Earth Apple: The International Reinvention of a Farmer's Wife

Charlotte's Airport "Farmer's Market"

The French look at the basic potato and see a pomme de terre - an "earth apple." As a farmer and a foodie, I love the simple beauty of that symbolism. Here on the brink of a month of international study in Strasbourg, France, I find peace in the reinvention of this humble veggie with the glorious name... it seems a perfect metaphor for the shifts in perspective I know are coming.

Farmer's Market?

I sit in the Charlotte airport in a classic white front-porch rocking chair beside a kiosk called the "Farmer's Market." Nothing like real farmer's market fare, mostly fruits and veggies trucked in from goodness-knows-where and overpriced organic potato chips - yet another iteration of the pomme de terre. The sustainable farmer in me is highly amused and a little irritated, but I admit my tired bones were glad to see this little rocker so like the one on my front porch. 

I live on a Tennessee Century farm with my husband, "anthronaut farmer" Ted Maclin. We work hard with our friends and managers Jack and Neely to raise sustainable food on a sustainable landscape. You can find us at oak-hill-farm.org if you'd like to know more. The work of a small farmer in trying to grow truly healthy food is all-encompassing these days. We don't just grow food - we market, we advocate, we work to change the current food system... and we hope for better. 

The "Farmer's Market" kiosk aggravates the part of me that knows the dirt and sweat that goes into a real farmer's market table... but as a current international MBA student, I know that the marketing here is good for me, too. The success of this stand - and its central location in a major intersection between terminals - tells me the meme of healthy eating is growing. That's good for us as a society... and it's also good for our tiny business.

In the Eye of the Beholder

The seemingly unremarkable potato is under-appreciated... this simple food can be crafted a million different ways, into expensive gourmet dishes or the down-home Southern meals that I'll miss. Lumpy, misshapen, ugly little thing that it can be, it is also divinely beautiful. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. 

When we first moved to the farm, our daughter was very small. As we planted our first garden together we painstakingly dug a trench for our new potatoes and showed her how to place them in a neat row, one by one. As we all went to work, Ted and I started talking - and when we got to the end of the row and looked back, our precocious toddler had picked them all up and put them back in the box!

It's all about perspective. As I travel to France for a month of study EM Strasbourg's Summer Business School, I'll keep the Earth Apple blog as a way to explore those changing perspectives.

I'm a complex woman with diverse skill sets - anthropologist, writer, spatial analyst, project manager, archaeologist, farmer, mother, wife. Earth Apple will reflect those perspectives, I'm sure... but it's first and foremost a way to document a singular opportunity on an international scale. Look forward to tourist-y photos, maps, thoughts on international business, and the continued integration of this Earth Apple on a new landscape. Bonjour!