The Way To The Farm
At no time in recent history have so many young people expressed an interest in becoming farmers, and not just any kind of farmer. They want a hands-on life amidst biological diversity, health and splendor. If you haven’t anything to offer them in their pursuit of this dream best get out of the way because they are coming through!
PLOWING ON CAMPUS
Lise Hubbe of Scio, Oregon travelled to Evergreen State College and did a couple of days worth of demonstrations with her Belgian team. Many people were enthralled to hear her speak and watch her work. The Sustainable Farming at Evergreen features the oldest organic farm existing on a college campus. Photo by Paul Hunter
AQUAPONICS RESEARCH
On August 1st Lynn Miller went to Evergreen State College in Olympia and visited the aquaponics research project of Jessica Schilke. The experiment entails recycling water through fish tanks and into a long tank featuring floating plant trays. Yellow Perch will be used. Miller is expecting to use parts of the interview in an upcoming installment of Farm Drum Radio as well as a transcription in an upcoming issue of SFJ. Photo by Paul Hunter. For more information visit Jessica Schilke’s website at www.greenaquaponics.org
WE ARE THE LANDSCAPE
To say we are small farmers is to say something very important. We are not miners. We are stewards. We are not users. We are husbands. We practise farming methods which retain water and build soils. We embrace low impact approaches to working because of the smaller ‘footprint’ but also because it suits our economy. We don’t poison. We refresh. We harvest with hand and eye and we distribute the same way. We walk our fields and gardens and ‘look’ at them and into them because we want to know them. And we want to know that land because from the knowledge come the right answers to problems and opportunities. We are not factory workers. We are shepherds. We are not tacticians or economists or efficiency experts. We are parents, lovers, artists, and gardeners. We are not landscape architects. We are the landscape. We are not theologians. We are the religion. We are not destroying the planet we are healing her. We are small farmers. – LM
BREATHERS:
Diversified small farming offers breathing spaces, days and weeks that may serve to set the blossoms and sweeten the rhythms of the year. Waiting times between one crop and another, one planting, tilling or harvest and the next. Times you might depend on to get the mower lubed and sharpened, times when you’ll find the leisure to do a good job on that head gasket or those brakes. Times you might remember to scout that other path which is why you craved to be your own boss in the first place. Time to bang out that next chapter on the novel, or locate a source for those calves you’ll want to feed in the fall, or find a few odd moments to work out the harmonies to that new tune on the fiddle. Every life needs such quiet interludes, such way stations at intervals that may expand or contract, yet help keep us afloat, complete and at ease with our larger fuller selves. Farming is not in competition with those other impulses, and allows us to mingle meaningful work and occasional play without worrying the process overmuch. Paul Hunter
PULLING SPLINTERS:
Remove a splinter easily (especially on small kids) by applying a paste of baking soda and water to the spot, then waiting ten to twenty minutes for the splinter to begin pushing its way out of the skin. Till you can grab its “handle” with your tweezers. With kids you can use a bandaid to help them leave it alone while the baking soda works. Often this will do the trick without undue digging and pain. — PH
