The Great Onion Pull of 2012

Saturday was the great Onion Pull at Intervale Community Farm. With a team of 60 volunteers, we harvested 20,000 feet of onions - red, yellow, and white ones - 4 miles  of onions!

^{Photo by Alec Jacobson}

This was one of those heart-warming days - one where 60 people show up to volunteer their time on a Saturday morning, share conversations in the field, enjoy a slice of fresh cantaloupe grown on the farm, get a little dirty and a little sore, and collectively harvest a ton (literally) of onions. 

Photo by Alec Jacobson

While the mob officially ended at 1, people were indefatigable - staying in the field long past the ending bell, harvesting to the end of their bed or until the job was done.

Photo by Alec Jacobson

Photo by Alec Jacobson

Pushing the onion wagon.

Photo by Alec Jacobson

Unloading the onions into the greenhouse to dry and cure.

Photo by Alec Jacobson

We had volunteers of all ages - our youngest was probably two, our oldest was probably 70. Many thanks to all who came and all supporters of local food and farms - it is such a beautiful community we create together.

Ode To The Onion by Pablo Neruda

Onion,
luminous flask,
your beauty formed
petal by petal,
crystal scales expanded you
and in the secrecy of the dark earth
your belly grew round with dew.
Under the earth
the miracle
happened
and when your clumsy
green stem appeared,
and your leaves were born
like swords
in the garden,
the earth heaped up her power
showing your naked transparency,
and as the remote sea
in lifting the breasts of Aphrodite
duplicating the magnolia,
so did the earth
make you,
onion
clear as a planet
and destined
to shine,
constant constellation,
round rose of water,
upon
the table
of the poor.

You make us cry without hurting us.
I have praised everything that exists,
but to me, onion, you are
more beautiful than a bird
of dazzling feathers,
heavenly globe, platinum goblet,
unmoving dance
of the snowy anemone

and the fragrance of the earth lives
in your crystalline nature.