Tate Tewksbury of Tewksbury Farms - Good Groceries

All of this slaving away in the field during the immense heat and aridity has brought me to thinking about what it takes to grow food for yourself and others.  We’ve put in hours that far surpass the average 9-5 job and yet we awake in the early morning with smiles on our faces, a little bit of anxiety to keep the ambition alive, and the desire to do good work and heal people utilizing the natural world, everyday.  The concept of a “green thumb” is troubling to me.  I have spoken with several people recently about how they just “don’t have a green thumb” and I can assure you that it has nothing to do with your thumb (besides the evolutionary advantage of having a thumb, that is.)  Having a “green thumb” is an oversimplified explanation for a connection to the natural systems of the planet.  By stating that you do not have a “green thumb” you are simply saying that you do not understand or are removed from what it takes to make a living organism thrive.  There are varying levels of difficulty when it comes to making plants and animals survive that have been domesticated by the human species.  While I do understand how our modern civilization has removed many of us from the ever important task of nurturing life, I do not take “I don’t have a green thumb” as a reasonable excuse for being oblivious to the role that our natural world plays in our everyday survival.

Lori Mason of Stems N Roots Garden

First we must examine the plants and animals we eat.  These creatures have been bred to produce high levels of fats, sugars, starches, proteins, and other necessary nutrients we crave and grow on.  They have been manipulated by our hands and have grown to produce more of the beneficial structures we now rely on to gain weight, utilized energy, and reproduce.  This is somewhat of a double edged sword for both the human species and the animals themselves.  Our manipulation has assured their species survival, but it has also eliminated their instincts and other attributes that allow them to survive on their own.  That makes tomato plants, cows, chickens, watermelons, goats, lettuce, and other plants and animals very vulnerable to our abuse and misuse.  Having a family milking cow or a small grass based dairy is the most respectful example of the human to animal symbiotic relationship while the factory farm dairies in the United States and beyond are examples of how easily these relationships can lead to abuse and exploitation.

Russel Bennett and Robert Bishop of Plow Point Farms

Second we must review our role as stewards of this planet.  It is not our fault or the fault of any other organism on Earth that we have evolved such that our frail bodies have been time and time again protected by the ingenuity of our brains, allowing us to reach such great numbers.  Having been placed in that position, it is our responsibility to regulate the actions of our culture and the needs of our societies.  We have created a reality so vast and consuming that many of us do not even recognize how the natural world plays a role in our everyday lives beyond the lifestyle Soap Operas we all operate in; human centric and based on the idea of commerce.  Having a “green thumb” is left to the hippies, the idealists, and the outdoorsmen (and women) who, for reasons beyond even their own comprehension, open up ornamental nurseries, hike the Appalachian Trail, plant school gardens, or start working for close to nothing raising food for themselves and their community.  I believe that the desire to grow is a part of our intuition, it is the realization that human beings were once delicately placed in the balance with all organisms working together, not  in competition, to share this place we call home.

Rashid Nuri of Truly Living Well Natural Urban Farms

The modern age of convenience has robbed many of us of the ability, the work ethic, and the passion to take care of ourselves using the most basic of human instincts.  We’ve taken the lessons you learned from your grandparents about cooking food and growing vegetables and handed you Poptarts and an Excell spreadsheet.  We’ve compartmentalized your day so that you value only parts of your life as yours and accept that much of your life belongs to others to fulfill endeavors that are not your own.  This has been normalized, advertised, and explained to anyone who will listen as being the “American Dream” that will lead you to happiness, peace and prosperity.  But what does this really lead us to?  It leads us to a hierarchy that ensures that the “Haves” will easily and efficiently keep control of the “Have Nots” while swiftly overusing and wasting our natural resources

Michael Hendricks of Indian Ridge Farm

So what do we do?  What can we do in a system that is so slated against those of us who have a dime in our pockets and a full time job meant to support ourselves and those that we care for?  We have to find it within us to explore the instincts hidden deep within our bodies and souls.  We must not accept that we just “don’t have a green thumb” and become more in sync with the rhythm of life that surrounds us and keeps us afloat.  We must plant gardens and watch them fail season after season before our questions and prayers are answered and our first perfect Tomato is enjoyed, as is, with a touch of salt.  We must enroll our students in the school of Universal-Reality where they realize that even at their smallest size, their bodies and minds can affect the greatest change.  We must take this age of convenience and feel bored, mentally exhausted, and thirst for the satisfaction of a hard day’s work that serves as the best weight control tool, making us look better, feel healthier, and all the while steering us away from having to wear spandex in a room full of other humans rhythmically lifting and tugging on weights made of synthetics.  Your body was meant to do things, it has evolved to be strong and accomplished, to be beautiful every day and it is a sad waste of your precious figure to be glued to a desk with a screen, a Snickers Bar, and a bad attitude.

