Growing Roots and Farmers
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by Joanna Letz/ PNN Heaven and Earth Farm My first experience in a garden was in my grandpa's yard. Zucchini and cucumber vines going wild, yellow flowers everywhere. Honey bees and tree houses. This mysterious, magical garden my grandpa kept. Big compost pile I heard once caught fire. My grandpa kept growing tomatoes on his porch until he passed away at 94. It was to my grandpa I thought of as I journeyed to working on an organic vegetable farm in the Sierra foothills. As a grand daughter of Eastern-European Jews, and a grand daughter of holocaust survivors, my connection to a cultural identity has mostly been based on a history of victim-hood. Many of the healing traditions of my grandmothers and great-grandmothers have been lost. I feel now is the time for me to reconnect with these lost traditions as well as other rich cultural knowledge and herstories about agriculture, wild foods and herbs, and how to take care of myself and those around me. The time I got to spend with my grandpa in his garden was transformative; peaceful and magical. The time I spent seeing my grandma knead her dough for cookies and cakes, and chop onions for soups, I was at ease. Now, with my grandpa passed and my grandma no longer able to make her sweets and barley soups, I must turn, look back and try to re-member what has been lost, but not totally forgotten. Food has always been about bringing people together. Food is our health, nutrition, connection, and love. The kitchen, the farm, and the plants and trees around us, our environment, and our bodies, need to come back into the forefront of our movement building, and our lives. A world we can sustain- with our hands in the soil and fresh greens and carrots on our tongues and in our bellies. With the continuing growth in cities, and growth in agri-business and massive mono-cropped farms people are more and more disconnected from nourishing traditions and foods. The constant assault and harassment by police and corporate culture of poor communities and communities of color who are struggling to keep traditional healing and ways of being alive is a crime against humanity. Now is a time to create another vision and look to those struggling to keep other ways of knowing alive and be the alternative to a culture of commodification, of grocery stores, shopping malls, and highways. We have strayed far from our intuitive selves and we need to come back home to our bodies and traditions. Every person, child, mother, father, sister should have the opportunity to experience life on a farm. The daily routine; getting up with the sun, feeding the chickens, watering the plants, playing in the dirt, weeding, and weeding, the repetition, and meditation. Shoveling compost, preparing beds, transplanting and fertilizing. Watching as seeds germinate and take root. Contemplating food, nourishment, seasons, and our health and well-being. Sitting between beds of beets and carrots, beet greens courageously reaching for the sun, and carrot roots just below the surface. Winters nearness in fall greens- blanket of cabbage, broccoli, fennel, collards, and kale. Working outside in the soil something magical is happening all the time. Watching bees and flowers, hearing birds cry, listening to our heart-beats, and seeing seeds sprout. In the first few months I was at Heaven and Earth farm I felt like the little kid again in my grandpa's garden. I never imagined that what I planted in the ground would actually grow. Taking a moment to stare at a corn stalk, the silk pollinated and dry, the cob, the female ovary beginning to take shape. Nature is abundant. Watching the life-cycles of plants. Flowers opening and closing. Learning the relationships between plants; Cucurbitaceae- winter squash and melons. The brassica family- the mustards, cabbage, kale, collard greens, broccoli. The Aster family- complex flowers. The mallow family, Malvaceae- cotton, tobacco, and okra. Learning about the soil, and compost. The evening sky at the farm filled with stars, planets, galaxies, questions, patterns, and imaginative creatures. Standing tall, the morning sun, stars and dreams in my eyes. Looking out over mountains, questioning and balancing time and space. Rising up like a wild fire, growing, sustained and cooled by the constant flow of blood, water, oxygen, nutrients, love. Goddess corn stalks. California grasses. Back in the earth, the rhythms, the cycles, the sun and moon, stars and clouds. Back in my body, my home. The joy, and the hard work, the dance around the blueberry patch, the taste of just picked vegetables, smells of cooking oil and garlic and fresh greens. The sheer delight you just want to jump and kick and scream, and dance. In a time of much instability what matters most? At the end of the day all we have is ourselves and those around us, our family, the trees, the living, breathing soil, and sky. The seasons change and we change. In the Bay Area, with so much