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| Tomatoes come in all shapes and colors. |
Hello Moon Bears!
Farm Update:
The bee hedge is laid out and ready for planting on 4/22. It is a five hundred feet long with stakes for trees set six feet apart in three rows.
We're taking reservations for the Summer Moon Bear CSA. Only $300 if you let us know by May 1. More after May 1. That's 12 bushels of fresh, fun, flavorful food through the growing season. Email us.
Onions, lettuce, chard, spinach, rhubarb and garlic are all making their spring time appearances in loam.
And now for the Moon Bear diatribe:
Something to consider:
Here are some untruths that the
dominant paradigm has literally fed to us about agriculture:
You cannot produce much worthwhile if
you’re small: We are only
2.86 acres, with a production area of 1.25 acres. We are registered as a farm. Last
year we produced about 350 bushels of fresh, tasty food. A bushel is about the
size of an orange crate. All around us are acres and acres (miles and miles) of
nicely mowed grass. What if we, as a society, reclaimed that land for both
agriculture and wild areas? Next time you drive through the outskirts of town
look at all the green wasteland used mainly as a personal buffer to stay separate
from one’s neighbors. Or think even broader. While in town look at all the
lawns and median strips. What if these produced food?
Micro farms in the US are mainly a hobby of the
rich and idealistic: Nothing wrong with being rich or
idealistic. I would like to be both. For me, micro farming is a way to be a
positive influence in the political-social arenas. It’s a way to provide a
needed service. It’s a way to pay the bills. It’s a way to be part of the local
community. What can be ungrounded about working with the earth, producing food
and meeting with the public? Isn’t America built on independence and security
through hard work? Perhaps the old idea of food security coming partially through
producing one’s own food needs to be revived.
You have to be against something to be
for something. I see this in how people garden and live
and vote. Most define themselves as being against
_____ or not like ______. You
fill in the blank. This us and them mentality also manifests itself in the agricultural system. As a
farmer I can be against weeds and pests and competitors… right? Being reactive
to bugs and weeds has led to genetically modified corn that contains Bacillus
Thuringiensis (BT)
and remnants of glyophospahate. And we end up eating these substances unwittingly,
all in the name of “combating” weeds and bugs. Also, what kind of psychic
energy is in our food when it is produced with the attitude of killing all that
lays in the path of the crops? . What are we FOR? And how does this manifest in
our everyday choices? We're all on this little planet together.
Organic is costlier. The
hidden, societal, environmental costs of chemical based, factory style farming
are astronomical for the planet and the health of the people. We sell for the
same price as the local big chains, sometimes less. The soil is a living
community of organisms not a factory for producing perfect looking food.
Machines out produce humans:
Perhaps in quantity, but not in quality.
Did you know that most baby carrots are simply large carrots cut in into pieces
in a factory and then shaped to look like small carrots? Some are soaked in sugar. Many have spent weeks in
storage. They look nice in the plastic wrapped colorful packaging. And you pay
a premium for a lie. What about the farmer that grows genuine carrots of the
small variety and pulls them the morning of the sale? Who produces the real
product?
Farmers market vendors are all the rage
and they are making decent money. Yes, it’s nice to be admired
as a small farmer. And customers are so appreciative and friendly and wise. Thank
you. But market vendors reach only about 2% of the population. Almost all local
market vendors I know have another person in the household that supplements the
farm with a regular job. And almost all I know are on the margins of financial sustainability.
Thank you for reading.
See you in the Garden.
Rick
(c) Rick Sievers, moon Bear Produce, March 2014
