7-19 IAT Weeding for Love

 A farm where workers get paid with love, literally.

 We all know about the growing resistance of weeds to herbicides. Casey O’Leary, owner of Earthly Delights Farm, has found a way to get around all of that. She has people come in and literally hand pull the weeds that are embedded in her crops. The kicker in this idea is that the laborers are there to not just pick weeds but to meet romantic interests. “It’s community supported agriculture and it means that people pay us up front for shares of the farm and then every week through the growing season we have missed everything we have and then we divided up amongst all the members. The concept is that people get seated opposite of each other in a bed of vegetables and they weed together for 3 min. Then half the people move and the other half stay where they are so that you rotate through all of the potential partners out there and chat with them for a few minutes, just like speed dating would be. We are not the only farm that has done it. I have talked to other farmers that have done it but we had heard a little story that a friend had sent us on a farm in New England that had done it a couple of years ago. Now it is everywhere. I heard it was on Leno last night. Certain weeds, I know, enhance the whole love thing but that is a different thing. it’s kind of like an herbal Match.com. Yes. It is just like speed dating. You get to hang out with everyone and then you only have to hit on the people that you are interested in.