HabanerNO!
Today one of my students ate a habanero pepper. Apparently he'd asked for a hot pepper and as if in slow motion, from the hand of the farmer, the kid grabbed it and popped it into his mouth. Whole. Fresh picked. Hot shit. I blinked "did that just happen?" and within moments he started reacting. The farmer notice right away and quickly told him not to touch his eyes, but it was too late. I walked over and started sneezing from the fumes. My mouth and eyes burned, and all I did was walk close to the kid. He spat it out and another farmer got some goat cheese that he cut up and I fed it to the kid as quickly as possible.
WTF.
This poor student would later tell me he didn't realize it was a habanero, he thought maybe jalapeno but STILL. DUDE. Another student chimed in with the old "don't you put it in your mouth" tune from those drug infomercials, on the drive back to the city. Hilarious. The whole thing was quite funny. But quite serious. Could have meant a trip to the hospital and the end of my project. He's okay, I called his mom and she told me she didn't know whether to laugh or cry about it.
Sometimes we feel overconfident about ourselves eh? We don't think things through, we think we can handle it, and to piggyback off that last entry, we wind up "burnt out."
Today at the farm we got a real taste of the farmer's life, well 4 out of 5 did, I'm pretty sure that kid's tastebuds will be shot for a couple of days.
We went to the big field they share with MacDonald campus today and harvested some squash. Several varieties, but with the sun and the ridiculous amount of bugs that swarmed our faces, eyes and mouth (I ate a few I'm sure), it wasn't easy. Squash are pretty wicked creations though, they all turn out funny looking and because some have been cross-bred, one squash might turn out looking like another form altogether. It's pretty neat. Super goofy. We saw some green pumpkins too.
Just before lunch we found ourselves in the potato field, digging for little purple nuggets. So far out of everything I've done at the farm, the potatoes have been my favorite. It's super satisfying to find some in the ground! They come out pretty easily too, all mishaped and pure.
It's a really sweet exchange, working with the earth. I'm helping deliver the food its been preparing, and you can't help but go at it delicately once you connect like that. I delivered little potato babies all day, it was great. I didn't know this, but there's actually a mother potato, that the farmer plants and then it grows and the roots extend and the other potatoes grow from those. But once they're harvested, the mother potato is so depleted of its nutrients that it's not edible. It looks almost black when you pull it out.
Last night I went to visit my good friend who had a baby boy about three weeks ago. Cute as a button, and as I watched her juggle the newborn with the energetic 3 year old and 10 year old, I was blown away by her natural maneuvering of motherhood. I held the baby later, and thoroughly enjoyed the sleepy state he was in, curled up in my arms. Pure. Sweet. Delicate. Doing what he needs to grow. Sleep.
I'm not saying we should eat our babies, but we should definitely handle our food with care. If you can picture it straight from the Earth, fresh from the ground, you'd probably have a different perspective on it. It has a job to do and that's to nourish us, so we should be respective and grateful in return. Why transform it a billion times to suit our tastebuds? What about what our bodies need? Nothing tastes as good as something you just picked off an organic vine. Nothing. And if you're going to eat a habanero pepper whole, might as well come straight from the Farmer's hand huh?
Anyhow, food for thought.
The Heavy,
Katie
WTF.
This poor student would later tell me he didn't realize it was a habanero, he thought maybe jalapeno but STILL. DUDE. Another student chimed in with the old "don't you put it in your mouth" tune from those drug infomercials, on the drive back to the city. Hilarious. The whole thing was quite funny. But quite serious. Could have meant a trip to the hospital and the end of my project. He's okay, I called his mom and she told me she didn't know whether to laugh or cry about it.
Sometimes we feel overconfident about ourselves eh? We don't think things through, we think we can handle it, and to piggyback off that last entry, we wind up "burnt out."
Today at the farm we got a real taste of the farmer's life, well 4 out of 5 did, I'm pretty sure that kid's tastebuds will be shot for a couple of days.
We went to the big field they share with MacDonald campus today and harvested some squash. Several varieties, but with the sun and the ridiculous amount of bugs that swarmed our faces, eyes and mouth (I ate a few I'm sure), it wasn't easy. Squash are pretty wicked creations though, they all turn out funny looking and because some have been cross-bred, one squash might turn out looking like another form altogether. It's pretty neat. Super goofy. We saw some green pumpkins too.
Just before lunch we found ourselves in the potato field, digging for little purple nuggets. So far out of everything I've done at the farm, the potatoes have been my favorite. It's super satisfying to find some in the ground! They come out pretty easily too, all mishaped and pure.
It's a really sweet exchange, working with the earth. I'm helping deliver the food its been preparing, and you can't help but go at it delicately once you connect like that. I delivered little potato babies all day, it was great. I didn't know this, but there's actually a mother potato, that the farmer plants and then it grows and the roots extend and the other potatoes grow from those. But once they're harvested, the mother potato is so depleted of its nutrients that it's not edible. It looks almost black when you pull it out.
Last night I went to visit my good friend who had a baby boy about three weeks ago. Cute as a button, and as I watched her juggle the newborn with the energetic 3 year old and 10 year old, I was blown away by her natural maneuvering of motherhood. I held the baby later, and thoroughly enjoyed the sleepy state he was in, curled up in my arms. Pure. Sweet. Delicate. Doing what he needs to grow. Sleep.
I'm not saying we should eat our babies, but we should definitely handle our food with care. If you can picture it straight from the Earth, fresh from the ground, you'd probably have a different perspective on it. It has a job to do and that's to nourish us, so we should be respective and grateful in return. Why transform it a billion times to suit our tastebuds? What about what our bodies need? Nothing tastes as good as something you just picked off an organic vine. Nothing. And if you're going to eat a habanero pepper whole, might as well come straight from the Farmer's hand huh?
Anyhow, food for thought.
The Heavy,
Katie
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