Inviting Cupid To The Farm

You’ve heard of speed dating? Now there’s weed dating. No, this has nothing to do with smoking marijuana. Like speed dating, people interested in meeting someone new spend only a few minutes chatting, in a fast-paced round robin with several potential partners. But instead of gathering in a stuffy hotel lobby, weed daters get acquainted on a farm, while they pull weeds. As part of collaboration with Northeast stations, Steve Zind of Vermont Public Radio reports.

The breeze that moves over the fields of this Tunbridge, Vermont organic vegetable farm carries the threat of rain. But there’s also a promise of romance in the air. 

 “We’re all going to get nice and dirty…”

Officially, Jean Hamilton does marketing for the Northeast Organic Farming Association in Vermont, which organized this first-ever weed dating event. But today, she’s Cupid.

“So, we’ve given you a vegetable last name, in case you want to remain more anonymous than you are.”  

The weed daters, who range in age from their 20s to 50s, wear whimsical name tags. Emily Blackberry, Elizabeth Garlic, and Karl Basil are among the 10 or so people who turned out.  There are some no-shows:  Mostly men, we’re told. Whether they were afraid of commitment, or just hate weeding, we’ll never know. 

But none of those things rattle Ben Wolfe, a.k.a. Ben Blueberry.  He’s hoping to meet a woman who shares his gardening passion.

 “It says something about someone if you’re willing to do work while you meet people rather than doing something leisurely.”

And there’s nothing leisurely about the way weed dater Caitlin Henzler is approaching this.

 “I am a very competitive weeder, actually, which is probably a bad trait for this situation (laughs)”

Henzler works as an apprentice on a farm in Western Massachusetts.  She’s driven two hours to be here.

“Because I’m looking to meet a farmer. There aren’t many opportunities for farmers to co-mingle.”

It turns out this crowd is mostly made up of serious gardeners. All share a commitment to local food. 

 “Get our weeding started, let’s go!”

They pair off and begin weeding several long rows of leeks.  

 “Okay, so everybody move down a row.”

Every 7 minutes or so, the clatter of a goat bell tells them its time to change partners. A new round begins with the couples exchanging muddy handshakes.

 “Beautiful, is everybody paired up? Awesome!” 

The chit chat here is earnest, covering topics like climate change and bartering.  

 “I bartered for my yoga classes, I bartered for my snow plowing.  It was great!”

Weed dating is finished once all the pairing possibilities have been exhausted.   It’s unclear whether any romances have been kindled here today.

Caitlin Henzler, the competitive weeder, offers this assessment.

 “It was fun. I can’t say I met anyone that I’d be interested in dating."

Josh Schlosberg has found he’s more comfortable meeting people over weeds than drinks. 

“I like the idea of doing an activity that’s meaningful, rather than sizing each other like a piece of meat. Instead, we’re casually weeding and if something works out, it works out.”

Weed dating organizers say they’re on to something, and they plan more events. After all, few things are more eternal than love and weeds.

For WNPR, I’m Steve Zind.