For Melinda Maier, our longest serving volunteer, plants really rock her world. Whether in the greenhouse, the vegetable beds or across the broad landscape, she is alive to them. Known affectionately as the “Steward of the Greenhouse,” she nurses our plants in their journey from seeding, through germination, hardening-off, and to the final trek to the fields where they are transplanted into production.
Hailing from the outskirts of Budapest, Hungary, where the city meets the fields, Melinda graduated with a degree in horticulture from Szent Istvan University, and from there set out to gain "real world" experience as a WWOOFer (willing worker on organic farms) in the EU. A lover of Country and Western Music (think Johnny Cash, Marty Robbins and Kenny Rogers), Melinda turned her gaze toward the southern Appalachians for more WWOOFing opportunities and found us here, where she seems to be prospering.
Once, descending Tater Hill where the crew had been wildcrafting ramps, Melinda looked out at our mountain vistas and felt it strike a chord in her. "The flora here often looks so alien to me," the horticulturalist says, but the people of the region she appreciates for being laid back, friendly and trusting. She is happy to have tasted in Boone her "first decent hamburger," and loves exploring other US foods which she finds intriguing for the high use of sweeteners even in savory dishes. In fact, we all got a good laugh when she contrasted a campfire at the sugar shack with a typical Hungarian campfire. "Here you roast marshmallows and make s'mores," she says, "while at home we roast fatback, onions and bratwurst on sticks." But most notable of all her culinary discoveries is that of cast iron cookery. "First of all there are steaks," she says; "And then there are cast iron pans. But a steak cooked in a cast iron pan!" She makes a poof gesture that says "Amazing!" Not to mention baking in a dutch oven nestled among campfire embers!...
What Melinda likes most about life on the farm is the ability to do hard work, the view from atop Goat Hill, and a good night's rest. That and conversations with the crew as we all learn more about one another. As for the future, she hopes for a life, if not one of farming right at first, at least one spent "digging into the soil" alongside her beloved plants.