North Star Orchard

(Sophie has been a full-time helper since spring 2007)

Background: I don’t really keep track of what I’ve done in the past… there’s too much to do in the present! Plus, I always have to be on the look out for rabbits, treats, concrete trucks, and Amish buggies… I can’t spend time thinking about the past. What if one of them shows up?!

Why are you working at North Star Orchard? Wait, I’m working? I was just having fun… that’s not work!

What do you want to do when you grow up? I’m four… I’m already grown up!

Least favorite farm job: Fighting groundhogs, accidentally biting frogs, going in the house, hiding from thunder, waiting for Mom to come home.

Favorite farm job: Getting treats and toys, chasing concrete trucks that go past my house, barking at buggies, scouring the farm to chase out those pesky rabbits, watching people do things in the barn.

Favorite vegetable/ fruit: I really like Housi Asian pears and some of the really sweet apples. Carrots and Brussels sprouts are awesome, too.

Favorite flavor of ice cream: I’m not sure if the blog’s reading audience would want to know just what I like to snack on while I’m running around the farm…

This is the time of year when everyone seems to be fighting off a little something, be it a cold or flu, and I’m grateful that I work outside and am not trapped inside with all those germs. However, we’re all literally “under the weather,” affected by what the sky throws at us, even though we sometimes as a culture pretend not to be. Case in point: Just over a week ago in our area, the Brandywine Creek rose to flood levels and many major state routes as well as smaller roads were closed in places due to high water. But the world carried on, everyone attempting to drive to work as usual. And, surprise! Some were met with confused traffic jams on detour that lasted for hours.

As farmers, we’re one of the few remaining professions in this country that seriously takes the weather into account to plan our day. Often, we North Star employees wake up to phone messages from Ike or Lisa, with the morning’s weather-dependent plan of action for the day. People are often curious how a certain weather event affects what we do at work. If we can, we avoid or plan around working in the rain. Some things can’t happen; peach picking, for example, needs to wait until the peach fuzz has dried off a bit. Tomatoes and peppers shouldn’t be disturbed while their foliage is wet, for fear of spreading fungal diseases. There are inside tasks that can be done, like packing CSA shares, washing vegetables, or planting seeds in the greenhouse. But some days, we have to persevere. Last Monday, with a steady rain and the temperature flirting with fifty degrees, we needed to pick vegetables for the CSA. The week before, with the Olympic pears needing to come off the trees and intermittent rain showers for days, we spent the day out in the orchard, hiding out in the box truck at intervals to avoid the worst of it.

We’re a motley crew on days like this – hats, brightly colored and mismatched rain suits, rubber boots, and – if we’re really desperate – neoprene gloves that act like a wetsuit to keep your hands “warm” in cold water. This is often the limiting factor in rain – nothing will slow you down like cold, numb hands. Wet feet are a close second, and rain seeping down the inside of your sleeves is a major annoyance, but not good enough reason to stop. Spirits are varied on a rainy day. Most of us find our minds wandering to daydreams of a hot cup of tea and a warm blanket; some of us find it “refreshing” and enjoy the challenge.

And what about the trees? How do they feel about the weather? Well, this season I’m sure they’re wishing that the rain could have been spaced out a bit more evenly. All of this rain came as Chester County had entered a drought watch, the lowest of the state’s three official classifications of drought conditions. Some of the trees were affected, their fruit ripening even earlier than expected (in a year when the season’s already ahead of schedule) and dropping fruit prematurely due to drought stress, which complicated our efforts to pick the fruit at the optimum moment. Rainstorms can also be detrimental, with high winds flinging fruit from trees. Full-size Olympic pears flying around; now that’s no joke! For this reason, we take special care to remove the fruit from the tips of branches when we’re thinning the Asian pear crop. And you can imagine the impact of even a brief hail storm on an orchard. A whole season’s harvest can be ruined in a matter of minutes. We had a not-so-severe hailstorm this summer; perhaps you’ve even seen a piece of fruit or two that was “kissed by the hail” with a tiny, cosmetic blemish. Other weather events can have a lasting impact on the trees. While an annual crop can be wiped out and tilled in, perennial crops like fruit trees are an investment. When disaster strikes, you try to pick up the pieces as best you can. Last winter’s blizzard left us scrambling to devise the best way to deal with split peach trees and to correct broken scaffold branches in the young apples.

Obviously (I hope), the weather plays a huge role in agriculture. In an orchard, weather patterns determine which varieties you can plant – different varieties have different levels of cold hardiness and chill requirement; each type of fruit requires certain conditions to reach peak flavor. An apple that loves upstate New York won’t fair as well in southeastern Pennsylvania and vice versa. Weather patterns also make some areas more ideal for growing beautiful fruit. The major fruit producing areas of Washington and California, for example, have a summer dry season without rain, which makes a world of difference for the control of fungal diseases that thrive in wet, humid conditions. Furthermore, in a world where climate change is already manifesting itself in eccentric weather conditions that affect agriculture, a commitment to eating locally means that everyone, not just those of us who spend our days out in the elements, should pay a bit more attention to just how “under the weather” we really are.

