Long Branch: Animal, Vegetable, Architectural

Having been at Long Branch only five days, four of work and one of hiking, reading Salman Rushdie, and writing a blog entry, I don’t think I’m quite prepared to say anything about profound about saving the planet, organic farming, or my own place in the scheme of either of the prior two subjects (weed whacking, however, is another story). So in lieu of reflecting at the personal level, or thinking about institutional or global levels, I will opt for a description of my place of residence and work.

Animal

Long Branch is, at the moment, home to six human animals, although this number is subject to frequent change. There are the Gallimores, Pat and Paul, who own Long Branch. Then there are Ben and July (whose last name I don’t know), a couple who came here from Florida and rent a house. And finally, there are me and my fellow intern, Rosara, a rising senior at UNC-Asheville. There are also three dogs, one who belongs to the Gallimores, two who belong to Ben and Judy. In addition, Long Branch is also home to numerous other animals not human and that no human can lay claim to. Putting aside the bugs, as hard as that is, in the past 5 days I have seen a black snake, a turtle, a rabbit, and heard numerous birds, including at least one owl.

Vegetable

Long Branch is mostly a farm, but as a farm, it’s interesting in that crops blend in to each other. In one place, chestnuts become blueberries become chestnuts again. In other places, apples become blueberries and raspberries. Blackberries with and without thorns permeate everything else. And the bamboo stands alone. In addition to the things that we try to grow are the things that want to grow, but are unwelcome. In a word, weeds. Paul has stretched my definition of weeds to include trees, and I’ve had the disconcerting experience of cutting down a tree in the middle of a tree nursery. Paul has also taught me that mugwort has a “tremendous life-force,” which is probably why I keep seeing it underneath my weed whacker. To add to my confusion, Paul keeps giving me weeds to eat and smell, and so I can't understand why something that tastes good should be whacked.

Architectural

There were two buildings on the property when the Gallimores arrived, the farmhouse and the barn. Both are still standing, but I’m uncertain what purpose it serves at the moment. The barn serves as a sleeping and storage space. Apart from these two buildings, the rest of Long Branch, down to an outhouse, has a distinct architectural style. No roofs come to peaks. Instead of the classic pentagon, there are instead quadrilaterals with one side, the roof, . Sometimes there will be two or of these basic shapes together. In the case of the community center, the two tall ends are together, but one is higher than the other, and in the case of the Gallimore residence and workshops, there are three side by side quadrilaterals. This architecture gives a kind of feeling of modernity and progress to the place by undercutting ones expectations for Appalachian building.