A couple of days at Gravity Hill

"Eaters must understand, how we eat determines how  the world is used"
- Barbara Kingsolver  from "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle"
 (quoted on the G.H. website)

Garlic scapes

Garden beds, community building
and Jurassic Park tour vehicle

Lacinato kale

I just had the privilege of volunteering at Gravity Hill Farm, a certified organic market farm in Titusville, New Jersey. I tried to play it cool but yep, I was a little starstruck. Mainly because this is the first big-ish organic farm I have visited so just the quantities got me excited. When we went down to the bottom garden and started picking 70(!) bunches of rainbow chard I got a little emotional about the sea of greens. Three kinds of kale, the most abundant silverbeet I have ever laid eyes upon, florence fennel, chinese cabbage, kohl rhabi, collard greens...(breathe)... it was just  gorgeous.

And then there are the farmers. I was lucky to work beside three awesome women. Fern and Amy - kickass farm co-managers (who I now add to my list of role models) and Lauren who has grown up on farms and is now working part-time for Gravity Hill. Amy and Fern work so well together, have a lot of experience and knowledge and such good attitudes. One of my favourite moments was listening to the two sing the jurassic park theme while we drove around in the kawasaki, daydreaming about dressing up the alpacas in dinosaur costumes. And just generally getting a lot done on the farm and working as a team. There were definitely moments when the phrase "girl-power" ( a little embarrassingly) sprung to mind. 

Amongst other things, I was introduced to the transplanting implement (which enabled us to plant a heap of curcubits in a short amount of time), picked a bag of garlic scapes - really just a meditation on form - and helped to harvest beautiful purple and green kohl rhabi and corral an escaped bevy of animals. Best. Days. Ever.

Curcubit seedlings sprayed with kaolin clay
to deter hungry cucumber beetles

Transplanter implement

Oh, the greens!

Gravity Hill farm was established in 2005 by David Earling who was inspired to create a farm that was - like all farms 'back in the day' - organic and family run. You can read more about that on the website. The produce harvested from the farm is sold at four different markets - two days at the Stockton farmers market and two days at the farm itself. This, I love. Because it draws people out to see how their food is grown and it gets them together. 

A great component of the farm is the community building. It's where we ate lunch on stools around the expansive kitchen; it's where a big group of 'rug hookers' (their words, not mine) gathered to, well, hook and share food; it's where kids can learn about food and about animals. It is just a wonderful purpose built space for coming together to do cool things. 

Inside the community building

I hope to spend more time at Gravity Hill. The young energy of the place was invigorating, the people fantastic and the ethic of the place, at least to a newcomer, just, well, good. I am curious about the longer-term viability of the place (I'm sure it's not all sunshine and earthworms). But they do have some great things going on. Thanks for having me guys.

P.S. If you think Gravity Hill is a strange name then get educated - here