(Jay helps out part-time every year.)

Background: I’ve been homeschooled all my life, which has given me a great chance to really follow my interests during all the times at public schools which are wasted (role call, travel [on the bus and between classes], dealing with loud/obnoxious kids, etc.). Thanks to having a more flexible schedule, I have more time to really focus on what I want to do. Right now, that is web programming and other computer science topics.

Why are you working at North Star Orchard? Well, the most obvious thing, maybe, is that it is a very convenient place for me to work, since I live right there. I’ve grown up with the farm, so I think my personality has really been influenced by the work I’ve been doing… rather than coming in to work with preconceived notions of what I do and don’t like, what I like doing, and by extension why I’m working at North Star, are based on my work experiences. Finally, I can’t deny that it’s nice to have a seasonal source of income.

What do you want to do when you grow up? At this point I’m looking towards following some sort of programming, Internet, or other computer-y type path. I haven’t quite settled on just where in that (admittedly vast) field I want to go into, but I’m hoping that the computer science class I’m taking at the Chester County Technical College High School will help me more firmly solidify the details.

Least favorite farm job: Moving all the 40+ pound crates of fruit out of a small box truck in a space of an hour or two. Those things are heavy.

Favorite farm job: Talking to customers at farmers’ markets. Market-goers tend to be really friendly, and it’s been great getting to know some of our customers.

Favorite vegetable/ fruit: Apples. There’s just so much variety!

Favorite flavor of ice cream: Chocolate chip cookie dough. Not real healthy, but even farmers need to give in sometimes.

(Lisa is co-owner of North Star Orchard)

Background:I caught the farming ‘bug’ while attending Penn State and working on the student farm one summer. Although I was in college for education (I wanted to teach high school chemistry), I found working on the student farm to be very challenging and rewarding work. As I was dating (and soon to be married to) a guy whose plan was to farm, the decision to switch majors was a fairly easy one. I’ve enjoyed the best of both farming and teaching careers, as I’ve homeschooled our son Jay straight through from K to 12. (Although I never did teach him high school chemistry!)

Why are you working at North Star Orchard?:While this answer is fairly obvious (because I own the business), I will say this: when Ike and I started North Star Orchard in 1992, we had absolutely NO idea what we were in for! Challenges like extreme weather, taking on debt, managing an ever-increasing pool of employees, working 12 to 15-hour days during harvest time, and figuring out our goals/marketing plan have been both tough and sometimes awesome to figure out. Getting to know so many great people, including the aforementioned employees as well as our CSA members and farmers’ market customers has been a joy – and a most excellent reward for all of our hard work and worry!

What do you want to do when you grow up?: I think I’ve mostly hit this one already. Some things I’d like to do in the future: find more time to do artwork and writing. At least most winters I can squeeze a bit of each in! I’d also like to do some on-farm educational programs in the future, as well as add a few chickens and a pig or two to the farm.

Favorite farm job (so far!): Thinning Asian pears. I get to listen to a lot of great audiobooks when I’m in midst of thinning mode. This year, I went through most of Charles Dickens’ books. Previous years were focused on history, the sciences, philosophy, etc.

Least favorite farm job: Thinning Asian pears! Ok, that job is a love-hate relationship. The task is completely daunting, as there’s so much to do. For the first half of thinning season, I get stressed that we’ll never get done on time. During the second half of thinning season, I get stressed that we’re not doing a good-enough job. Ugh!

Favorite vegetable/fruit: Veggies: Swiss Chard and beets. Fruit: just about any plums, plus Golden Russet and Gold Rush apples

Favorite ice cream: Espresso Chip (although I’ll take anything that I can add chocolate syrup to!)

If you were wondering how the North Star crew spent their Labor Day, they were, well, laboring. Farmers don’t get to commemorate all the legal holidays. The peaches and the pears don’t stop; neither do we.

Although, in the interest of full disclosure here, I was not laboring on Labor Day. One of my closest friends decided to get married smack dab in the middle of Hosui harvest, so I snuck away for a few days. It felt strange to leave – farmers don’t get “summer vacation.” Farming (at least full-time on a small-scale diversified farm) is more than a job – it’s a lifestyle. Instead of finding happiness in a week on the beach, you had better be content with your daily routine. Farm jobs are unique in other ways as well. In today’s world, what other job opportunity would you find that advertises to hire a couple or that provides you with your housing and most of your food? Where your work week might fluctuate from 70 hours one month to zero in another?

