I volunteered at Butler Green Farms, planting salad greens and sunflowers, and doing a bit of weeding.
Salad Greens
My first task was planting salad greens. The owner of the farm, Brian MacWhorter, dragged a hand plough across a field, leaving rows of shallow trenches behind.
We then dropped seedlings in the trenches he had just made, while a full-time employee followed us, setting them upright and pushing soil around them. And he worked so quickly that it took two of us dropping seedlings to keep up with just him planting them.
Beans
I spent maybe an hour weeding a bean field, and finished only one row.
Sunflowers
The last task of the day was planting sunflowers, done with the owner and several other volunteers. The process was pretty much the same as for the salad greens: pop seedlings out of a tray, drop them on the ground in rows, then plant them in the soil, which was, surprisingly, very rocky.
Cherries
There was a rainier cherry tree next to some greenhouses, loaded with ripe fruit. I harvested two small bags – I’d guess equalling three pounds – which I took home.
Apparently, I will work for food!