Michael Shoptaw of Tagyerit Farm

Change is not easy or quick, but the most positive aspect of it, is that it is happening all of the time.  We are moving towards a sustainable future and so many of us understand the benefits that lie within ourselves and in the hidden geometry and complexity of nature and it is only a matter of time before real change can be seen within Atlanta and the United States as a whole.  The more Urban Gardens that fill vacant lawns and parking lots, the more farmers that fill the rural horizons of Georgia, the closer we come to embracing our “green thumbs,” our instincts, and our natural ability to nurture and take care of our resources and each other.  All is not lost and we are very close to a future that may allow us to leave this landscape in better shape than we found it for the children we raise and the lives they will one day lead without our guidance.  It is time to take value from the dollar bill, the clothing store, and the appliance outlet,  and apply it to the green things in our lives that are at risk of disappearing all together.  It is time to take this movement from a trend and turn it into a real way of living life.  It is time to support all farmers and growers who respect your health and the health of their land, everywhere.  You and I both may have little money, but we are powerful.  We have the perfect set of thumbs for the job and we can make change.  If we work together and recognize the biological world as kin, we can make things in our hearts, our forests, and in our gardens, grow as one.

The progress of Sun Dog Farm is somewhat incredible when viewing the pictures of the property before tines churned up the Earth and seedlings explored their way towards the sun.  The greenhouse we built from scratch has successfully raised hundreds of transplants, some now making their home in the deep, drip tape irrigated beds.  With little help from me, Elliot has put up an impressive deer fence that will protect our young growth from the devastating appetites of our four legged friends.  We’ve successfully converted a former chicken tractor into a mobile goat shelter and completed construction on our new, improved chicken mansion that is currently providing us with gorgeous eggs everyday and providing our chickens with high class shelter and fresh green grass.  Our direct seeded crops are starting to put on true leaves and we anticipate our newly established transplants to blow up after this quenching rain.  We’ve already spent long, hard hours out in the field building a farm and getting things growing this Spring and it finally feels like we’ve got this show on the road.

So what’s next?  Well, we’ll be selling our produce once again at the Peachtree Road Farmers Market every Saturday starting on April 9th.  We look forward to seeing all of those friendly, familiar faces of folks excited and inspired by food farmed with love.   Our first CSA drop off will occur May 4th and we’re anxious to share with our members the delicious results of their contributions to our farm.  We’ve got a lot to do between now and then and I look forward to many exhausting days met by beautiful dreams brewed from hard work and stars.  I’ve seen one or two fireflies at night and the host of migratory bird species have returned, all reminding me that before I know it the land will be lush and the heat will be on.  The beautiful chorus of frogs from the pond and the buzzing and clicking of returned insects has brought even the nighttime back to life.  We know that the return of warm weather not only brings about growth for our crops in the ground, but also the growth and life cycles of so many creatures, both helpful and harmful, and it is once again time to challenge ourselves to find balance in all of it.

We’ve been lucky enough to spend some evenings by our pond as the bats stir from their roosts and take to the night’s sky.  Discernible from birds by their flight patterns and wing strokes, they can be found bobbing and weaving through the air, their wings fluttering seemingly frantically as they scan the pond and fields for food.  They are an incredible companion to us here at the farm, consuming a third of their own body weight in insects every night.  This can be as much as 3000 mosquitoes in just one nighttime prowl.  Helping control our mosquitoes is a wonderful advantage to having a bat population in our ecosystem, but bats also eat many other insects such as beetles, moths, leafhoppers,  flies, gnats, and grasshoppers.  Many of these creatures themselves, or the larval stages of their life cycle, feed on our crops.  Helping support our bat population by growing food without the use of pesticides and leaving dead trees to stand as roosts helps us keep our pests in check.  What you learn when you start working with the cycles of nature is that the complete elimination of one problem does not cause resolution.  Generally in order to protect your plants from the harm of predators, you must view the problem holistically.  Many times this means balance in soil nutrients, balance in water and sunlight, and balance in pests and beneficial organisms.

Photo by John Lynch

While we delight in the presence of our unique furry fliers, the bat population of the United States is undergoing hardship that is not at all delightful.  More than a million bats have succumbed to an unusual illness now named White Nose Syndrome.  This illness, caused by a fungus, has been confirmed in 14 states and has affected nine known bat species.  When a bat catches White Nose Syndrome, a white fungus forms around the mouth and nose of the bat during hibernation.  This initial symptom leads to emaciation and ultimately starvation.  Theories suggest that the illness works in two ways.  First, the fungus initiates within the bat an immuno-response as the bat’s body attempts to fight off the fungus, which in turn forces the bat to metabolize more of its stored fats.  Second, the fungus may actually increase the amount of time that the bats are awake during times they are typically hibernating which can also lead to unnecessary metabolizing of food reserves within the body.  Generally this leads to bats consuming all of their stored nutrients before their hibernation period is over and they starve before they have a chance to wake up.   Other factors that have been said to exaggerate the harmful nature of the illness are, global warming which has changed the temperature in caves across the United States interrupting normal hibernation patterns, and the increased spraying of pesticides including Malathion which has also been said to affect the metabolic rates of bats.

