By Adam Kramer
Published in March 2020
For those of us whose livelihoods are tied to the seasons, winter, while far from idle, is a time for reflection, planning, learning, and rest. Our last season bore many hallmarks of success: 150 share members receiving weekly allotments of the harvest; 6 engaged and hardworking interns labouring alongside multitudes of engaged and hardworking volunteer gardeners; a 7% increase in crop yields; reduced weed and watering pressures as the result of years of diligent work and honing our craft; a season characterized by abundance and delight though not without trials and misfortunes.
Indeed, we have begun describing most seasons as “average” – reflecting that when conditions disfavour one aspect of our work, they tend to favour another, and, while great care is practiced in managing our relationships with people and with the land, most things tend to work out in the end (even when they don’t). But describing our work as average belies its complexity and rather exceptional nature!
Consider Wendell Berry’s list of agrarian values and characteristics, which are found in the introduction to his latest work, “The Art of Loading Brush”. As you read them, consider how they are reflected in your own life and how pertinent they may be in an era typified by change and uncertainty.
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An elated, loving interest in the use and care of the land.
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An informed and conscientious submission to nature.
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The wish to have and to belong to a place of one’s own, as the only secure source of sustenance and independence.
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A persuasion in favor of economic democracy; a preference for enough over too much.
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Fear and contempt of waste of every kind, and its ultimate consequence in land exhaustion.
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A preference for saving rather than spending.
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An assumption of the need for a subsistence or household economy.
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An acknowledged need for neighbors, and a willingness to be a good neighbor.
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A living sense of the need for continuity of family and community life.
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Respect for work, and (as self-respect) for good work.
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A lively suspicion of anything new, contradicting the ethos of consumerism and the cult of celebrity.
As we work to nurture human relationships within our community, while navigating the relationship between human industry and the natural world, our garden is a place where these values, rooted in ecology and place, are lived and practiced with all their complexity, messiness, and nuance. Another chance to explore them will soon be upon us, since spring will be here before we know it!
