Organic Solutions

This past Friday, I have officially been vegan from 1 year and a month. The first week was an experiment that ended up being expanded until this very day: learning to read labels, memorizing animal-derived chemical names, and becoming comfortable explaining my ideals.

The secret to success (like every mother would tell you), is to eat your vegetables. Its the only way to get proper nutrition when you cut certain things out of your diet. It might suck to switch out mac and cheese for veggie stir-fry, but lets face, the latter is more nutritious (and doesn't leave you feeling like you swallowed delicious, delicious, bricks).

So as of today, I am an intern on Heirloom Harvest Organic CSA in Westborough MA. This is my newest adventure...becoming more in touch with my food by exploring the ways it is grown. So the question is: which do you prefer? Hairnets, Assembly-line, food processing, or teamwork, love, and community. Again, for me its the latter.

When you throw 'organic,' into the mix, you take out the chemicals that are harmful to both humans and pests. Therefore, you have to explore new solutions to keep the bugs from eating your food (Anything is fair game, so long as it wont harm YOU).

For the kale, we used diatomaceous earth and beneficial nemetodes to keep kale-eating maggots of them. The diatomaceous earth is quite sharp, and the nemetodes are like little-writhing guard dogs (I don't really know, you can't see them at all with the naked eye, but that's how I like to picture them).

Also, the Remay helps keep the bugs off. Whenever I saw Remay from afar, I imagined it feeling like a trash bag, but actually its a fiber made of plastic. It behaved like a sail in the windy field. It took us 4 of us to lay the first and second bed of it down.



I was most taken aback by the enthusiasm of each member that came to do their required hours. I was thrilled with the efficiency of our teamwork. Everyone holds their weight because it's the only way the farm can function.


I will probably continue to journal about my experiences on the farm. It will certainly be a great summer.

In other news, I had trouble with Aramark again tonight. They didn't make a vegan option and the chef didn't know the difference between vegan and vegetarian so he told me the pasta and sauce was vegan. I didn't realize it wasn't until after I took a bite. I got really frustrated, and I didn't have the patience or time to deal with it. I started crying and they gave me my money back. I hate spending 6 bucks to eat a bowl of cereal. I could buy a box of cereal for less than that.

If I was Jaime Oliver, I might be able to show them how much fun fresh, healthy food can be. I'm counting down the days until I am no longer their customer.