White Nose Syndrome - Photo by SierraActivist.org

With the United States bat population in serious decline, it is time to start asking ourselves what we can do to aid this important creature and nurture the population back to health.  While we have already lost to extinction a host of exotic creatures you may have never heard of before, losing something as commonplace and symbolic as bats would not only be dangerous for the balance of our everyday insect pests and prey, it would also be shameful.  It is time to rid ourselves of our ridiculous fears of this “scary” bedtime creature and embrace them in our own backyards and farms.  If you don’t have a woodlot with scattered dead trees containing loose bark and holes, put up a Bat House mounted on your own house or on a pole in your yard.  Try to landscape your vegetable and flower gardens and lawns without the aid of synthetic fertilizers and chemical pest control.  Read about them and appreciate them; go out in the evening hours and marvel at their moonlit flights.  Just like all other life here on this planet there is a connection, a way to help this creature that will always in some way, also help us.

“I believe that there is a subtle magnetism in Nature, which, if we unconsciously yield to it, will direct us aright.” – Henry David Thoreau

Photo Credit: Animal Planet Online

Gene Stratton-Porter saw two of the last Passenger Pigeons in 1910 in captivity at the Cincinnati Zoological Gardens (the last Passenger Pigeon known to exist died in 1914.)  I could feel through her words what it must have felt like to look into their eyes knowing that they were the last and we were solely to blame.  The birds, a male and a female, never took to mating in captivity and both died shortly before their 30th year on Earth.  They probably did not “know” they were the last, in the way that humans with their analytical minds “know” things, but I do believe it is possible that their instincts instilled in them a sense of urgency that was at least uncomfortable.  Being an animal myself, it always bothers me when other humans state that animals cannot think.  While they may not be able to think in the same way our own brains function, it does not preclude their thinking at all.  We all evolved from the same soup and nerves firing, reaction to stimuli, need for the consumption of energy, and the desire for social interaction are things that much of us here, who are left on this planet, share.

Small Whorled Pogonia - Northern Georgia Mountains (endangered)

It unfortunately makes a lot of sense that the Passenger Pigeon has gone extinct along with a long list of other creatures who lived in competition with the human species.  Their numbers were so great that one stop at a farmer’s house and the entirety of the crop was diminished to stalks and bird droppings.  This being devastating when you were growing more of one crop than another and maybe not just for yourself but for others who intended on purchasing or trading for the good.  People on Earth during the time of the Passenger Pigeon outlived it, they found balance in the masses of birds and adjusted their practices to ensure their own survival.  As the human population has broadened and inhabited most every region on the planet, we have brought about a bottleneck of extinction.  Creatures are not only killed by our methods on the ground, in their own habitats, they are killed by the by products of our development which go on to affect biological communities far from the source of  the disturbance.  In the early 1900′s this was just a whisper of a problem, not acknowledged and not directly affecting the human species itself, thereby making it invisible.

Shiny-Rayed Pocketbook - Chatahoochee River (endangered)

Our over specialization and relinquishment of survival skills has not only made us incredibly vulnerable as a species on this planet to the failure of our own creations, it has enabled us to better manipulate our environment for our own needs.  There are people in our society given the time and resources to study subjects to their very core and determine how we can use more, crudely eliminate competition with nature, and manufacture products with and without true purpose.  These products, the vastness of our population, and the institutions of management we have created over them, have us all tied up with little time to evaluate the condition of the ground we stand on.  With almost no one personally growing food for themselves or their communities, our food system has reached such a grandiose scale that our only methods of controlling it have started to corrode the very soils and waterways we need to grow the food we eat.  Our reliance on human manufactured foodstuffs not in tune with nature has brought about a host of illnesses and diseases trying to fight off the imbalance of our species, but we have adapted in turn to stave them off.

Cherokee Darter - Etowah River System (endangered)

This is not simply about me being a free-loving “hippie” or simply about my sorrow over the loss of  beauty of the creatures that inhabit this complex planet.  The fact that Europe no longer has a Wolf or that Iran, Turkey, Tajikistan, China, and Afghanistan no longer live in fear and respect of the Caspian Tiger means nothing today in comparison to the faulty educational systems, the poor communities suffering injustices, and the over all modern human condition that is as complex and difficult as the environmental one.  But at what point does it become imperative that we pay attention?  Maybe losing the Polar Bears, the Blue Whales, migrating birds, the fisheries of the oceans, and the amphibians of the rain forest and your own backyard are not that important in a crude sense, but every being on this planet has been manifested from the energy transfers that have taken place here for millions of years.  This fabric of life has created all of the current environmental conditions that have enabled us to thrive.  As our chemicals and concrete spread their withering fingertips into the last existing natural spaces, we stand to lose the balancing forces that have been holding it all together.  Without trees, bees, bats, and heirloom vegetation, we also stand to lose even the crudest of necessities we get from our natural world to continue our own survival.

