Author: zimmerma1
Women in Agriculture Project
The Women in the Pictures
On the wall of the Oregon Nikkei Legacy Center hangs a picture so small, dark, and faded that you might pass it by without a glance, if you didn’t know to look for it. In the picture, a woman in a full skirt and bonnet sits on the seat of a rusted tractor, orchard trees spread above her head. This woman, Hatsumi Mishimoto, is an Issei (Japanese immigrant to North America) and farmer who settled…
Women in Agriculture Project
There is No Experience
I push the bell on the front door of Bessie’s green, Hood River farmhouse and count to sixty, but am met with no answer. The only audible noise is a faint knocking in the distance, a sound I attribute to the farm workers lining the surrounding country roads. I ring again and wait another minute before deciding to try my luck at the back door. As I walk around, I hear the knocking again, louder…
Women in Agriculture Project
Her Everything
“Hello, I just want to introduce myself. My name is Emma and I am conducting a research project, traveling around the country and collecting stories from immigrant women in agriculture. I heard about your market and was wondering if there might be someone here I could talk to.” It was not my normal way of acquiring research subjects. Usually, these conversations materialize after a couple of emails back-and-forth, a forwarding to a co-worker, a referral…
Poetry and Reflections
Tracktown, USA
In Eugene, I slept on the couch of an Herbalist. If, in slumber, I leaned too far to my left, the cushions would slump, sink, at a diagonal, pulling my unconscious body down with them. At 3 in the morning I’d awake to the sound of crickets outside the double doors a nuzzle of black fur, a cat named Mortimer, pawing, climbing his way towards me, then settling on my chest, his breathing slowing…
Women in Agriculture Project
Brick Ovens and Organic Carrots: a Venue for Neighborly Discourse
If you attend, or ever did attend, Grinnell College, your inbox likely overflowed this weekend with emails from family members and friends from across the country. This weekend, in the Sunday Styles section of the New York Times, Jacqui Shine featured the tensions within the town of Grinnell, Iowa, home to both a progressive liberal arts school and the largest firearms manufacturer in the country. She highlighted how increased shootings throughout the nation have intensified the…
Women in Agriculture Project
Adelante Mujeres
Adelante Mujeres means “women rise up,” an apt name for an organization invested in empowering and educating low-income Latina women and their families. Since 2002, Adelante Mujeres has lead programs in early childhood education, Latina girls empowerment, conflict management, sustainable agriculture, small business development, and healthy food access. I had the pleasure of volunteering with the Adelante Mujeres Sustainable Agriculture Program during one of their CSA packing events, and plan to volunteer with them again. On…
Poetry and Reflections
Chili Peppers and Poetry: a Day at the International Farmers Market
Portland is white. Portland is, in fact, 70.4% white, according to the most recent U.S. Census. Last Saturday, the white-nationalist, far-right group “Patriot Prayer” conducted a racist protest in Portland. When Portland police officers were called to the scene, they responded with pepper spray and stun grenades, attacking not the white-supremacists, but the anti-facist, anti-racist, counter-protesters instead. I missed the commotion. I was on a Saturday morning 10-miler organized by the Portland Running Company, weaving…
Poetry and Reflections
2,125 miles
The first time I wondered if I knew America was when I moved to Iowa from Connecticut for college. I couldn’t remember the first time I saw the ocean, but looking out over the endless fields of corn and soybeans for the first time seemed as close of a comparison as I could imagine. In Iowa, billboards advertised tater-tot stuffed cheeseburgers and the only vegetables I could discern in my veggie omelet were canned…