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Our little garden has grown so much in the past couple of months. We started harvesting our beets and are using them to make borscht  for the falls spirit of the land course. We have had an abundant amount of salad greens and have started to plant our succession crop. Our pumpkins, squash and zucchini are all starting to grow their vegetables now that they have extended their vines all over our plot and into our neighbours’ plot as well.  So lettuce celebrate for the produce we have grown in our un-beet-able garden.

We’ve been spending a lot of time in our garden lately, marveling at how much can be produced in such a small space. Seeing food grow out of soil is a daily reminder of our reliance on the bounty of Earth. While this dependence can be a bit frightening at times- what if you live in an urban centre or have undernourished soil? – I am starting to appreciate the realization that I am not self-sustaining. Needing to depend on other forces and other people has taught me an important lesson in gratitude. I value every meal much more now that I understand the significance of its journey to my plate and the number of factors that had to align to get it there. 

I’m also excited to hear your thoughts on interdependence with the land and with others at our next Seeds for the Soul event. Come out to the Railway Museum on Wednesday, August 3rd from 6-8pm to learn the in’s and out’s of companion planting, make some flower and bug crafts, get some new reading material from the book bike, and engage in a contemplative discussion with Bernice Kadatz on the Grassland Restoration Project.

Below is a link to an article describing the phenomenon of terra preta, which Bernice will be talking about.

http://permaculturenews.org/2010/05/25/back-to-the-future-terra-preta-%E2%80%93-ancient-carbon-farming-system-for-earth-healing-in-the-21st-century/

As well, an interesting video that looks a little closer at the interconnection that exists between all things.

 

 

I have the BBC app on my phone, and have it set to receive notifications whenever there is breaking news. And lately, I’ve been receiving a lot of notifications. There has been so much violence lately, reaching all around the world and affecting people everywhere. It has been shocking and scary. I have been filled with sadness for the people I don’t know who have lost their lives, filled with grief for families who have lost their loved ones, and filled with concern for our world in general.

But I would be lying if I didn’t admit that after a while, the shock lessens. Each time my phone buzzes with news of another attack or chaotic event, I find myself less and less affected–despite the fact that with each event, more of the world is affected.

I think this is an experience that many people can relate to. The thing about having consistent chaos in our lives or in our media is that we can quickly become desensitized. Instead of seeing lives affected, we see numbers of death tolls rise, statistics shift, another something somewhere that somehow feels less impactful or heartbreaking.

So what do we do about this? How can we prevent becoming acclimatized to violence or tragedy?

I don’t think the answer is a quick one. There is no app to download for it or formula to make sure we are still fully feeling and engaging with the events of the world. But something that I have learned at Spirit of the Land is that connecting with people and the stories of their lives is an excellent place to start.

Learning to garden, observe the seasons, and recognize the shifts and patterns in nature has helped me connect to the land that I have mostly ignored (or rather, been pretty oblivious to) for much of my life. As such, my responses to disasters, environmental issues, and the nature that surrounds me have changed. Because I am learning to be more connected and aware, I cannot easily become desensitized. I think this works the same way with people; in our lives, we can see many personal examples of this. When something happens to a family member or friend, regardless of how many other things are happening in the world, we feel it deeply. While I am not saying that we need to be deep friends with everyone in the world, I do think that falling in love with the world and the people in it has a lot to do with the cure to desensitization.
Sometimes when we hear about war-torn areas of our world, or consistent shootings, or really any recurring violence, that is all we know of a people or a place. A challenge I have decided to take upon myself, and a challenge I want to issue to all of you, is to get connected. To get to know more about these places and people that are experiencing these difficult times.

Lately, I have been thinking about the Middle East a lot. You know, the war-torn area that we don’t hear much about beyond the terrible events that happen there. But what do we really know about it? How connected are we? And if we are not connected, how can we help but skim over headlines and become
desensitized?

But if we stop and connect…if we stop to learn more about it, have our hearts opened to a place and a people, things change. The numbness that once existed suddenly dissolves, and we are just a bit more connected.

For me, this has been happening with the Middle East. The beautiful pictures in this post are pictures from there, that have helped me connect and see what the media does not allow us to see. I hope they can help you connect a little bit more, too. (All images from a user I found on instagram, everydayafg. Check it out for more stunning images!)

A couple of weeks ago we got together at the Camrose Public Library to talk about aquaponics. We delved into how to set up a system as well how to upkeep it and ensure it runs well. If you weren’t able to come to our event but wanted to learn more, I have attached our power point as well as the infographics below for your benefit. I hope you find these resources helpful.  

As the rainy days of spring slowly transition into the sunny days of summer, our community garden continues to grow well. It is always exciting to see a plot of soil and dirt transform into a bounty of produce in only a few short months.

We’ve spent a lot time at our garden over the last week, catching up on our weeding and watering, and even harvesting some radishes, spinach, swiss chard and kale. Our potatoes, pumpkin, beans squash and onions are continuing to grow well, but we’ve had some issues with our zucchini, parsnips and beets. (Mostly just the fact that they never appeared.)

I am surprised at just how invested I am in our garden’s development. Sure, this is an aspect of my job, and yes, I want to be able to help feed the Spirit of the Land class in the fall, but more than anything, I feel a strong personal connection to this garden and the land it’s grown on. I fret about the slow development of our onions and I exclaim with joy when I discover that potato bugs have not yet touched our plants. In this garden, I see a reflection of myself, someone who, while rooted in place, has crawling tendrils exploring outside the borders. Just like our garden, I am a work in progress, with great growth spurts in some places, and a lack of development in others. This garden has also created a bounty of confidence, helping me to realize that I can grow food and learn practical skills, away from academia. This has not only been gratifying, but exciting- I can hardly go a day without bragging about our garden to someone, praising its resilience and strength, and in turn, finding my own. 

