Strawberry Field Revolt
May 30, 2022 – Salinas, California, USA
The teenagers saying goodbye acted like they were heading to a war instead of a summer camp. Authentic tears were shed as parents signed release forms and their kids handed over their phones. The only person who looked happy was fourteen-year-old Ember Belliston. She sat in a folding wooden chair in the front row of the orientation tent. She wore simple shorts and sneakers. Her auburn hair was tightly braided. She followed the dress and grooming instructions exactly and packed all her extra clothes and toiletries in the canvas bag resting on her knees.
Ember smiled as ten boys and nine other girls slumped into the tall tent. No one smiled back at her until two adult counselors appeared, wearing white jumpsuits.
“What beautiful faces! My name is Sunshine and this is Dave. Welcome to Happy Planet Farms and Sustainability Academy!”
Sunshine raised her arms above her head in a greeting. Her hair was braided like Ember’s and she seemed on the verge of giving everyone in the tent a hug.
“This week is going to change your life,” added Dave in a voice as bubbly as Sunshine’s. “Who’s ready to fall in love?”
None of the teenagers in the tent reacted.
“Well, how many of you love your mother? By the end of the week, you’re going to love Mother Earth just as much.”
A couple of kids behind Ember groaned, but she continued to smile. This was her dream come true. When her school friends had talked about summer trips and summer camps, they had mostly meant focusing on soccer or gymnastics. Ember was not into that stuff. She was the rare kid who liked growing things. Every available window in her house was filled with soil cups and sprouts. She bought seeds online and planted them in her backyard, in arrangements known only to her. Her dad complained that he could not tell the difference between weeds and her pet projects.
Ember spent hours at the supermarket admiring the produce section. She weighed the loose vegetables and held apples side by side to compare the colors. On weekends, she nagged her mom into driving to farmer’s markets.
When Ember imagined a summer camp, it was all about fields and farms, far from the pavement of her San Jose neighborhood. She found Happy Planet Farms online. They claimed to provide an immersive experience as the world’s premiere sustainability educator. Tuition was expensive. Ember’s parents did not have $2000 laying around so she wrote her grandparents asking for help. They sent checks, but most of Ember’s camp money came from babysitting jobs. She had a reputation for being responsible. As she listened to Sunshine and Dave in the orientation tent, she leaned forward so she would not miss a single world.
“You’re about to experience the most important cycle on earth,” Dave continued. “It’s only been in the last few years that we’ve forgotten the lessons of the life cycle and worried more about the latest electronic gizmos. We’re going to re-teach you the secrets.”
Sunshine picked up a pot from one corner of the tent. Green leaves cascaded down the pot’s sides. “Can anyone tell me the five things needed to grow a plant like this?”
Ember’s hand shot up.
Sunshine ignored her and kept talking. “Earth, water air, light, and a seed.” Ember nodded her head enthusiastically as Sunshine described the magic of turning those elements into something green and living.
And then, abruptly, Sunshine dropped the plant and moved on to the subject of living accommodations. “We have separate quarters for the girls and the boys. Everything will be simple. Your needs will be met in a sustainable way.”
“While you are part of the Academy, you will wear uniforms like ours,” added Dave. “We’ll have clean versions for you each day.”
“There’s no way I’m wearing that,” cried a girl behind Ember.
Dave continued, waving away the complaint like he was waving away a fly. “Wearing your uniform is an important part of the experience and a rule you already agreed to. It will include a wide hat for sun protection.”
After more instructions about bathrooms and treating everyone with respect, the campers were led to their new accommodations and told to get properly dressed.
Ember was the first inside the large girls’ tent. A tarp covered the ground and ten simple beds were arranged in two rows. Changing stalls stood at the rear of the tent. Next to the stalls were white jumpsuits hanging from a rack. Ember placed her bag on one of the beds, found a jumpsuit her size, and slipped into a changing stall.
The jumpsuit material was tough and semi-stiff. Ember also chose a wide straw hat and was the first camper to rejoin the counselors outside the tent. One by one, the other teenagers emerged, acting embarrassed by what they were wearing. Most whispered about calling their parents to come and get them, but of course they did not have their phones.
