Diary (17th July 2024)
My first day’s work is to weed around the dahlia’s bulbs. I start working at 7.30am with a group of women from Poland who have come to work. The coffee machine in the kitchen is out of order, so around 6am I head to the office kitchen for a coffee, where John, the owner of this organic flower farm, is already sitting at his computer screen.
Rows and rows of dahlia bulbs are planted in the field. It is completely different from the image of an ‘organic flower farmer’ or ‘multi-product’ in Japan: ‘organic’ but ‘high-tech’, multi -product but ‘mass-produced’. This flower farmer grows bulbs for many flowers, not just tulips. Together with colleagues, we pull weeds using a ‘weed-pulling car’. In that car, five people inside and three outside, lying on beds arranged so that they lie face down, pull weeds around the dahlia bulbs.
‘Meditative work, isn’t it?’ My friend told me when I told him that I would work at an organic flower farm. ‘Is it really? I thought. The weed-pulling car moves automatically, but if you are even slightly worried about which weeds are which, you can’t pull the weeds out at the right speed. In the beginning, Brygida and Kasha, who were sitting beside me, showed me how to do it by hand imitation, and within an hour I was used to the work itself.
I have never seen so many ladybirds in one day, and I am grateful to think that these weeds are also free from pesticides and chemicals. The work, concentrating only on pulling weeds, dahlia leaves, soil and ladybirds, was rather meditative, as my friend said. Although my thoughts of telling my friend that it was better than meditating in Thailand or Bali, and that I would recommend it, were shattered in the afternoon…
