There are other pics of me on the blog, taken in the office, the kitchen, the Grainery, etc. The seeds in my hand have now become plants yielding a pint of ripe tomatoes every day... with greater harvests to come!
There was mention in this week's newsletter that I've been traveling recently. I'm just back from a visit to "my other farm", in southern England! In 2006, I moved to the Pilsdon Community in Dorset, 10 miles inland from the southwest coast. The community really is that - a small group of people living together on a mixed farm. Primarily, it's a place of prayer and restoration, where people can have space & time to re-imagine their lives. For me, being there was about asking, Can we live together in an age that encourages so much fragmentation? Food was central to our common life. Daily work tending the livestock & gardens provided most of what we needed for the daily meals we shared. "Living together" incorporated the land, each other, and our own selves. Though I'd never grown a vegetable, I was landed with oversight of the extensive kitchen gardens and through two seasons of gumption and experimentation, not only did the gardens fill our bellies, but I developed an appetite for agriculture.
Working at Taproot, I suppose my question is, Can we feed people? It's a basic question that spirals into all kinds of others: How many people? With what labour and by what means? At what cost to the environment? With what participation of the whole community? And against what odds?! I love the CSA model because it takes a new angle on those questions and encourages all its members to taste the answers. With that, I'm off to the New Farmers Gathering - I'll keep you posted.
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