“You look wonderful!” cried Sunshine. “Now your first hands-on lesson is only a short walk away. If you’ve noticed, we’re surrounded by fields and life.”
Sunshine and Dave talked about growth and life cycles as they led the group to a field of strawberries. A wagon sat next to the field and on the wagon were hundreds of flat cardboard boxes.
“You all get to participate in an organic harvest,” said Sunshine, handing out boxes. “We have a precious crop of strawberries out there and before we can move to our next activity, we need to fill up all the boxes on this wagon.”
Dave described the strawberries as little red miracles and encouraged everyone to lean down and taste one. Ember dropped to her knees and pulled a juicy berry from a stem. It tasted sweeter than anything brought home from a store and red, sugary liquid ran down her fingers.
“Let me show you how to get them into the box,” added Dave. He crawled along a row of strawberries, pushing aside leaves to find the ripe targets. He wanted campers to find them all and pull off the stems with the berries to preserve freshness. “Once you fill up your box, take it to the wagon and get another one. Let’s see who can get the most.”
The teenagers around her half-heartedly searched for strawberries, but Ember was not afraid to grind her knees into the soil and find the reddest fruit. She filled her box and returned to the wagon for an empty one. Before long, her fingers were pink. Sunshine interrupted her poems and songs about strawberries to compliment Ember as a harvesting star.
During a water break, Ember looked around at the flat sea of green and noticed people and tractors in the distance. “What’s going on out there?” she asked Dave.
“You don’t need to worry about that. Concentrate on what’s in front of you,” Dave replied sharply.
After what felt like eight hours, but Sunshine and Dave claimed to only be two, the campers returned to the orientation and instruction tent. Teenagers collapsed into their chairs while Dave talked about nutrition and only putting natural foods into your body.
“Who would like to pick our dinner for tonight? Right out of the ground?” called Sunshine enthusiastically.
Ember’s chair felt so comfortable that she did not want to move. But she managed to raise a hand.
“C’mon, let’s all go! This is going to be amazing!” cried Dave.
The campers were lured into a field of vegetables with promises of food and cold water. Under Dave and Sunshine’s directions, they filled buckets with carrots, potatoes, lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, and squash. They hauled the buckets to another tent containing tables, stoves, and sinks. Then the counselors showed them how to peel and chop. After an hour of preparation, everyone sat down to a meal of salad and boiled vegetables.
“Wow! Can’t you taste the freshness?” cried Dave. “I feel so alive with every bite. And you picked it. You were part of the cycle.”
Ember nodded and tried to smile. The other teenagers kept their heads down and shoveled potatoes into their mouths.
“Since this is only your first day, we don’t want to push you too hard,” announced Sunshine. “No more lessons or fields for tonight. You can go back to your tents.”
Ember and the other girls trudged back to where they had left their clothes. Half of the girls dropped onto their beds, still wearing their dusty jumpsuits, which had turned from off-white to a pale brown.
“I hate it here!” cried a girl named Chloe, who looked about sixteen.
“Then why did you come?” asked Ember.
“My stupid parents. They said I needed a digital detox, which is so hypocritical because my dad designs iPhones and my mom is a computer lawyer. I only agreed to it because they promised to buy me a Tesla.”
“Same with me,” said a girl named Montana. “Not about the Tesla, but my parents said I could go to Europe after. They act like they’re into all this hippy earth stuff, but they’re mostly busy on their crypto startup.”
Ember listened to more complaints as a few girls changed into sleep clothes. Others stared at the tent’s roof in an exhausted trance. Ember did not take the chance to share her own story before she fell asleep.
Sunshine’s voice woke the tent up the next morning. She promised a glorious and fun day ahead and said the girls could shower if they wanted. They needed to be dressed and in the dining tent in half an hour. Ember and the others hurried to eat their breakfast of strawberries and melons while Dave gave them a lesson on water and how it got from the sky to the fields.
“Before we learn anything else, we’ve got more strawberries to pick!” called Sunshine excitedly.
“What about the irrigation pipes? When are we going to see those?” Ember asked Dave.
“Don’t worry about that. We’re concentrating on the harvest now.”
“But I’m here to learn everything,” said Ember.