Loggerhead Sea Turtle - Georgia's Barrier Island Beaches (endangered)

Our ambition to recognize our biological community, to work within the cycles of the sun and moon and all forces that have sculpted all else here on planet Earth, and our respect and admiration of the commonplace bird or snake here at Sun Dog Farm does not simply come from a whimsical desire to “love freely.”  While I do know that my personal affections for the wilderness may root deep within me as love, it is that instinctual urgency I believe I feel.  We here at the farm are not free from blame; much of our day to day action contributes to the continued elimination of the world around us.  We are slaves to the economic and political systems of our species and we all must do what we can with the time we have to free ourselves and the planet from the clutches of waste.  I write these words today not because I do not recognize how incredibly consuming the stresses and problems of our modern world present to all of us each day.  I write these words because the situation is not at last out of our hands.

Red-Cockaded Woodpecker - Mature Pine Forests of Georgia (endangered)

Instead of watching television at night, go outside, even in the winter, and examine this world around you.  There are still plenty of organisms who can thrive within human disturbance and gracefully inhabit urban spaces.  Buy local, naturally grown foods not only because you have been taught they are healthier for you, but because you can acknowledge that they are healthier for all life.  Do not write off even the most meaningless or irritating living being as it has its place here on Earth and giving it the respect it deserves would lead you down a path more rewarding than knowing the coolest new band or the latest gossip about some wasteful celebrity.  Show animals to your children.  Teach them about how mosquitoes feed so many different species and that worms complete the incredible task of transforming life back into usable nutrients.  Try and create systems in your day to day that eliminate the need for over consumption.  Cultivate a sense of community and love those in your life as they are because love, understanding, personal action and patience are the only useful tools of change.

Indiana Bat - Northwest Georgia (endangered)

“In all civilizations man has cut down and consumed, but seldom restored or replanted, the forests.  In biblical times Palestine was lovely in foliage of palm, and the purpling grapes hung upon her lovely hillsides and gleamed in her fertile valleys like gems in the diadems of her princes.  But man, thoughtless of the future, careless of posterity, destroyed and replaced not; so, where the olive and the pomegranate and the vine once held up their luscious fruit for the sun to kiss, all now is infertility, desolation, desert, and solitude.  The orient is dead to civilization, dead to commerce, dead to intellectual development.  The orient died of treelessness.”

- J Sterling Morton (Founder of Arbor Day)

Being one day closer to Spring, everyday, is a little intimidating and mostly exciting all at the same time.  Our greenhouse has finally been dressed and newly sown seeds are pulsing with life in seedling trays, gently moving upward towards the nourishing rays of the sun.  The smell of soil, humidity, and a sharpie always cause us to reminisce of every Spring we’ve spent organizing energy and nurturing these tiny, miraculous life forms.  Some seeds are so similar and yet as they grow the diversity of their genetics turns the greenhouse into a miniature rain forest of so many different leaves and stems.  The tags denoting their varieties emerge from the greenery like poems, “Vulcan, Early Jersey Wakefield, Champion, Giant of Italy, Henderson’s Charleston, Vates, Dinosaur, Skyphos, Black Seeded Simpson, De Cicco,” and on and on and oh, it is just the beginning.

As I sip my tea, scratch my head, and type, I can hear rain falling with some urgency outside.  Rain has been a common companion here at the farm as of late and we can’t say that we’re too distraught about it.  The risen water table will hopefully contribute to a nice, lush Spring and help give our vegetables the life giving water they need to carry on into the hot, unforgivable days of Summer.  It has been; however, too wet to wander out into our growing space and begin sculpting the landscape into segments and rows in preparation for transplants and seeds.  Organization has been key in this newest operation of ours and Elliot and I have spent our fair share sitting in front of Microsoft Excell trying to figure out how we had deleted an entire column of crops or why half of the spreadsheet had become bold.  It is all a part of the process, every bit, and there is nothing more empowering than making something from scratch.

To be empowered.  My daily commutes to and from the City of Atlanta for my off season job have given me a unique perspective on modern human development.  I drive from way out of town, in the boonies where Sun Dog Farm makes its home.  I drive over landscape that quickly transforms from rolling hills and clusters of forest still hanging on into the strip malls and fast food chains that spill over the edge of Atlanta as its population over boils.  I get closer still to the perimeter and more lanes are added to the road, more elaborate concrete has been poured for on and off ramps, overpasses, and a sturdy median.  As I breach the perimeter I am finally at the belly, Downtown where the money is, or in a lot of cases was, and the flannel shirts and baseball caps quickly mutate into flashy suits, designer glasses, and a sales pitch.  It would all be too much for me (I would be thrilled to never look at a billboard again,) except that I get to do it all in reverse on my trip home.

And what of this city life?  I have never done well in a city setting; the weight of human reality always in my eyes and ears sends me into some serious fits of zombie.  Everywhere you look, there is something to be sold or bought, a mostly naked woman here, a familiar celebrity posing with their favorite milk shake there, the most crude and hollow examples of our civilization on display guiding us and our youth further down the road.  It is complicated and complex, constantly changing, yet so much remaining dangerously the same.  Atlanta is just a city like others, facing the same problems, overcoming similar obstacles, but there is this one thing that keeps bringing me back.  It would be easy for me to write off the entire city of Atlanta, except for one thing: Food.

