The thing about eating is that it has to happen, no matter how you’re feeling at the moment about cooking. A busy day, a nasty cold, or plain old just not being in the mood can all keep us away from the chopping board and stove. But hunger is a strong imperative: a growling belly and plummeting blood sugar can only be put off for so long.

Modern life has addressed this dilemma with ferocious efficiency and now we’ve got (blessing or curse?) drive-thru windows, microwave mac’n’cheese and pre-washed bags of lettuce. “Real” cooks frown on all this convenience but I’ll bet most of us have the odd canned soup and frozen pizza hanging around just for those no, I do not want to finely chop six cloves of garlic moments.

So what do you do when you’re not in the mood to cook?

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It’s my first day at Amber Waves Farm, getting to know the lay of the land and the two impressive young women who envisioned this unique farm on the far East End of Long Island: Katie Baldwin and Amanda Merrow.

In the spring of 2008, Katie and Amanda met in the fields of Peconic Land Trust’s Quail Hill Farm in Amagansett, New York – about 16 miles west of Montauk Point (the tip of Long Island) – as new apprentices to one of the oldest community supported agricultural farms in the US.

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