talk about local foods and green products we have to actually start living in a radically different way. As Frank Cook says, it's not about food miles, but food feet. We have to eat from our backyards. Let's celebrate the seasons, the harvests and moon cycles. Demand that all communities have farmer's markets- farm stands, and gardens. What's the point in elitist style clubs that only talk about organics for the people who can afford it. Every home needs a space to grow herbs and roots, tomatoes, and lettuce. The sidewalks could be turned into a farm. Manufactured lawns could be rows of greens and berries. Every home needs a compost pile. Every block a chicken coop and milking goats. Every block, a community farm and garden space. Kids and grandparents, mothers and fathers could be inspired by the bees, by the zucchini flowers. Who knew plant sex could be so exciting? Instead of putting money for more walls and bars, lets demand money for gardens and education. Dismantle the concrete separating us from the soil and the food we eat. We need to support more people to work on farms like Heaven and Earth and share in the knowledge and lifestyle of growing our own food. Just as the saying goes, "it takes a village to raise a child," I believe it takes a village to raise a farm. Farmers work a lot and get paid a little. Many farms, especially the ones run by large corporations are employing "guest-workers" or undocumented workers who are working extremely hard jobs and getting paid nothing, and not even being recognized for the work they are doing. The "farm" - the food we eat, needs to come back into the hands of everyone. We can supplement what we eat from the farms with wild foods like acorns, mushrooms, fruits, and whatever is around us. Lets demand more produce stands and grocery stores in neighborhoods cut off from the talk of green and local, like West Oakland. We need to bridge the gaps between Berkeley residents who daily have access to fresh, local produce, and residents of West Oakland for whom the world of organics is worlds away, caught somewhere between liquor stores, freeway's, elitist slow food movements, and a culture hooked on discussing the newest food fad without making it accessible. Let's not just talk about the best carrot of the year, or the newest heirloom bean, but about how to bring this goodness to everyone. Let's boycott the big grocery stores and challenge them to bring the produce and stores to low-income communities. Support organizations that are trying to bridge the gaps, like People's Grocery, City Slickers Farm, and the Free Farm Stand in the Mission. As I journey back to the city, the rows of cabbage and broccoli, turn into rows of cars, and freeways, rows of lights, and telephone wires, billboards, and TV screens and screams. What are we growing here in the city? What are we growing inside ourselves and in the ground? The chatter drowning out our intuitive selves our knowledge we were handed down to us- from our mamaz, the mitochondria in our cells. Lets drown the chatter, the noise, with our heart-beats, our dances, our roots, as groups gather to re-member our traditions. As POOR magazine and others creates space for elders to tell their stories and teach their traditions. Well-being. Taking care of each other and ourselves and realizing the abundance around us of all we need to live, love, nourishment, fruit, vegetables, music, song, building materials, water. Redefining the world we find ourselves in. Refusing to accept the culture of fear and of scarcity. Taking care of each other and ourselves, learning about the plants around us, about how to build, how to sing, how to heal, how to cook nourishing meals. This is culture. This is well-being, life, living. Organizations like POOR magazine are creating new ways, and building upon old ways of being in the world. POOR through community newsroom and the vision of homefulness project is working to bring people together to share knowledge, stories, healing medicine, and food. POOR is speaking, and reporting on another way of living that is constantly under pressure from corporate media, gentrification, and the prison industrial complex. From the streets of Oakland to Gaza, we are demanding justice and demanding a right to live in peace- and in harmony with our intuitive selves and ancestral and cultural knowledge. Take the time, and money if you have it, to support the farms and gardens in your area, make one in your backyard or on your sidewalk. Please consider making a donation to POOR Magazine’s HOMEFULNESS project which is a sweat-equity co-housing project, multi-generational, multi-lingual school and small sustainable farm for houseless families . Checks can be sent to: 2940 16th Street, #301, San Francisco, 94103. Or call: (415) 863-6306 Check out Tiny's article- Is it true that a healthy body is a wealthy body? Resources and Links: San Francisco/u> Other Educational Farming/Outdoor programs for kids: Farming apprenticeship websites: Other Resources: Books |