On Saturday we had ten AMAZING people visit our farm for what is known as a Crop Mob. These enthusiastic volunteers arrived at 10:00 am and worked harder than we do on most days until 5:00 pm. The idea of a crop mob is to bring communities together to help with the production of food. Working on a farm (even for a day) brings a sense of interdependence to the food we eat and the communities we live in.
On our farm we had the people busy doing a variety of jobs. Our largest job was clearing a high-tensile fence line along our property. This job is extremely important because we rely on fences to keep our animals safe (especially since we live in an urban area). Tim commented that he had never seen people work so hard and fast. They cleared more bushes, brush and weeds from the fence in about 5 hours of work than we ever could have done.
Another small group cleaned the parlor until it shined. An important job because it is important to keep the parlor clean so that we can produce clean and healthy milk. Also, a small group of people helped remove the scrap wood from our barn straightening and re-roofing.
It was a wonderful day. While most of the people came for fellowship and the chance to visit a farm, their hard work was very valuable to us. We cannot express how grateful we are! At the end of the day we all enjoyed some cold root beer floats and relaxed in the shade. Organic Valley also donated some great stuff for our Crop Mob and everyone got to go home with coupons, bandanas, buttons and more.
There was talk about another Crop Mob coming to our farm in the fall. We will keep you posted on any developments.
We would like to especially thank Barth Anderson, writer of Fair Food Fight, for organizing this event.
Emily
Zweber Farms is a 4th generation family operated organic dairy. We also specialize in sustainably raised beef, pork and chicken and sell it directly to customers in Minnesota.Visit our website to learn more, www.zweberfarms.com
That was definitely our most intense crop mob yet. I slept 12 hours Saturday night!
Say, do either you or Tim have a sense of how many feet/yards/miles of fence-line we cleared? I’d like to guess 22 miles, but I bet it wasn’t that long. 🙂
Thanks for the opportunity to spend the day on your beautiful farm, meet the pigs, horses, calves, kitties, pups and the family. It was a wonderful day in the open air. Love those farm smells!! Enjoyed the work cause it was a great place to be for the day!!