Just thinking this morning about how farming gives ALL the feels - some very spacious highs and some very low deeps. It’s important to turn toward the appreciation, light, and joy, and give those space to live and grow. And to put the frustrations and disappointments into a smaller box so their presence doesn’t crowd out happiness. And to hold all those feelings simultaneously.
We are at the beginning of the end of the year now. Bringing in the harvest. Reckoning with our mistakes. Thinking about how to do it better next time. This is a growth time of year for a farmer, since what we’ve wrought and brought to fruition, literally, is plain to see. And ways that we’ve lost control and gone to weeds and tangle are also clear. This year we’ve harvested more and lost control less than we have in the past - which feels like a win even if it is 2 steps forward and 1 step back.
When I say “we” it’s because this whole farm enterprise is a team effort, requiring the labor and ingenuity of a bunch of us who are learning together how to be better farmers and better humans.
And that aspect of learning together, trying to hoe in the same direction, coming together as a team to do something larger than ourselves and gathering a community around us is maybe the most important part of all of this.
I can see that we need more people who are farmers in this country and we need more diverse skills, backgrounds, and voices here to have the food system that we need. As a country we’ve made some terrible mistakes in the past that have disproportionately affected Black farmers and it’s time to learn and grow in a better direction, and make forward action that leads to real equity and freedom from oppression.
In Washtenaw County right now there is a fund started, trying to raise $50K to support the needs of Black farmers for resources and access to land. It’s a small but important avenue toward building the kind of food system that we need for the future and also for righting past wrongs.
My hope is that supporting actions like this makes a way to learn from the awful mistakes of the past, and a path through the tangle and the harm that’s been done to Black farmers specifically. It’s a way to evolve and create the future that we need.
Join Slow Farm in making a donation to the Washtenaw County Black Farmers Land Fund here: http://gofund.me/54b18d51
Or send a check to: Nonprofit Enterprise at Work (Note WCBFF)
1100 N. Main St., Ann Arbor, MI 48104