What is Labor Day after all? I know it’s supposed to mark the end of summer, but the true start to fall isn’t for another two and a half weeks. In any case, the historic Labor Day seems like much more of a morale booster, created by politicians and management, than a holiday of and by the workers, like May Day. Along those lines, I certainly don’t mean to begrudge anyone their eight hour work day or any other hard-won benefits, but I would like to point out that farm work is a special case and has never really enjoyed the conditions won by the other professions. (For example, from the U.S. Department of Labor: “Certain small farms are exempt from the minimum wage and overtime requirements of the FLSA. Workers engaged in agricultural employment (as defined by the FLSA) are exempt from the overtime requirements.”) And if you own and operate a small farm, any hourly wage or time requirements are out the window. Making a living without supplemental income is not easy. According to FarmAid: “In 2008, the average household income for farmers generated by their farming businesses alone is projected at $5,900, which is down more than 30 percent from 2007 estimates and accounts for less than 10 percent of total income projections for family farmers.”

I realize that I’m lucky in the agricultural world – I feel well-compensated for my work and “even though” I have a college degree, most of the people that I know think that it’s cool that I work on a farm. They’re fascinated by learning about what sort of work I actually do (What do you do all winter? Do you drive a tractor? What time do you get up in the morning?). I benefit from the last few decades in which certain farmers have worked hard to rebuild relationships with their customers and to raise awareness about agricultural issues.

But I know that for the vast majority of people laboring on farms in this country, there is not quite the same cachet attached to their work. Farmers have long struggled with negative stereotypes and farm workers with mistreatment. As a nation, we’re out of touch with the reality of farm work, because so few of us do it. According to the EPA, less than 1% of the population claims farming as an occupation. We’ve forgotten things that our grandparents likely understood: what it’s like to work on a farm and how much skill and determination it takes. Perhaps more of us are at least familiar with a farm or two than was the case a decade ago. CSA memberships and farm tours are much more common now, so that consumers have more opportunity to step foot on a farm. Books like Fast Food Nation and The Omnivore’s Dilemma have taught us a lot about our food system. But this still doesn’t mean that we’re in touch with the reality of farm labor for the majority of farm workers in this country. And how can we appreciate or value something that we know nothing about?

I was privileged a few years ago to spend one morning working alongside (well, mostly lagging along behind) a crew of strawberry pickers in central California. My group (a bunch of mostly college graduates studying organic farming) was warned that we were not to talk to the guys – our presence alone would already be slowing them down. A humbling thing to hear when you’re aspiring to be a “real” farmer worth your salt. Well, it certainly didn’t seem like we slowed them down, because they lapped us in no time, all the while teasing us in Spanish. Meanwhile, we did the best we could, at least while preoccupied with commiserating about how much our backs hurt us only a half hour in. Faster than you could imagine, the entire field was picked, and everyone was piling into their cars to drive to the next field, about twenty miles away. The whole experience was humbling; these guys (and yes, they were all guys) had skills.

Other than this one morning, my knowledge of the reality for most farm laborers in this country is next to nil. A reality that might include being paid piecework, lacking health insurance while performing one of the more dangerous jobs, and never having any contact with the people who eat the food you grow. Issues of farm labor are something that doesn’t get talked about as much as environmental sustainability or the organic vs. local debate. So, start by thinking of us working away at North Star (and, for the most part, enjoying ourselves) while you’re having your barbecue – you’ve seen our smiling faces on the website, so that shouldn’t be too hard. But then, just maybe, try to envision all those farm workers out there whose faces you’re not seeing.

(Josh is a full-time seasonal helper this year)

Background: I grew up gardening with my mom.  We had a small veggie garden that consisted of 4 raised beds.  Just recently, my wife and I started a much larger garden with over 40 varieties of vegetables, herbs and fruits- this keeps us busy all summer long.  When we have eaten our fill, we can most of our extra harvest.  This way, we are fed almost all year!

Why are you working at North Star Orchard?: I love working at North Star Orchard, not just because Ike and Lisa are the best bosses, ever.  A supporter of CSAs and sustainability, this farm allows me to work someplace that I not only enjoy but share similar values.

What do you want to do when you grow up?: As I look towards my future, I see myself continuing to work in this field.  It may be hard work, but it is something that is important to me and my family.  Plus, who doesn’t like to literally enjoy the ‘fruits’ of their labor?!

Favorite farm job (so far!): My favorite job here on the farm is hoeing because it is so much fun.

Least favorite farm job: My least favorite farm job is gathering the kale. 

Favorite vegetable/fruit: I love Brussels sprouts, especially when they are sautéed with some garlic and olive oil (and cooked by my wife!)
Favorite ice cream: Mint chocolate chip- please note that I will accept ice cream donations willingly.