Dave smiled and ignored her.
As Ember packed boxes with strawberries, she kept her eyes on the tractors gliding in the distant fields. They were up to something interesting, maybe plowing or planting. Ember asked Sunshine if she could take a closer look.
“No, we’ve got lessons that are a lot more fun than tractors,” answered Sunshine.
The group stopped for instructional breaks in which Dave and Sunshine talked about the lifecycle of a plant. Ember had only been on the farm two days, but her counselors were already sounding repetitive. When Ember asked about fertilizer and pesticides, Dave made a sour face and said it was a good time to learn a song about the sun and the wind.
“You can sing it while we’re picking your lunch and dinner,” called Dave.
The campers were shuttled between vegetable and strawberry fields and the lesson tent. When given a chance to sit and rest, the teenagers quickly fell into a trance. The sound of Dave and Sunshine’s continual chatter reminded Ember of a radio stuck on an all-talk station.
By the third day at Happy Planet Farms, most of the grumbling stopped. The campers merely followed Dave and Sunshine’s constant directions and put strawberries into boxes. Ember panicked under the realization that things were not going to change.
“What about the other parts of the farm?” she asked Sunshine. “Can we see where the strawberries go from here? What about the greenhouses at the end of the field?”
“We’re concentrating on harvesting,” replied Sunshine. “If you can show patience and focus, you may conquer all things.”
“I don’t have time for patience and focus. I’m only here a week.”
“You look thirsty,” replied Sunshine. “Have some more water.”
The supervisors seemed to always loom over the strawberry fields. Ember did not think to question their authority until she looked up from her box on her third afternoon and realized the adults were gone. She popped to her feet and scanned the fields. A few hundred yards away, across a dirt road, she saw a tractor moving. Ember looked back at her campmates. None of them noticed her standing. She decided it was her only chance to see a working tractor up close and she started walking.
Ember crossed the dirt road into another strawberry field. She kept her eyes on the tractor until she realized there were people in front of her. They were bent over strawberry plants but not in white jumpsuits. The first person she reached was a boy wearing jeans and a long sleeve shirt. He looked a little older than she was.
“Are you in the Academy too?” asked Ember.
“I don’t think so. I only work for the farm.”
“I’m Ember. I’m here for the camp.”
“I’m Alonzo. I pick strawberries, but they don’t pay me as much as other places.”
“They pay you?” asked a shocked Ember.
“Yeah, don’t they pay you?”
“No! Just the opposite. I had to pay to be here!” Ember thought about all the strawberries she had picked and how they were probably on their way to a supermarket. “This isn’t fair! It’s crazy!”
As Ember yelled about the farm taking advantage of her, Dave and Sunshine suddenly appeared. “You’re not supposed to be here!” Dave called.
“Alonzo’s getting paid to pick strawberries! Why am I paying to do it? I had to babysit like a thousand kids to get here.”
“Ah, but you’re also getting instruction and room and board,” said Sunshine.
“I already knew everything you told me. You’re ripping us off. I’m going to tell all the others!”
“You don’t want to do that,” said Dave, no longer using his happy, sing-song voice. “Everybody’s happy the way they are and learning important lessons about hard work.”
“Well, I’m not learning anything,” snapped Ember.
“We can’t have you ruining our camp, Ember,” said Sunshine. “Happy Planet only survives because of our education program. I tell you what, since you’re such a star student, maybe we can refund some of your tuition. We’ll call it a scholarship.”
Ember quickly realized Sunshine was negotiating. “If I don’t say anything, I want a full scholarship.”
Sunshine fidgeted but said, “I think we can arrange that. If you don’t agitate the camp.”
“And I don’t want to pick strawberries all day. I want to learn about the real farm and drive a tractor.”
“Okay fine. You can go on a field trip.”
From that point on, while the rest of the camp trudged out to the fields, Ember slipped away to the buildings and equipment almost hidden in the distance. She was the first Academy student allowed to plow and plant and lay out irrigation pipes. And she learned to drive a tractor.
When camp was over, the other kids hugged their parents and said they would never look at food the same way again. Ember said the same thing and added, “Now I know I want to be a farmer.”
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