So back in February, a film crew commissioned by Whole Foods contacted me about making a short webisode about Travis and me and our journey into farming.  They came out to our small field and filmed our very first harvest — some bolero carrots we had overwintered.  I was sworn to secrecy until they launched the video, which you can now view on the Whole Foods facebook page … or, right here!  I really like the end product, because I think it shows Travis and me doing what we do best in farming: just trying to make it work.  Hope you enjoy it!

TECHmunch is a food blogger conference created by the brilliant and industrious Babette Pepaj, founder of Bakespace.com.  This weekend, TECHmunch brought together experts from the blogosphere, including Ben Huh from Icanhascheezburger, Rene Lynch from the LA Times, Austin’s own Addie Broyles, and Kat Kinsman from CNN’s Eatocracy, to discuss topics like social media, SEO, monetization, personal storytelling, and building relationships with brands and media reps.

I went to TECHmunch last year and knew I had to go again this year.  Last year provided a virtual dumptruck of ideas for formatting, choosing the best content, and techniques for sharing my story with all of you.  By most standards, this blog is miniscule, but over the last two years it’s given me the most intimate and rewarding outlet for my writing I have ever found.  Most of you may not know, but I’ve been writing in some capacity since I was a kid.  For a period in college, I wanted to be a poet; in graduate school, it wasn’t so much the academic life, but the writing — crafting not just an argument but a story — that kept me interested in the work.  But here on Dissertation to Dirt, being able to interact so closely with others who care about food and farming has become precious to me.  If you’ll allow me a moment of teary affection, writing this blog for you has kept me going through some of the toughest times in Travis’ and my journey.  So, thanks to everyone reading, and thanks to Babette and all the speakers at TECHmunch once again for making all of their resources available for us lowly farmers trying to be bloggers.

All that said, I have to say something else: after sitting in a room in front of a computer for two days straight, talking about technology, I feel like I’ve been drop-kicked in the stomach.   I couldn’t tell if I wasn’t alone in my cabin fever at TECHmunch, or if working outdoors all day every day — which has sped into hyperdrive since Round Table Farm came into fruition — has made me physically unable to sit for extended periods of time.  Plus, am I the only one who finds twitter emotionally exhausting?  Do my readers care what I’m eating for dinner in less than 140 characters?  Because most of the time I don’t even care.   Then came the conversation on apps, phones, and lots of other technology that I can’t afford.  ”It’s time to upgrade,” someone said to me.  ”But I’m just a poor farmer,” I said helplessly, hands splayed out at my sides like I had just turned empty pockets inside out.  (I’m going to like that excuse.  I can tell.)

At the end of the third day, as I skipped a cupcake party and invitations for cocktails to go home and have some of Travis’ homebrew, I knew something was happening to me.  Something I had been fighting against since I began selling produce at the Union Square farmers market: I had become a crabby farmer.  Great.

Even though I’ve spent the last few years working in the dirt, trying to recapture something rural and past tense, I’ve been ardent about keeping my love alive for everything modern and urban: the lifestyle, the culture, the art, the relationships, even the conversations — my heroes were those who embraced, engaged, and embodied youth culture, rather than demeaning it.  From Antonio Gramsci to Jon Stewart to Jay Z, I’ve always been drawn to figures who hold a mirror up to society and use it to amplify their own voice.

Young people, like Travis and me, who have decided to take the plunge into farming seem at odds with youth culture — constantly plugged in, bleeding edge, city savvy — and simultaneously its perfect articulation — independent, self-sufficient, and disillusioned by the hollow prosperity and materialism of our childhood.  I’ve been grappling with this contradiction since the beginning of my career in farming, and perhaps my inner conflict at TECHmunch is just another metaphor for me trying to deal.

Still, I see a common thread among America’s young people, whether they have an interest in farming or not, that the way we are eating can and should change.  Brian Witlin from Shopwell, for example, mentioned in his panel that as a kid he remembered going home to “kosher hot dogs and Minute Maid,” and was now looking for something more.  Moments like that are why being around people who care about food, emotionally draining or not, just doesn’t get old.

So in conclusion, maybe I’ll recluse myself with my cucumber transplants for a while until I feel good enough to venture out onto city streets again.  Or maybe I’ll dump my freshly-picked spinach for a pizza at Home Slice.  Either way, here’s what I know: I can’t wait to get back into the field this morning, spread some more compost, pot on what will hopefully be delicious Ringo peppers, walk out four beds of drip tape, and plant some cucurbits.  That’s the form my participation in my generation’s culture has taken, and for me, it’s a good fit.