Fieldnotes #1

Taking my first set of field notes was exciting. I went to Jaswell's Farm on Columbus Day at around 2 o’clock in the afternoon. I chose a spot right in the front of the farm so that I had a wide range of things that I could see from where I was sitting. I had the pumpkin patch directly in front of me, the farm stand to my left, the apple orchard to my far right. I could also see the tractor rides back behind the pumpkin patch. Now reviewing my field notes, I am able to reflect further on what I observed.

What surprised me?

The first thing that surprised me was that I had expected there to be more people at the farm. I figured that since Columbus Day was a day off from work for most adults there would be more people out enjoying the beautiful fall day. I’ve been to Jaswell’s Farm many times before and it always seemed more crowded with people. There were many people there, just not as many as I had originally expected. Another thing that surprised me was that there was this one tree on the farm whose leaves were not changing color. Granted, there are trees that don’t change colors in the fall but this tree didn’t look any different from the surrounding trees that were changing colors. Although this tree doesn’t really have anything to do with the actual subculture of Jaswell’s Farm, it still puzzled me why this tree, that looked the same as all of the other trees on the farm, still had green leaves. Something else that surprised me was the fact that there were many families and not as many couples or groups of younger people as I had expected. I knew that there would be a majority or families but I also thought that I would see more groups of people without children. Even the majority of families had younger children with them. Personally, I have gone with my friends to go apple picking in the past so I thought there would be more teenagers at the farm.

What intrigued me?

One thing that intrigued me about my field site was this rotten apple I saw on the ground. The apple was half eaten. This apple was probably discarded and thrown by a person who was enjoying the apples from the orchard and couldn’t finish their last apple. When I go apple picking with my family, we always eat apples as we pick them. You get so full after eating 3-4 apples! I know that when were done eating an apple we simply throw it on the ground to rot. It isn’t really a big deal to go throw the apple cores in the garbage because they will just decompose back into the ground. When walking around you see many rotting apples at the root of the apple tree trunk. Another thing that intrigued me was this young “hipster” couple I saw. In a survey of my class, many people had said that this subculture was “hipster”. But when observing the subculture, I didn’t see anyone who portrayed the qualities of a “hipster” until the very end of my stay. I could tell the couple was hipster from what they were wearing; the girl wore high-waisted shorts and thigh high socks while the boy wore a red beanie hat. It was intriguing to take this stereotypical couple that people thought about when they thought about this subculture and compare it with the reality that this subculture is mostly composed of families.

What disturbed me?

One thing that disturbed me was that a lot of the people were dressed really nice for a day at a farm. It just didn’t really make much sense to me. There are dirt roads and rotting apples and pumpkins on the ground and people are coming dressed in nice shoes. Maybe it’s just me, but I wouldn’t be walking around a farm in a nice outfit because it’s inevitable that I will step in something rotten.  Some people even came dressed in flip flops! Firstly, it is October; it is long past the time to put the flip flops away. Secondly, the farm has dirt roads. You’re feet are going to get so filthy. How does it make sense to come to a farm in flip flops? I just don’t get it.