Food has always been the great peace maker in my life. Now the uniting forces of food are swiftly taking over small sections of the city where empowered and beautiful minds gather to go outside of the boundaries of modern culture and economy and stretch the limits of a “normal” city life. Rashid Nuri at Truly Living Well Urban Natural Farm, Joe Reynolds at Love is Love Farm at Gaia Gardens, Oakhurst Community Garden Project, Dunwoody Community Garden, and the increasing numbers of Farmers Markets and other growing spaces around the city are contributing greatly to awareness and the access of those in the city to healthy, sustainable food. I urge you to run to these places immediately and get involved!  Restaurants have also become savvy to the desire of their customers for thoughtful food and the importance of supporting those who grow it. Some of our favorite and, in our opinion, most influential Chefs in the food movement include; Steven Satterfield of Miller Union, Joshua Hopkins of Abbitoir, Todd Mussman of Muss and Turner’s, Kevin Ouzts of Spotted Trotter, Thomas McKeown of the Grand Hyatt, and arguably the most revolutionary of the bunch, Chef Linton and Gina Hopkins of Restaurant Eugene, Holeman and Finch, H&F Bread Co, and H&F Bottle Shop. These individuals have spent their lives sculpting not only incredible foods, but incredible food pathways. As a food conscious human of Atlanta, I urge you to put down the taco bell, save up your pennies, and support these businesses because they have made it their business to support people like us.

“The greatest delight the fields and woods minister is the suggestion of an occult relation between man and the vegetable.  I am not alone and unacknowledged.  They nod to me and I to them.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

This year, the first official year of Sun Dog Farm, will be one of great hardship and tiny battles won.  With every person who grabs a CSA share or purchases Kohlrabi at the Farmers Market, a person, a couple, an entire family may be fed clean food whose roots dug deep into a landscape nurtured and replenished.  The hearts and minds of our nation are currently being redesigned as more individuals are becoming aware of our devastating food system.  More people want to feed their children the best of what’s around.  More people bring their own bags to the supermarket or even teach themselves the skills to avoid utilizing the supermarket or drug store.  The year 2011 should be embraced by all as the year to reclaim our world from the clutches of wasteful consumerism, malicious advertising, and fear mongering and start moving into an age of self reliance, community, and grace.

All of this change requires an immense amount of patience.  Humans beings do not purposely cause harm to each other and their world around them, for the most part.  Much of the change we have to muster within ourselves needs to be spread to others through vigorous education and empowerment.  We are only as strong as our weakest links and we must do our part in picking up those who have fallen into despair due to the excess of others.  This is made ever more complicated with the value system put in place by the highest rungs of the economic food chain.  We need to take the time to educate individuals (without expecting an economic return) as to what is really important and necessary in a lifetime and guide all of us toward a more simple, responsible lifestyle.  It won’t be easy or fun and there will be failure  and an awful lot of resistance along the way, but it will be the sort of challenge whose rewards are so sweet, they will slowly enrich the quality of all life on Planet Earth.

As for Sun Dog Farm, 2011 has already held several wins and losses.  The epic ice storm that closed down the City of Atlanta for a week locked us within our little homestead on the farm and made for some pretty mentally exhausting planning and plotting.  All the time spent nestled in the belly of our property gave us the opportunity to continue to explore our own self sufficiency and the weaknesses we feel we have as stewards of this landscape.  Big plans hatched, re-hatched, erased, and blossomed into ideas that will either lead us to victory or teach us some serious lessons.  The snow and ice keeping us from straying too far out of our county gave us the time to enjoy and learn from those in our wonderful community.  The ice has prevented us from planting onions, turned our goats and sheep into ice skaters, and caused our chickens to eat some serious feed.  Our lack of current income made it impossible for us to cover our greenhouse with plastic just before the ice hit, saving us from having to manage or replace plastic during the storm.  I don’t know that there is a real balance to it all, but there certainly is an enchanting rhythm to aligning your life with that of the natural world.

Times have been pretty tough at the farm as our anxiousness for spring grows and our vegetable plot gently hibernates.  Driving home from Tagyerit Farm, owned and operated by the wonderful Michael and Mary Elizabeth Shoptaw (and their adorable son,) I distinctly remember feeling that inner peace that we all seem to be endlessly searching for.  Something about being around so many good people who love all life on Earth and have made it their personal goal to defend and support it connects all the dots in my soul.  The sun was setting over the white glazed pastures, brilliant pink reflecting from horizon to footstep.  I remember squeezing Elliot’s hand and recalling the amazing number of Meadowlarks I had seen earlier in the day.  It’s not perfect this life of ours, but my goodness is it beautiful.

