Beginning Spanish for Farmers

Being a farmer here in Arizona (or probably most other places) means that at least a little bit of Spanish is required for day-to-day communication and pleasantries. Now, I spent my entire childhood education learning French, so Spanish has been something of an interesting challenge for me, but one that I am enjoying.

I am lucky enough to work with some very nice hombres and they have taken it upon themselves to teach me some functional Spanish for the farm. Mostly at this point I know vegetables, numbers, and some basic verbs -- enough to get me through a day of harvesting. I can say necesito diez bunches nabos blancos por favor (I need ten bunches of white turnips please) and gracias para su ayuda (thank you for your help)  and donde es la jefa? (where is the boss lady?) and many other similar things. But I am always trying to add a few new words to my vocab, and I teach the guys some new words as well. It is a nice cultural exchange.

Today I had a customer come by in the afternoon and need a pound of dill. This is one of the Rainbow Valley ladies who make beautiful fresh cheese here in AZ and one of our old farmers' market buddies. So of course I told her "no problem, I can get that for you right away". I rushed right over to los hombres and let them know what I needed: "hola, nesecito comeré una libra de dill mas rapido, por favor".  And then, to get my point across that I needed it right away, I waved my hands in the air and shouted "ándale!"  and laughed. The guys looked at me, said something in Spanish that I didn't catch and pointed to the row of dill and asked "una libra?" I said "si, gracias" and walked off. A few minutes later, one of the guys came over with a pound of dill, which I gave to the cheese ladies and off they went. 

Well, because I am trying hard to learn farm Spanish I checked with the foreman, Carlos, later on in the day about my new word comare. "Carlos, what does comeré mean in English?"  I asked. "It means to eat" he replied and I burst out laughing. I had demanded that the guys eat a pound of dill, very quickly, and then waved my arms and said "get on with it!" Turns out that the word I was looking for was cortar .... to cut. It was indeed a good day on the farm.