The Farm

I made it to the farm yesterday.  It went well enough, though there was a comedy-of-errors feel to the trip.   I traveled by train and I purchased a first class ticket for the portion of my trip that offered it, about ¾ of the trip.  I was happy to see the first class car had Wi-Fi and power outlets.  I was looking forward to doing some writing on the train, but my computer went on the fritz right before I left the States and now it basically doesn’t function unless it’s plugged in, so the power outlet was a welcome perk.  I tried to access the Wi-Fi, but to no avail – I wasn’t able to join the network.  I plugged in my phone to charge it, but then decided to plug in my computer instead so I could write while charging my phone through my computer.  The outlet was working and my phone was charging when I unplugged it, but when I plugged in my computer, no dice – there was no power from the outlet.  I plugged my phone back in directly to the outlet – still no power.  Later, as I was sitting in my seat sweating and wondering why it was so hot, I noticed a window in the front of the car had been opened up and the train attendant was staring up at the AC vents – the power in the car was completely out.

I got to my transfer point and made my way from the train to the station with my still ridiculously massive and overweight bag that also has a hinky wheel and so I kind of have to push it in front of me instead of walking it nicely beside me.  I also had a tote bag full of food items I had brought with me from Budapest – a brand new bottle of apple cider vinegar (just purchased that morning and unopened), a bottle of grapeseed oil, a bottle of olive oil, a bottle of fizzy water, a bottle of tea, cheddar cheese, sugar, an orange, and a nectarine – slung around the suitcase handle and hanging off the front of the suitcase, making it top heavy and even more unwieldy.  Well, the suitcase went down, right on top of the tote bag.  And, because I was trying to prevent the suitcase going down by holding on to it, I went down with it, bending over at the hip and basically doing downward dog on my suitcase in the middle of the train yard.  I heard a gushing sound and realized the fizzy water had burst and was drenching my tote bag.  I pulled the fizzy water out, uprighted my suitcase and put my tote back on it, and continued on my way another 100m or so to the station building.  It wasn’t until I was inside the building that I noticed the strong smell of apple cider vinegar.  The bottle – the glass bottle – had broken in the fall, along with both the bottles of oil.  My bag was dripping vinegar and oil and leaving a pool of it on the train station floor.  I quickly rushed the tote back outside and tried to salvage it, but I realized there was no way I was ever going to be able to use this tote again and threw it and everything in it in the garbage.  Meanwhile, I left my backpack – with my passport, money, computer, everything of real value – sitting on the floor in the station and my cell phone sitting on the windowsill while I’m trying to hall my oil-dripping tote outside and salvage what I can.  Fortunately, nothing got stolen.  My hands now drenched in oil and vinegar, I have to wash them, but the toilet is downstairs.  I leave my suitcase at the top of the staircase and head downstairs to use the bathroom, which has a 100HUF fee.  The fee wasn’t the problem, but fishing the money out of my wallet with oil all over my hands was.  I finally handed over the money and went in to wash my hands.  I also grabbed a pile of paper towels to try to mop up the pool of oil I left sitting on the station floor.  Lastly, I told – well, mimicked really, since she didn’t speak English and I don’t speak enough Hungarian – the ticket person about the spill and risk of someone slipping before heading out to catch my train.  I only had about 10-15 minutes between arrival and departure, and I was worried I would end up missing my train, but I didn’t.

When I got to my final destination, one of the other farm volunteers was there to greet me and help me back to the farm since the host was away and couldn’t pick me up.  It’s a tiny town and the farm is only about a 10-minute walk from the train station, but the road is rough and it was a real pain with my suitcase.  But, I made it and got settled in.  There are two other volunteers here right now – two girls, an American and a Spaniard.  We stay in a separate house from the host, who owns two adjacent properties.  I actually have my own room, which was a surprise to me.  In fact, there’s only one small bed in here, so I don’t think I’ll have to share a room at all.

“Farm” might be a bit of an overstatement to describe this place.  I’m not terribly familiar with property sizes, but I’m going to guess each property is about an acre.  The owner purchased the first property a year ago and only recently acquired the adjacent property.  The property was totally uncultivated at the time and they had to bring in a tractor to clear it before they could start laying down plant beds.  I would say about a quarter of the available land has actually been cultivated for agriculture.  The owner is cultivating the land using permaculture techniques and has decided to leave a big portion of the property between the gardens and the adjacent forest as an uncultivated meadow, with lots of flowers and weeds, because it’s pretty, but also as a barrier and means of keeping insects out of the garden.  A huge variety of vegetables grow in the gardens, there are many fruit trees on the property, and at least a dozen chickens provide eggs (?) and help with the composting.  There’s a compost toilet, a tree house, a gazebo-type structure and bench made from foraged forest wood, and three hammocks for lounging after the day’s work is done.  All of this and more has been done by the owner and the steady stream of volunteers that have come through here over the past year.  The neighbors have a flock of sheep and goats 1000 strong.

The town can hardly be described as a town.  It has a church, a school, a tiny grocery/convenience store that’s open 6am-noon and closed Wednesdays and Fridays, a tobacco store, and a bar.  That’s it.

My first day on the farm was spent learning a ton of new stuff from the owner as we walked around the property and she explained to me how everything works, how she has designed the place, and introduced me to various edible plans, including Nasturtium, which has an edible flower (we had this in our salad at lunch), and Purslane, a succulent with small leaves that is a supposed super-food.  A vegetarian lunch is provided to us and is prepared by a woman who is a volunteer, but who seems to be here permanently.  Lunch today was an amazing feast – tomato and cucumber salad; a beet, cabbage and raisin dish; beans; some sort of grain that looked a bit like quinoa or brown rice, but which derives from wheat and whose name I can’t remember; and a vegetable stir-fry with squash, carrots, onions, and other goodies.  It was wonderful!

I’m looking forward to my time here.

TL;DR:  I’m on a farm.  So far so good.