Newquay...(Newkey)
So I'm in week two of my portraiture project at this point. It has been an absolutely amazing time getting to meet everyone from the area and really getting to know them. I have done more of a social thing than a photography thing at this point but that's how it starts I think. I went over to a B&B not to far from my house that is owned by the son of a woman that is at the farmers market that I frequent every Saturday. Her name is Teresa Fahy. She invited me in to see her son’s place, where she works to help him out. There I met Donica, one of her other sons, (there are 7 by the way, and 2 daughters)...Donica made us breakfast before bringing me a couple towns over to his farm where he has been growing lettuce for about 10 years. He then brought me through the "Rine", a strip of land that extends out into the water in a town called Newquay, it's here that most of his family all have their homes. The first stop however was not to a family member of his but rather a friend and local farming family, the Nolan's.
The Nolan's are always at the farmers market on Saturday, that's how we met. There on their farm they raise pigs, chickens and all sorts of fowl, they grow a huge stock of potatoes along with a large greenhouse for smaller veg. I just happened to show up on a harvest day for the potatoes and so naturally I asked to if I could join in. Try to imaging a small yellow house being pulled by a huge tractor. Inside this house is this giant machine that tearing up the ground beneath it and hurling potatoes and rocks up into this series of conveyer belts...you stand there and separate the rocks and rotten spuds from the good spuds...easy right. But THERE WERE SO MANY POTATOES! By the end of the day we had filled about half of a warehouse full of potatoes, thousands and thousands of potatoes piled about ten feet high and about 30 feet back.
After harvesting Donica cam back and picked me up. He brought me over to meet his brother Carl that runs a Manhattan Bagel shop...then to see his brother Roger who runs a dairy farm and ice cream business, as well as their father Tom. Tom and I spent the better part of 3 hours talking in his living room while taking breaks to sip Irish whiskey, make sandwiches, drink some tea and eat orange chocolate cookies. We sat in the dim light of his home and I just let him talk...about his life growing up, his parents, his sisters, the famine, his kids and their businesses, his wife....everything. One of my episodes was going to be an interview of a local person here. I came to me that this family of the Fahy's is such a close unit that they should be the interview collectively. I have been working on meeting some of the other family and will continue to over the next week or so. It's truly been an amazing thing to really get to know the people around here.
One thing that I worried about before leaving for study abroad is that I would be trapped with just the American students, something they told us to be careful of doing. They encourage everyone to try and get out on their own and meet people but I've never really gone out on my own so much as I have been here....it's great.
Wish me luck with the rest of my project and make sure to catch the Fahy Episode!
Rog
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