“I find hope in the darkest of days, and focus in the brightest. I do not judge the universe.” – His Holiness the Dalai Lama

Now please, don’t get me wrong.  I appreciate little more than a clever gift, well thought out and useful (or beautifully crafted.)  Christmas may be the only time that Elliot and I get items we are too self righteous to buy for ourselves.  It’s just the magnitude of the whole affair.  So much waste and consumption of resources is designated to this holiday that supposedly (having a few different origins) celebrated life and goodwill towards men (and my god, women too), none of which having much to do with spending as much money as you can on cheaply made products not meant to withstand the test of time.  I am certainly no authority on religion or the practices therein, but I do notice how convenient it must be to go from celebrating a uniting spirit and giving to those in need to celebrating a fat man in a red suit who is willing to give you anything and everything you want, all at once.  Have yourself a merry little indulgence!

I’m not pointing fingers here, it is very satisfying seeing someone’s face (especially children) light up over a gift.  This holiday ritual has also been going on for a very long time.  But what does Christmas really mean to us?  The reason so many of us are drawn to purchasing gifts, and wrapping paper, ribbons and tape is because of the love we share for those near and dear.  The obvious rush of adrenaline that takes over the minds and intentions of people Christmas shopping is a clear sign that our industrialized society has a significant hold on us.  As long as the fat cats who’ve manipulated our resources for the best quality of life money can afford them can rely on targeting our citizens through flashy advertising and ritzy products, they will do so.  They will do so at the expense of human beings, the environment, and those trying to enforce strict codes of conduct for the safety of our Nation’s people.  Now if there is any pattern worth obscuring with love, it’s this one!

I’m not saying if your mom buys you a car for Christmas you should give her a crappy Christmas card you made out of bark and sap, either.  I’m not saying you should do away with Christmas gifts and give your expectant children hugs and haikus when they come down to an empty tree.  I’m just encouraging all to ponder the idea of “Less.”  Try to buy less products so that you can spend more of your money on higher quality items made to last.  Try to buy products that have traveled less of a distance to reach your Christmas Tree.  Try to buy less paper and plastic to adorn your packages and household while thinking of creative ways to recycle materials or try and make your decorations yourself.  Select a Christmas tree from a farm whose practices involve less of an impact on the surrounding landscape.

The ultimate less is trying to come up with Christmas presents that are handmade by you!  Just because the elves working hard in Santa’s workshop at Nike can churn out a product that seems inconceivable to design does not mean that you with your normal human hands have to make poorly put together handmade goods.  There are several incredible things you can make with your own two hands that are beautiful and desirable.  There are many ancient skills lost to the everyday American who has grown up in the age of convenience.  If you need help coming up with some ideas, send me an email..  I have loads.  My family will undergo the joys of Darby and Elliot creations whether they are ready for them or not!

But really.  Beyond the spending, the less, the more, the here, or the there, Christmas is about celebrating the people in your life that keep your heart warm through the chilly winter.  It’s about giving back to those who have given so much to you.  It is a Holiday that exists only in your heart and it can mean as much or as little to you as you choose.  No matter what you get or give, I hope that you embrace those crazy people in your family and show them how they’ve all helped see you through to Christmas Day.

“Good workmanship-that is, careful, considerate, and loving work-requires us to think considerately of the whole process, natural and cultural, involved in the making of wooden artifacts, because the good worker does not share the industrial contempt for “raw material.”  The good worker loves the board before it becomes a table, loves the tree before it yields the board, loves the forest before it gives up the tree.  The good worker understands that a badly made artifact is both an insult to its user and a danger to its source.” –Wendell Berry

We’ve decided to divide our acres into five zones.  These zones will cycle through the different seasons allowing all companion plants to live harmoniously together and move together to help manage pests and soil health.  Wherever there is a bare patch of growing space not in use, we hope to have cover crop coming up to ensure that no part of our farm is lacking in life and nourishment.  We will be making all of our own compost from animals who eat grasses, hays, and other natural forage in our region.  In a Biodynamic frame of mind, we feel it is important for the manure we compost to come from animals who have fed on vegetation in our area.  This ensures that the vegetation digested and turned into nutrients are grown in and decomposed in a similar atmospheric and soil climate.  While we do not create enough manure with our animals to make compost for our entire growing space, they will be contributing their gifts to the 10 ton load we will receive in the coming weeks.  The compost will be divided into groups and turned and added to with the pile set aside for the spring planting getting the most attention.

Along with turning the compost pile, adding alfalfa for the nitrogen and protein that catalyze the heat, and our own garden and kitchen scraps undesirable to our chickens and goats, we will be using the Biodynamic preparations 500 – 508 on our pile and in our fields.  Biodynamic preparations are generally elemental combinations from natural herbs and nutrients, highly diluted in water, made holistically and applied to compost, plants, and earth in sprays.  Each preparation is made in a different way in relation to the physical, spiritual, and cosmic influences of our planet and universe.  Preparations 500, 501, and 508 are sprays used directly in the field.

