Land
Summer 2022,
I spent 15-weeks growing and farming with the Middlebury Organic Garden, also lovingly named the Knoll. The cohort of 4, myself including, and the our Garden and Food Educator Megan Brakeley spent the summer exploring food as a medium to cultivate connection to ourselves, community, and to the earth.
Our tasks included:
-germinating, transplanting seeds
-trellising, edging, scything garden beds
-pruning, harvesting flowers and vegetables
-gleaning produce on farms around Vermont
-weeding...all the weeding in the world...
-bringing in professors, faculty, students, and community partners together
- to study earth sciences
- to celebrate cultural land practices
- to build connections to land
After my transformative summer,
I stayed on as an intern for Fall, Spring, and Fall after to continue hosting volunteering work sessions, working the pizza oven for community gatherings, and bringing together Knoll Friends far and wide back to the space.
If the unit for a group of Megans is a milky way. There must be a lighthouse of Laurens. A question of Carolines. And a frequency of CJs. A radiant of Crystals.
by CJ Nabung
by CJ Nabung
by CJ Nabung
by CJ Nabung
by CJ Nabung
I loved going to the Gorge to swim after a hot day, drinking Haymakers’ Punch at the Addison County hand mowing contest, and of course all the hours we spent weeding across the rows. Across a patch of tomatillo weeds that we definitely, most definitely should have been using a scuffle hoe for, you'll find us giggling about childhood memories and swapping recipes. Some of my favorite events together have included the house made Hot Sauce contest, Community Mandala, and the Julia Alvarez haiku poetry workshop. I am most honored to have been a part of creating three editions of Knoll Merchandise, planning the Knoll 20th anniversary Mid-Autumn Moon Festival celebration, and contributing to the Knoll Anthology.
July 2024,
I spent 3 weeks on Snail Farm, an organic Blueberry and Honey farm in the mountains of Danyang, South Korea under the guidance of Bluebee, Sonamu, and Sansori.
Our tasks included:
-Picking, processing blueberries
-Cooking, packaging blueberry jam
-Scything, mulching grass
-Harvesting, fermenting vegetables
-Filtering, bottling, cleaning
- 감식초 (persimmon vinegar)
- 사과식초 (apple vinegar)
- 매실주 (plum wine)
The generosity! The wisdom!
In my free time, I baked fresh breads such as challah, focaccia, and zucchini loaves to eat with our berry jams, as well as blueberry galettes. After particularly hot days, like the one where we weeded the entire path up to our mountain, our hosts treated us to
mul-naengmyeon, mak-guksu, and so so much grilled meat.
We spent our rainy days taking field trips to local artisans, learning how homis, indigo dyed fabrics, and leaf cuttings were traditionally created. The three best friends practiced a life of slowness and simplicity, and I am most grateful to Bluebee and Sonamu for bringing us to meet their other friends within the food system, where we had the opportunity to talk with seed farmers about their heirloom seeds and trade villagers for their seasonal produce. Some other places we visited include the Danyanggang Jando Trail, Mancheonha Skywalk, and the Danyang Market.
June 2025
I spent 2 weeks at Umaia, an organic vineyard and cereal farm with Giuglio, Frenci, Edo, Caterina, Mauro, Felicia, Teresa and 4 toddlers running afoot. Tucked into the hills of Tortona, Umaia is a community of land workers ranging from friends and family who pass through, as well as volunteers from all over the world, like myself!
Our tasks included:
- Bottling, corking, labelling wine
- Trellising, pruning grapevines
- Hoeing, scything weeds
- Watering, harvesting vegetables
Umaia showed me the possibility in living hyperlocally while remaining connected to peasant agrarian movements world wide. There were movie screenings of Voci dei Boschi and Palestinian animations. We met organizers of theatre productions, DJ sets, and festivals for resistance.
After mornings in the fields, evenings were shared with other young land workers from nearby cooperatives and hillside farms over home-cooked meals and homemade wine.
