Preface

In five days, I will have been here, Covered Bridge Produce, for two months. A few days ago when I realized that, it was a staggaring notion. I wish I had started writing when I first arrived, and that I would now be able to look back and see the all the growth that isn't visible in the fields. As it is now, I'll have to see if my retro-speculation will do the past months justice.

When I arrived, I was the second intern. Sarajane had shown up four days prior and settled in to the room beside mine, at the top of the stairs above Joseph's kitchen. The farm was hardly like I'd expected, but for the first week or two I was too smitten to care. Before finding his calling of organic farming, Joseph was a college math professor and a very litterary person. From speaking to him and knowing his past, the picture I had established in my mind of his house involved many stark modern colors and a variety of large cosy arm chairs residing in each of his many libraries. I knew it was an old farmhouse before I arrived, and life in Los Angeles put me into a very Architectural Digest state of mind. Hard wood floors, big free-standing bathtubs, wood stoves--these were all things I was very excited about, and not, however, what I found. About three weeks into my internship I started becoming obsessed with the layers of dirt sometimes more than a quarter inch thick, the clutter, the mouse problem, the the clutter, the hardwood floors that seemed far too unstable, and lord! the clutter. A couple weeks later Sarajane and I had the intern kitchen in the downstairs of the barn fully functional and semi-cosy. Nora, the field manager, also moved in, as well as Joseph's carpenter friend from Kentucky. Kevin was building us four bathrooms in the barn, consisting of two composting toilets and two showers--a project that was predetermined to take two weeks. One month later, he left. In that time two more interns arrived, Ned and Tracy, and Sarajane moved out into an intern cabin as the temperatures rose from the chilly 60's of April, to the boiling 90's of late May.

The Cast (in order of appearance)

Joseph - The farm owner. Former math professor. Joseph is in his 60's, though seems much younger.

Angel - Joseph's wife.

Levi - Angel's son of a previous marriage. Just turned thirteen, I believe. Levi is home schooled and slightly lacking in motivation, but extremely intelligent and with potential for great creativity. He also plays the saxophone.

Sarajane - Intern numero uno. Sarajane is nearly 26 and came recently from a long stay at a zen center called Green Gulch in San Francisco, meditating and growing flowers. She is also an aspiring fiddle player.

Courage - Levi's dog. Courage is a pure bred whom Levi has had since he was a pup. He will bite most males, and is a bit crazy.

Erica - Horticulturalist/Greenhouse manager. Erica is 29ish, has been with Covered Bridge Produce four years, and after this season is moving on to start her own farm.

Nora - Field manager. Nora is 23 and a recent graduate of Temple University, with a B.S. in horticulture. This is her second year at the farm, first as field manager.

Mike - aka "Lawnboy". Mike is currently in the process of graduating high school, and he comes over regularly to mow the lawn and occasionally use the chainsaw.

Mike - aka "Lurky Mike". This Mike is around Levi's age and drops by the farm somewhat infrequently to torment the dog and be generally mischievous.

Ned - Intern numero dos. Ned is 21 and worked last in construction and is deeply devoted to music. He plays 12-string guitar, is trained classically, is a song writer and has belonged to a number of bands.

Bory - Semi-intern numero uno. Bory commutes twice a week, Monday and Wednesday, from south Philly, where he works as a graphic artist, designing textures. He is about 23, majored in painting and graphic design in college, and weekly on Thursday nights, has been known to frequent one of the many bars in Philadelphia which participates in the trivia game 'Quizzo' (http://www.quizzo.com/).

Stephanie - Semi-intern numero dos. Stephanie has a degree in some kind of Psychology/Psychiatry, and aspires to one day work as a school guidance counselor. She currently works part time in her field, and has previous work on Tim Stark's farm

Tracy - Live in intern numero tres. Tracy recently lived in Philadelphia working at a coffee shop. She is vegan and has previous experience working at a farm in California growing, among other things, peaches.

(This list will be updated with time, please refer to it as necessary.)