One of the things that I like about living here is how easy it is to get out of town on the bike. It takes all of ten minutes to get from our urban apartment to farmland. I didn't grow up on a farm, or anywhere near one, but I am learning a little by riding past them and alongside Brian, who is a closet agriculture nerd. As a geography teacher it's part of his job to understand how and where things are grown. As people who eat, we should all know more about it too. Around the Hannover region, farms are growing lettuce, potatoes, celery, corn, canola, wheat and, of course, the sugar beet. This kind of variety is lacking in many parts in the U.S., where soy and corn take over and other produce comes from farther away.
Here are some photos we took on the road:
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| pumpkins |
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| Lettuce and cabbage |
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| Sugar beets |
This is the time of year that tractors are pulling the crops out of the ground and putting them in huge piles until someone comes with another machine to gather them up and take them off to be sold. There are much more technical terms for all of these things but I don't know what they are.
During this process, there are a few odd vegetables that roll away. So when I found some potatoes lying on the bike path last week, I couldn't just let them go to waste. I picked a couple up, put them in my pockets, and rode off. We ate them a few days later.
Yesterday, I saw a whole row of pear trees that had dropped their fruits by the side of the road. I rescued three to let them ripen on my kitchen counter. I am not a thief, really. I shop at the farmers market every week and buy local stuff at the supermarket too. But when a potato is lying there, vulnerable to passing traffic, someone has to rescue it.
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The jersey has three little pockets. They are filled with three little pears.
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