Welcome to Farm Office, my blog. I'm Sarah, and I'm reporting to you from the great city of Philadelphia, in West Philly (or as I like to call it, the wild, wild west).

I've thought for some time about what I wanted to blog about, and being that I'm involved in all kinds of farmy things in Philly (Henry Got Crops! CSA, Weaver's Way Co-op, Mariposa Co-op, Farm 51), that's the seed from which I'll begin.

*CSA stands for community supported agriculture, and is a program in which members contribute financially for their 'share' of the farm before the season begins, thus allowing the farm to operate via the members. There is a risk involved in CSA membership, as crop yield can be inconsistent because of weather, members may not get all they had hoped for in a season (or they may get more than they were expecting as was the case last July with an abundance of tomatoes at my farm). The draw for members is getting fresh, organic produce from the source- a source they can get very involved in if they choose.

I used to do the office thing (I would call it the nine to five, but that would be at best a joke and at worst a dulling of my soul) and now am three months into "searching for what's next." Maybe you can relate, but I've always had a plan for my life and not knowing where I'm going is turning my life upside down.

I've always loved sports, and growing up my goal was to be a college athlete. Done- La Salle University softball third baseman. After graduating with a degree in communication, I wanted a job in sports. Check. I melded my passion for athletics with my writing to then spend seven fun, exciting, gray-hair inducing and finally miserable years as a sports information director. That involved enough statistics to make my head spin, spitting out dozens of sports articles each week and many, many hours in the office and on the field (court, diamond, river, course or pitch).

The point is, one of my saving  graces in the final years of my purposefully fading career was Weaver's Way Co-op and Henry Got Crops! CSA.  During the weeks I could scramble out of the office at a reasonable hour, I would head right to the farm...my farm office. Nothing felt quite as good after spending eight hours in a 9x9 room as pulling on an old college t-shirt and shorts, wrestling on dirty, dried-out sneakers and planting my hands in moist, rocky dirt.

The farm is a peaceful two-acre tract of land off of Henry Avenue in Philadelphia, and grows vegetables from May-November using environmentally sustainable methods of farming. It's one of the first high school based CSAs in the country (which I learned after reading more on their Facebook page) and I'm proud to be a part of it. All I would need was a welcoming "moo" from one of the grazing cattle and a single gulp of that seemingly fresh, farm-filled air after work and I'd settle into my element.

More to come...