Photo by Anthony Masterson

BD prep 500 is applied directly to soil and helps soil activity produce a healthy humus by facilitating the relationship of carbon, calcium, and silica to oxygen and nitrogen.  This preparation is said to be the nervous system of the soil environment just as these elemental relationships are said to sculpt the nervous system, intelligence, and consciousness of human beings.  BD prep 501 works as a direct compliment to 500 and can be applied as a foliage spray or directly into the soil.  It is not beneficial to spray 501 without previously spraying 500.  BD prep 501 is said to enhance the taste, overall disease and pest resistance, and nutritional value of crops.  It is also said to help stimulate fruit and seed formation.  BD Prep 508 can be sprayed on compost or directly onto the foliage of plants.  This preparation is used to control the watery growth of plants that makes plants more susceptible to diseases.  When plants grow too lush, such as can commonly be seen in tomatoes, they are more likely to catch illness especially in damp conditions.  508 is made by boiling the herb horsetail in water or allowing to steep in the sun (as a sun tea) and collecting the extract to be diluted as needed in clean rain water.

The BD Compost preps 502-507 all have individual attributes that help enhance the proliferation of soil life and bacteria useful in accelerating the breakdown of organic matter.  BD prep 502 purifies the soil, BD prep 503 digests and assimilates nutrients, BD prep 504 energizes the soil, BD prep 505 utilizing calcium creates strong soil and strong plants, BD prep 506 eliminates obstructions that make nutrients difficult for plants to absorb, and BD prep 507 serves as the warmth within the soil and can be used as a foliar spray to protect against late frosts.  All of these preparations have strict guidelines for application depending on weather, time of year, and amount to be applied.

While many see Biodynamics as an overly spiritual, somewhat fantastical way to view life on Earth, it is very evident to the two of us that there is nothing silly or outrageous about viewing the entirety of life on Earth and the forces beyond as constantly influencing one another.  The world we live in can be broken down into single elements and everything is made up of these pieces and parts.  Their relationship to us and how we work is similar to the way they act in other organisms, in soils and rocks, and in the atmosphere.  It comes as no surprise to us that the spiritual world and science are not completely separate but two explanations and experiences of the same phenomenon.

“All of nature begins to whisper its secrets to us through its sounds. Sounds that were previously incomprehensible to our soul now become the meaningful language of nature.” – Rudolf Steiner

As my emotions orbit the upcoming holiday festivities of Thanksgiving and Christmas, the farm continues to get ready for the cool down.  Our crops in Douglasville are starting to slow as our cover crop in Buckhead is starting to grow.  Rows have been skillfully tilled and shoveled into perfectly straight lines by Elliot and garlic will soon make its  home in the soft, fluffy soil.  The beds will be mulched with hay and (fingers crossed) there will be garlic to harvest following winter as the world begins to warm.  The animals are all putting on their winter coats and fences are being mended to welcome their arrival onto our new land.  The blissful act of chopping wood accompanied by the meticulous building of fires in our fireplace have taken the edge off the slowly cooling weather.  Clouds of blackbirds have been dancing for us over the open fields mimicking the bee swarms of the summer.  Their cackling and conversations fill the air as they land in the treeline of our home.  Our homestead continuously smells of hardy meals of greens and roots devoured quickly in hopes of staying warm through the night.

Much of my time during this activity lull is spent spinning the pounds of wool collected from this year’s fleece harvest.  There is nothing more meditative to me than sitting on the back porch in the golden hue of fall with wool running through my fingers.  Elliot and I have a lot of planning to do with both our plants and animals in the spring.  We will be elbows deep in more wool, goat’s milk, lambs and kids, chickens, vegetables, and hopefully two piglets for the chest freezer.  We are currently crafting a plan to can all the vegetables we will need for next winter throughout next year’s growing season.  We are still working through the kinks of our CSA as members are beginning to show interest in signing up.  There is still more advertising to do and more families to add to the list of families we hope to provide wonderful food for.  So much to do, such a short window of opportunity, and all I can do is hurry up and wait!

These cool weather days spent indoors are often accompanied by smothering ponderings both positive and negative.  Lately I have been so lost in thoughts that it feels like the “real” world is spinning by without me.  There is always so much to consider when trying to process the endless list of problems human beings face on this planet and within our own society.  Often, these thoughts lead me in a very hopeless direction as the negatives collect and churn into a bad attitude.  In all of this hopelessness, I have found sanctuary in the spirit of children.  One will recognize quickly after spending time with a child that evil, hatred, greed, and intolerance are not embedded into the DNA of human beings born.  All attributes of humanity are learned and just as easily learned are the guiding forces of compassion, a love for the natural world, and the desire to love and nurture other human beings.  This desire to only do good is easily complicated by the demands of a modern world and I would encourage all to embrace the child like desire to love and do good work throughout our day to day.

“Those who dwell among the beauties and mysteries of the earth are never alone or weary of life.” – Rachel Carson

Bell

Our transition to the new property is nearly real as we intend to move the limited furniture we have and our chickens from the camper in Douglasville to our house in Morgan County next week. With the little that we own, it will likely feel as though we are camping inside the large, spacious house. Like a broody hen I have developed nesting fever, endlessly pondering the placement of items utilitarian and decorative. At our usual stops in hardware stores I find myself looking at lamps and light fixtures and considering the ambiance each would add to particular rooms or how they would look against the somewhat outdated textures and color schemes of the house. Most of these thoughts are just dreamings as Elliot and I have no intention of buying anything new and our home will be made of recycled goods of all kinds donated or discovered and acquired very slowly.

