These flat lands filled with industrial farms (corn, wheat, soybeans, and sugar beets) allow my mind to think of all the possibilities. When a commercial farm of 200 acres brings in about $20 per acre and an organic CSA bring in $8,000 to $15,000 per acre it only makes sense that small, organic, local farms are the way of the future. Not only do they make way more money, but they feed and support the community in which they are embedded.
The ways in which small organic farms help the world are almost immeasurable. They provide a manual, body enriching labor for the farmers and volunteers. These farms act as a place for healthy communities to grow. People learn where their food is grown and how their chicken, cows, pigs, and goats are raised. They know where their eggs and milk come from. Here in the Midwest, many have small orchards of apples and plums. A strong sense of work ethic develops in workers and volunteers. A greater appreciation for hot days and rains storms becomes essential. Bodies slowly mold into tan, sinuous, and glorious reflections of hard labor in the elements. Trees provide a home for bird and insects. The surrounding forests are the home to deer, small mammals, hawks, and owls. Near by waters run clean and free of chemicals.
I want to take you now to a vision I’ve been working with. In this season if fire, check out my earlier posts on the solstice, I’ve been cultivating not only crops but my internal fire. My will is burning strong these days. Not only to I use this fire to show up to my work but in the down times I’ve been writing. This is part of my Will, to write. I’ve been writing about my vision of the future. It may sound utopian but knowing farm work and all the hard labor and potential downfalls of crop failure, I assure you that the reality is not as romantic as the language we bestow upon such futures. With this caveat, I invite you to come gather around my campfire as I tell a story and weave a spell.
Imagine a farm. Rich brown soil smelling of hummus and manure. It’s midsummer and the tomatoes are just coming in. Farmers are in the fields harvesting all sorts of produce. Red, green and yellow lettuces and dark green spinach leaves as big as your hand fill woven baskets made by the town’s Weavers Guild. You pass by pales of strawberries, raspberries, and blueberries; sweet and cold after the morning rain. Empty rows where chard, beets, and radishes were just yesterday are now being prepared for a cover crop. Clover and buckwheat are bring tilled under by tracker and plow horse in order to in get late season crops, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, and other roots. Yellow summer squash and green zucchinis burst out of vine bushes. They scream “pick me”. Rows of eggplants dangle tiny purple, white and striped fruits. Everywhere you look, vibrant life explodes out of soil that quivers with excitement.
Off in the distance, the forest brushes right next the enclosed garden. Deer peer in, licking their lips at the greens, so ripe and ready.
Raised beds hold annual, biannual and perennial herbs. You find herbs for the kitchen, the medicine cabinet, and for dyeing cloth. A fence keeps in sheep, goats, llamas, and a few cows. The pasture connects to a barn at this farm and to another barn farm next to this one. To support the community of 1,000 people there are three farms, run by a few families and many volunteers. The old farm houses now houses the interns that come from all over the country. They’ve come to learn about organic farming and how a community can be nearly self sufficient. The Blacksmith guild comes to the farm to work on repairing hand tools and fixing trackers. The Weavers come to collect the wool, herbs, and other materials gathered from the forest. Back in town, in their building, they dye the raw materials and spin it into beautiful skeins of yarn and tread in which they loom into fabrics. On this Saturday, the Healers Guild has come with a group of high school aged students to teach them about herbal medicine and acupuncture. A group of older women sit around a table shelling peas and sipping wine made from grapes from the vineyard.
Children gather around the chicken coop and pig pen. Couples and groups of friends come in from the field caring stirrup hoes and baskets almost spilling over with cherry tomatoes, squash, cabbage and broccoli. Everyone from the community is welcome to the harvest. Members from Cheese Makers Guild come back in the evening to milk the goats and cows. You over heard them laughing as they enter the milking shed. The interns retire for the evening, greeted at the farm house by the farmers holding beers. The smells of grilled vegetables seasoned with spices, traded for by baskets of wild rice, perfumes the warm air.
The local Pagan group begins to set up a bonfire for this month’s full moon ritual. This being the ‘Full Hay Moon’ they will bless the hay fields and other crops coming in now. In the morning, one of the Christian groups might hold a service at the farm.
As you can see, when a community grows around the farm, all groups invested in its success, everyone works to its benefit, we don’t need to have the power struggles of large companies or other outside forces. Things can become better, strong, and more beautiful. The old traditions, of well made, hand crafted goods and services once again can exist. Clean waters can coincide with human nature. The earth can be rich, black, and healthy. Clearly we don’t need chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and heavy machinery. Yes it takes work…. Hard work. But the rewards are immeasurable. This work creates strong communities, strong families, strong bodies, and strong ecosystems.
So how do we take my vision, which is the vision of so many people throughout the world, and make it manifest. This is a very long, a complex answer. One that is far to long for a blog post. If you want resources to make this dream the slightest bit more of a reality; check out your local CSA. A simple Google search can find the one closest to you. If you want to volunteer or intern at an organic farm, check out http://www.wwoof.org/.
I have shared my hope for a better and brighter future of coexistence and harmony with nature, our own bodies, and each other. What does your future look like? How are you working to bring it into reality?