(Erin, our orcharding assistant, is a full-time helper who has been with us since April 2009)

Background: Originally from Ohio, I majored in Peace & Global Studies in college, with lots of gardening and farming experiences mixed in.  After graduating, I lived in Philadelphia for several years, where I worked for a grassroots food security organization and Greensgrow, an urban farm in Kensington.  When i decided that I really wanted to farm, I left to do an Apprenticeship in Ecological Horticulture at the University of California in Santa Cruz. 

Why are you working at North Star Orchard?: I wanted to learn more about fruit trees, return to the Philadelphia area for awhile longer, and eat myself sick on Asian pears.  But seriously, I had loved North Star’s fruit that I had purchased at markets in Philly, and I was impressed with the diversity of fruit at the orchard and their professionalism.

What do you want to do when you grow up?: I daydream about having my own farm and homestead, very small scale, influenced by permaculture principles, growing lots of unusual crops of all kinds…  Whether or not that will make any money is a whole other question.

Favorite farm job (so far!): Harvesting

Least favorite farm job: Heavy lifting.

Favorite vegetable/fruit: arugula & sugar snap peas, purple heart plums & Hosui Asian pears
Favorite ice cream: Caramel

(Laura is a full-time seasonal helper this year)

Background: I grew up in Chadds Ford, PA and have always had a great love for food and the outdoors. Although I was quite upset with my mom in elementary school because I had no paper bag lunches with wonder bread sandwiches and juice boxes like my friends, by late high school and college I started educating myself more about environmental issues while getting a bachelor’s degree in psychology and studio art

Why are you working at North Star Orchard?: After working for a year and a half as a mental health case worker with children and families who had little or no access to healthy and sustainable food, and feeling surrounded on all sides by fast food chains on a daily basis, I needed to reconnect with real food and wanted to learn more about small scale agriculture

What do you want to do when you grow up?: I would love to one day design sustainable public spaces as a landscape architect or educate young people about making healthy choices for themselves and the world they live in.  I’d also like to have a big, big garden

Favorite farm job (so far!): Harvesting Swiss chard. I completely enjoy it; putting them in bunches is like arranging beautiful flowers!

Least favorite farm job: Putting up row covers on a windy day

Favorite vegetable/fruit: I love love love seckel pears and every kind of fresh beefsteak tomato I’ve ever tried
Favorite ice cream: chocolate fudge brownie

(Genevieve is a full-time seasonal helper this year)

Background: My educational background is in city planning, and I’ve been involved with and passionate about local food in Philly for the past few years. Originally, I grew up in the beautiful mountains of northeast Tennessee, and I’m from a family of 5 (one of whom is a twin brother).

Why are you working at North Star Orchard?: I’m interested in really learning how an organic farm operates; I want literal hands-on experience to understand how it all works and to see if it’s the life and work for me.

What do you want to do when you grow up?: I want to be a happy, compassionate, and productive human being.

Favorite farm job (so far!): At this point, it’s probably transplanting, as you feel like you’re filling out the farm and setting the veggies off to really start growing!

Least favorite farm job: I’d say any task where you’re likely to be surprised by multi-legged insects (like moving a long-standing rock pile) is not on my list of favorites.

Favorite vegetable/fruit: I really love lemon cucumbers and blueberries.
Favorite ice cream: Chocolate chip cookie dough is a great one.

(Elizabeth helps us over summer during her college break; this is her third summer with us)

Background: I grew up on a dairy farm in Southern Lancaster County. I would occasionally help my grandparents at the farm with their vegetable garden too.

Why are you working at North Star Orchard?: Initially it was because I needed a job! My parents go to some of the same markets as North Star, so they got to know Lisa. My parents basically told me I was probably going to work at the farm unless I could find a different job. I was fine to stop my search at that point and I started to work in the garden at North Star. I worked there all summer and then came back for the next summer and am coming back again. I love working outside and getting my hands…and usually my outfit too quite dirty. I also enjoy learning the various methods of gardening and watching the rapid pace the plants can grow. It’s a good experience for me.

What do you want to do when you grow up?: This is a question I have been struggling to find the answer to for quite some time now. I’m a junior at Juniata College with a major of: Children and Youth Development: Cultural Perspectives. I want to do something overseas I think with youth and perhaps also the elderly but I’m still unsure.

Favorite farm jobs: Digging for potatoes and tying/picking tomatoes.

Least favorite farm jobs: Thinning carrots and weeding the straw between some of the peppers and/or tomatoes.

Favorite vegetable: Potatoes
Favorite ice cream: Maine black bear (chocolate ice cream with little chocolate pieces that are filled with raspberry)

(Meet more of our farm helpers here!)