Why You Should Believe Me

My husband, Alex, wrote this up about why he thinks I can pull off this blog:

"I need to tell you about my wonderful wife Jenise's grandfather's farm: five acres on the Rio Grande's flood plain in Albuquerque, NM. Max, Jenise's grandfather, who died last year at the ripe old age of 90, ran the farm on the side of his lifelong job as a mail carrier. They raised alfalfa, and fed it to beef cattle, which they ate themselves, but Max also brought in other animals from year to year as education for his grandchildren. Jenise got her start as a writer standing on the manure pile telling stories to the cows. But she lived with the cows on a daily basis for much of her childhood, and helped with farm chores like baling hay and feeding it to them.

"When I met Jenise at MIT, no one I knew had that kind of experience. In fact, in our social circles of mostly highly educated professionals, it is very nearly unique. (A lot of folks I know come from small towns, but very few grew up on farms.) So Jenise can make a good guess about whether a cow is healthy just by looking at it. (She claims she can do this for goats and sheep, too, which I mostly believe, but the cows I saw with my own eyes). In addition, she is an MIT-trained technical writer and graduate of the Clarion Workshop. So I think she has a better chance than average to be able to accurately assess a farm we visit, and the skills to write it up coherently and entertainingly.

"The thing we don't have is any formal agricultural training. So in that sense we are outsiders, still very definitely consumers of farm products."

I'd like to add that having grown up in New Mexico did not prepare me for agricultural conditions in New England. My very first backyard garden in Somerville washed away in a nor'easter. At the same time, it is a constant source of astonishment to me how things just grow here. I have a lot to learn.