NOTES FROM THE FIELD: Eric Moser – Almost Urban Vegetables

“A lot of time was spent this spring and early summer building infrastructure on the farm,” he recalled. “A drip line was set up in May while it was hot and it hasn’t been used once since because of all the rain that fell in June.” And as we learned on the tour, so much rain fell that some crops drowned or rotted and had to be planted or seeded multiple times over. “I also did a fair amount of hardware building,” Eric said. “I built mid-tunnels for eggplant and hot peppers, and got to use a radial arm saw to cut up rebar. It was really fun and I found out I like working with power tools!”

Beyond getting to know the growing habits of a diversity of herbs and veggies, Eric told me about how he has enjoyed learning to identify and harvest edible native plants like stinging nettle, lambsquarters and purslane. He added that “at the farmer’s market they vend at on Saturdays, customers get really excited about these foraged plants and he likes being able to offer folks something special that they may have never tried before and can’t get at the grocery store.”

A final reflection of Eric’s was one that surprised him. He reminded me that he applied for the Apprenticeship Program with the hopes of narrowing down his farming interests, but was pretty certain at the beginning of the season that those interests didn’t involve livestock of any kind. Now, after working at Almost Urban for just over 2 months, which has involved caring for a flock of laying hens, he wants the opposite. “I wouldn’t have guessed it,” he said, “but now I totally want to incorporate livestock into whatever farming I end up doing!”