Turkey Plucking at Tablehurst Farm
Posted on Sat, Dec 12, 2009
One would think that a gardeners role would simply be to work with the soil and finish when it's dark. This is not always the case, and especially when you are connected to a far larger farming enterprise.
Tablehurst farm, every year they sell Turkeys for Christmas to the village, about 400 in total. The farm has a license to kill it's own birds on site rather than having to send them away, this also means that they all get plucked by hand at the farm... this as people may know is no small task. The farm asks that people come and help with this job from Emerson Biodynamic training and other people involved in the farm. It's hard for the farm to manage all this work by themselves and there is an understanding that this is an opportunity for the students to 'give something back' to the local farm and come to realise a little how local support is so important for one another.
The experience is a hard one for people who are not used to it, to see so many animals pass through. So understandably some people choose not to do it for this reason. Those who choose to help see a different side of things, once the rhythm starts and you understand what order to take the feathers out the conversations, stories and jokes start coming out. It's a great time for myself to catch up with how the farm is doing and talk of concerns and lessons learned over the past year. As David the farmer there says, it's not so often that they have the chance to stand around one another for such a long time.For the students they can quiz the farmers and apprentices on things they've been learning in class or ask for advice on placement opportunities.
The other great thing about being on the farm is that we see all the children there, every year there are either new ones appearing or young ones growing and becoming more helpful and independent. Farm children always seem to want to help and carry things or push things, for people and don't hesitate if they see you doing something wrong to tell you about it. To have a two year old boy reminding me to close the gate to the trailor before I walked off is very sweet.
So even though my fingers hurt and I have missed a full week of sun (which is the first time since October), I don't mind because we had fun and got a good job done for our fellow neighbours, building the communtiy spirit.