Change at the Root

This has been a frustratingly wet and cold spring, where I dash outside for a few minutes only to see the sun vanish and rain or snow or hail start to fall once more. But Sunday, I really did get a very nice ray of spring sunshine. Earlier this year, I met a couple of people who belonged to an urban homesteading group that had recently formed. They took a cheesemaking workshop I taught and I asked if I could join the group. I attended the meeting this Sunday and I was thrilled. I have been raising all or nearly all of my food on my small acreage for more than twenty years and I've grown discouraged by the general obliviousness of the average American. Food comes from the store, you buy what you want, who cares where it comes from? That seems to finally be changing. The artisnal food movement, slow food, awareness of carbon and climate impact....all these seem to be coming together to make a lot of people more aware of their connection...or lack of it....to the earth. We are what we eat, and we have given up control of that over the past century. I see some initial steps toward changing that in the growing interest in wild or sustainably grown crops, CSA, and the like. In this group of people I was, as I said, thrilled to find folk who lived in the city and were searching for a way to grow at least a bit of their own food. They were looking for connections -- a bit of unused ground for a garden, connection to a local person who'd raise a meat animal for them, a way to network and share a surplus of apples, or figs, or plums.

You know, this represents a step away from the oblivious consumer mindset that we have gotten ourselves into. Work work work to buy buy buy. It's a vicious circle and one that is, I believe, undermining our economy dangerously. Look at the credit crash. It could get a lot worse. I am doing a lot of thinking about how to establish some kind of network so that, say, elderly folk in their residential homes who are losing control of their yards as they get frail can connect with a young couple who will trade weeding and pruning labor in return for space to put in a small garden. This is a rich opportunity to see some change at the grass roots level. There's hope for us yet, folks!