Fieldnotes #2

On my second trip to my field site I visited the farm on a Saturday afternoon around 12:30 pm. This is a few hours earlier than my last visit.  Instead of sitting in one location, I walked around while observing and taking the whole environment in. I walked around the pumpkin patch, up a dirt road to one of the apple orchards, and I shopped around in the farm stand.

What surprised me?

This time while visiting the farm  I was so surprised at the amount of people. There were probably only 5 groups of people at the farm. It was a nice fall Saturday afternoon, I thought that more people would be out at the farm. Another thing that really surprised me was that when I walked to the apple orchard, no one was picking apples. I was the only one there. Granted, it is towards the end of the apple picking season but there were still plenty of apples still on the tree. I wonder what Jaswell’s does with the excess  apples at the end of the season. Do they pick them and sell them? Do they leave them on the tree to eventually fall and rot on the ground? Also, another thing that initially surprised me that they weren’t offering any tractor rides. But looking back at it now, it makes sense because there weren’t many people around the farm anyways. I’m sure if someone asked for a ride an employee would have taken them for a personal tractor ride.

What intrigued me?

One thing that interested me was that while walking through the apple orchard there were some trees with really dark red apples. I’ve never seen apples such a deep red color. So obviously my curiosity got the better of me and I took down an apple to taste. When I bit into the apple it was really hard to chew. It had this bitter tangy taste. It wasn’t my favorite. It made me wonder if this is what happens to apples when they stay too long on the branches and continue to over-ripen. Another thing that was interesting was the décor of the farm stand. One of the walls was completely covered in newspaper articles that were about  Jaswell’s Farm. Seeing that the farm has been open since 1899, there must be some pretty old articles on that wall. The last thing I thought was really interesting was some old farm machinery left in a pile on the side of the dirt road. The machinery was dated and rusted. But it was really pretty to see the farm landscape grow up into the rusted metal machinery.

 

What disturbed me?

The one thing that disturbed me was that the month is coming to an end and the apple picking season is almost over L.