Diana
Oleas Chavez
California. November.
 |
Diana is a visiting intern
from Ecuador, who recently relocated to an organic farm
in Vista, California after working the summer at Dripping
Springs Gardens in the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas.
Diana is a participant in the MESA (Multinational Exchange
for Sustainable Agriculture) program. For more information
on MESA, visit www.mesaprogram.org. |
The time goes quickly, and now I am in
a new farm in Vista, California. The name of the farm is Burnquist
Organic, and the owner is a professional skateboarder who
likes health food. This farm is managed for Scott Murray and
his wife Laura Murray. There are Chinese women and English
women working here.
Before I came to this new farm, I was in San Francisco for
one week. This is very different from Fayetteville—there
are more cars, houses and people. Here I saw all my MESAS
friends—nine from Ecuador, two from France, three from
Bolivia and six from Thailand. We enjoyed sharing all our
experiences, which were really fantastic.
In San Francisco we were at Fort Mason Youth Hostel, there
we had a MESA Program Evaluation and gave general comments
about the program and our host farmers. I gave a presentation
about my farm in Arkansas—Dripping Springs Garden. My
friends said that my presentation was very interesting and
I think the same, because I was at such a great farm with
very good host farmers—Mark Cain and Michael Crane—who
taught me about flowers and vegetable production. This was
on Tuesday.
On Wednesday, we went to the San Francisco Aquarium by the
bay, to Underwater World and to Alcatraz. I was amazed about
the last one, because this is a big building on an island
and nobody was able to leave from there. In one of its jails
was Al Capone, a very famous criminal.
On Thursday, everybody hung out to shop or to walk in San
Francisco…but not too far; it’s a big city.
Finally on Friday, we departed from San Francisco either
to a new farm or to home. I came to Vista to meet Scott and
Laura Murray.
On Monday Nov. 15, Scott gave me an orientation about the
farm. They sell greens and herbs for six restaurants and to
some families.
My farm assignments for this week were:
- Weeding lettuce beds
- Seeding beets, lettuce
- Harvesting lettuce, parsley, oregano, sage, thyme, sorrel,
marjoram, kale
- Planting lavender, rosemary and ornamental garlic along
the driving border
- Reseeding lettuce
- Making new beds
- Repairing drip tape
- Fixing row cover in some beds
Now I can’t make more bouquets because I no longer
have flowers. I miss this a lot. 
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