As the cooler weather sweeps into our lives we realize that like most things in nature, it is time to slow down. With no fields of vegetables to tend to this winter, our energy will be spent planning out our growing space, fixing up our home, planning out the lambing and kidding season, spinning wool, writing, reading, collecting CSA members, meditating, and reviving our bodies and minds with plentiful rest. This work we do to the point of exhaustion comes with no economic gain and many capitalist headaches, but the lifestyle we live and the community we contribute to everyday is invaluable.  With every step taken towards our own self sufficiency, I know that I am learning from experience and rattling ancient wisdom from the soil with my own two hands.

“The problem is that man’s conquest of the world has itself devastated the world. And in spite of all the mastery we’ve attained, we don’t have enough mastery to stop devastating the world–or to repair the devastation we’ve already wrought. We’ve poured our poisons into the world as though it were a bottomless pit–and we go on gobbling them up. It’s hard to imaging how the world could survive another century of this abuse, but nobody’s really doing anything about it. It’s a problem our children will have to solve, or their children.” – Daniel Quinn

Yesterday I went to the Field of Greens Festival and celebrated life and food with all my favorite friends, chefs, farmers, and met so many new, incredible human beings.  I ate incredibly well, drank incredible brews made by the masterful, Mike Lorey from his Folsy Brews Collection, and laughed so hard and so often that today my face is sore.  It is absolutely wonderful being surrounded by individuals who are empowered to care about good food grown and cooked the right way.  I felt so much love as I drifted from one conversation to the next that when it was time to leave I could feel my spirit trying to cling to the left over feelings of peace.  I had some trouble sleeping last night (likely due to the quantity of brews I was given) and it left my mind to wanderings of why it all felt so good.  After hours of thinking and laying in the darkness, listening to the gentle hum of the bustling city outside, I decided it was time to start my journey.

My journey is not a physical one; it is not a journey with a clear, finite destination.  My journey is a spiritual one where I will attempt to become a more positive being.  I have been doing some reading lately that has influenced me to truly believe in the power of positive energy and the betterment of the world through the betterment of ones self.  The Field of Greens Festival was pure positivity from every source and it only leaves you to wonder why human beings can be so destructive to one another where there is the opportunity to be so good.  Food and beer definitely help, but honestly I believe more days can be spent with a smile on our faces and a helping hand extended to those who need it.  Being a very sarcastic human being is part of my charm (yes, I said charm) but I know that my sarcasm consistently borders on cynicism.  This fall, next year, this life I am going to attempt to go through a huge attitude shift.

This is not an easy thing for me to do, as Elliot has noted I am somewhat of a “Hater.”  Not that I actually hate things, just that it is part of me to poke fun at the silly mishaps and shortcomings of life and the pursuits therein.  I think that a little bit of that goes a long way and too much of it can definitely lead to a bad attitude problem, which is where I believe I find myself sometimes.  I can be harsh, unforgiving, and I can feel hopeless and helpless in situations where there is so much that can be done.  With this journey I want to latch onto the positive forces in my life and make a change for myself and the world that surrounds me.  I want to approach every situation with an honest heart and always try to be understanding before I am critical.  Love will be my motivation and I hope to give it to those whom I am fortunate enough to cross paths with in this life of mine.

This is where I need your help.  Being a cranky Yankee makes this a very hard and nearly impossible feat.  I will need a lot of positivity in my world to be able to map out the personality changes I am hoping to go through.  I need to be taught good forms of meditation and or ways to naturally, holistically curb stress.  I would also appreciate book recommendations which are always useful when trying to create a new reality for yourself.  I want to purify my diet, once again, and will need help fighting the urges to consume the occasional sugary delight or savory snack.  Mostly though, I hope that many of you will consider taking this journey with me.  Positivity is another part of our lives where a little goes a long way.  Maybe the next time some Atlanta driver cuts you off on I-285 instead of flicking them off you hope for their safety and think about how you could become a more careful, conscious driver.  The next time you’re at your favorite dining spot and your waitress is rude, you meet her with an equal amount of love in hopes that she will feel better and her service will improve for others.  Or you can just have fun by telling me to put down the hamburger I am about to stuff in my face.

I know that my move back out of the city and onto the new farm in November will drastically help my pursuits towards peace.  Elliot and I will be spending the day today preparing our acre garden plot at Sun Dog Farm in hopes of throwing out some cover crop seed this week.  The farming community of Buckhead, Georgia is full of love and only part of the wonderful collection of people I get to interact with everyday within this food movement.  I am lucky that I have them on my side, a beautiful plot of land to farm and live, wonderful plants and animals to raise and eat, and a beautiful, passionate human being to share it all with.  There is so much good in this world that there is no room for a bad attitude, anyway.  Let’s change the social climate of our world this week and be good to one another.