyond our working life. Remember – “You give to the world, you give to yourself, when you’re giving your best to somebody else.” (Lyrics from the song No Place Like the Right Time, by Donna the Buffalo)

Caroline McColloch
cheznousfarm@gmail.com

Order here