Hey everyone, I’m Ella, a first year apprentice at Rainshadow! I’m a bit sad to be writing this email at the moment, as it pulled me away from the mesmerizing celeriac tumbling toward me in the root washer, but now I get a chance to share my thoughts with all of you. We spent all day pulling these strange brain-like balls from the big field, trimming them up and washing them to be stored all winter. I think it was one of my favorite days of the season. For one, the morning gave us cool temps and dark clouds which made it feel like fall is really almost here, and didn’t melt us immediately. Second, this is my favorite category of farm task, where your hands are moving in a repetitive motion, freeing up your mind to think or chat about anything. Even better, the harvest took all day, and the whole team was together. It’s rare that we all get to farm in this way, moving slowly all together. And the conversation rolled every which way, from our dreams last night to which trucks are the cutest (did you know Toyota means fertile rice paddy in Japanese?), to family gossip, relationship advice (of course), and Whatever Major Thing is on anyone’s mind.

Someone new in the field, a friend volunteering, pointed out how special this kind of connection is with your crew, that in their field, they walk away from a conversation with their colleagues not having learned anything real about one another, let alone their dreams. And I am so grateful for this kind of work, where we are not just growing food, but growing relationships with one another at the same time. And somehow, I think that makes it all more delicious. Maybe the plants take in our stories, add them to the stores of nutrients they’ll keep for us all winter. That’s what I thought when I watched them going round the root washer, the dirt slowly removing itself from those tight roots. I hope the people eating these know how beautiful they are.