walking through the field

hoop cleared by hand

our seeds are ordered, and they'll be in the mail by the end of the week.  hoes are sharp, beds are being prepared, and a tissue damp with water pressed to my nostril reveals a moist brown imprint of the inside of my nose.  the hour to prepare has swelled, crested and landed on our shores like a deep blue, white lipped wave smashing offa’ rugged boulder.  we’ve dug in.  our heels are in the dirt--our fingers too.  the growing season has begun, and lady georgia has been blessed with sixty degree days and a gentle breeze.  friends are gathering to share the workload, and a buzz of energy is building in the community.  we’re filling out paperwork to register for the farmer’s market, we’re planning plantings to accommodate both of our restaurants, and our creative juices are churning on developing new markets.  our backs and biceps are hurting in all the best ways.  seven impressive hawks are making tight circles in the sky above, and our dogs are howling their way around the new property. perennial blueberries, raspberries, and blackberry bushes stand choked with mature weeds, waiting for the fresh spring to bloom again.  tomato cages are being cleaned of debris, and stacked aside for the summer heat.  next week, seeds will enter the dirt, and before long, it’ll be next valentine's day all over again.

organic farmer successfully sues pesticide sprayer for trespassing on his crops

listen.  I know you have an attention span of about ninety seconds, but if you don’t have time to watch this video, leave the site and come back when you can.  this is one of the most interesting, and most important videos I have ever presented on ihoc.

larry Jacobs is the first organic farmer to successfully sue a neighboring pesticide sprayer for damaging his crop.  this is now a legal precedent, which will hopefully change the game completely.  for those of you in agriculture, the importance and weight of this story will be self evident.  for those of you not involved in ag, you might need to step back to grasp the bigger picture. 

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distilled knowledge

thirty years of farming, in several countries, and a couple continents, results in nothing less than premium, distilled knowledge.  factoids and insights have evolved drip by drip over the decades into a mighty river of knowledge.  in this video Ronald Donkervoort, farmer and owner of Windmill Farm, is comically describing the potentially unfunny life of a farmer who doesn’t own, but leases, the land that he farms.

a couple weeks ago I described my conversation with puerto rican cheflebrity wilo benet, whose casual conversation was filled with distilled knowledge and hard-earned lessons as well.  when these proven veterans speak off the cusp their words land on the shores of my ears like mighty bombs of wisdom—resonating through the folds of my brain like a rippling quake.  finding a brain nook, settling into permanent formation, and inspiring the ever flowing, ever cycling, ever changing thought processes of a young farmer clearing his way through the foggy brush. 

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ecofarm, farm tours

it’s almost too much to wrap my head around.  too much intake.  not enough brain space.

three full buses, four incredibly different farms, and about a thousand questions over one nine hour nonstop day.  I have long known that visiting other people’s farming operations is one of the most valuable uses of my time, and today certainly lived up to that belief.  over the next couple days I will share stories, videos, and photos from four very different farms, but for now I’ll just give the overview.

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storm attacks! georgia prepares for state of emergency!

let me set the scene last night at the grocery store:  a sixty year old lady pushing a grocery cart with three weeks worth of water in it.  i'm hearing at the big box store's shelves are literally cleared of all the staples.  schools are certainly closed tomorrow, if not Tuesday as well.  the busiest flight traffic corridor in the world—atlanta int’l—will come to a hush as four inches of almost instantly melting snow will dust the state of georgia overnight.  the mayans were right.  the world is ending.  only difference is, it’s tonight in north georgia, and it came a year early.  

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2011 forecast

mother nature has given me the gift of january to really organize all the moving parts of my life—regrouping and reconnoitering the swirl of ideas i have filling my head.  as many of you know, her and i are on this pastoral journey with a very specific goal in mind:  the opening of an agricultural and gastronomical retreat and learning center in the pacific northwest in a few years time.  years of wondering what i wanted to do with my life.  “dad, i’m gonna quit my job and go to culinary school.”  actually pretty glad he talked me out of that one.

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