After we had finished our first harvest, we had the task of washing and bagging the greens- half to be frozen for the fall and the other half donated to the food bank (with a bit of kale falling into my fridge!). It was incredible to see how much can be produced in such a small space- I filled my kitchen island 3 times over! As I washed and dried and bagged our spoils, I realized what a deep love I have for this land, which can produce food like magic, nourishing body, soul and community.

 

As I become more and more invested in this garden, I am reminded of a quote from Wendell Berry that reads: “…the care of the earth is our most ancient and most worthy and, after all, our most pleasing responsibility. To cherish what remains of it, and to foster its renewal, is our only legitimate hope.” (The Art of the Commonplace: The Agrarian Essays of Wendell Berry)

Indeed, as we continue to care for this garden and land, the amount of enjoyment, hopefulness and peace that I feel continues to grow. By cherishing the land, I also cherish my relationships, community and myself. And out of this love comes positive growth, one that enhances all that it touches, expanding the traditional and yet transformational idea that life, land and community are all gifts that must be cared for, in order to be sustained.

Below is the link to Chapter 2 of Charles Eisenstein’s Sacred Econmics- “The Illusions of Scarcity”. This excerpt will be discussed at the July 6th Seeds for the Soul event at the Camrose Public Library. We hope to see you there, and hear your thoughts.

 

Sacred Economics: Chapter 2, “The Illusion of Scarcity”

 

At our next “Seeds for the Soul” event next Wednesday, we will be discussing a chapter from one of the books that affected me the most during my time at Augustana, which is “Sacred Economics” by Charles Eisenstein. Eisenstein, although rather idealistic, ask some great questions about the way our economic system works in light of human needs. The following quotation is from chapter 2 in the book, “The Illusion of Scarcity.”

“It is said that money, or at least the love of it, is the root of all evil. But why should it be? After all, the purpose of money is, at its most basic, simply to facilitate exchange—in other words, to connect human gifts with human needs. What power, what monstrous perversion, has turned money into the opposite: an agent of scarcity?

For indeed we live in a world of fundamental abundance, a world where vast quantities of food, energy, and materials go to waste. Half the world starves while the other half wastes enough to feed the first half. In the Third World and our own ghettos, people lack food, shelter, and other basic necessities and cannot afford to buy them. Meanwhile, we pour vast resources into wars, plastic junk, and innumerable other products that do not serve human happiness. Obviously, poverty is not due to a lack of productive capacity. Nor is it due to a lack of willingness to help: many people would love to feed the poor, to restore nature, and do other meaningful work but cannot because there is no money in it. Money utterly fails to connect gifts and needs. Why?”

This is something I had never considered before. Money has always been merely money to me. I had never seen it as something that creates demand or perceived need in our minds. I had never seen it as disconnected from the world around us. But as Eisenstein goes on to explain, money allows our interactions – with the earth, with each other, with our food – to become anonymous and generic. Eisenstein brought me to the place of discomfort with our current system, and forces the reader to push further and ask the difficult questions, not only of “why,” but also, “how can this change?”

I encourage you to check out chapter 2 here: http://sacred-economics.com/sacred-economics-chapter-2-the-illusion-of-scarcity/ so that you can join in the conversation at the Camrose Public Library, from 6-8 p.m. next Wednesday to explore these ideas a little bit more. I hope it will encourage you to ask both the “whys” and consider how you factor into the future of how it can change!

During last year’s Spirit of the Land class, I stumbled across this quote in one of our readings:

“We are recollecting the almost-lost knowledge of our great-grandparents, those most essential of human skill sets: how to tend to plants, how to tend to animals, and how to tend to ourselves.”  ~Kelly Coyne and Erik Knutzen, “Become an Urban Homesteader”

When I first read this quote, the concept of “learning how to tend” felt foreign to me. I’m a task-oriented person–a list person, if you will. I like to be able to write down what I want to accomplish in a day, and then do it, and cross it off. I like the idea of a finished product, something that is visibly completed that can be tied up into a nice little bow so I can move onto the next task on my list. And, inevitably, I eventually want to throw away the list and begin a new one.

So why is this? And how does this connect to “learning to tend?”

There are different kinds of people, and different kinds of cultures, and that is okay. More than okay, in fact…it is what makes our world interesting, beautiful and diverse. But I also think my tendency to focus on accomplishing, checking off, or completing something successfully is tied to the industrially modeled world we are a part of. In this model, success is only labeled as a success–or economic growth–when there is profit, consumption, or a tangible result is evident. And so, the thought of learning to maintain something, to care for it and know it so that it can remain healthy and cared for cannot equate to success in our world. Tending to something cannot be checked off of a to-do list, it cannot be completed, it will not always create an economic profit. Yet, it crucial to the health of the world, and ourselves…and we have forgotten how to do it!

What can my response be? How do I begin to shift my mentality of perpetually accomplishing tasks to tending, caring, and being? I think Kelly Coyne and Erik Knutzen are right…that we must begin to learn to tend by recollecting almost forgotten human skills. Starting with tending a plant or tending an animal will inevitably lead to the tending of self. We are forced to recognize the interdependence of ourselves, our lives, on the plants, animals, environment, and people around us.

For me, this meant starting with plants. Aquaponics, to be specific. I had learned a little bit about it when I was in Romania, where an organization I worked with had begun a full-scale aquaponics program, which provided fresh vegetables and food for a boy’s home and a girl’s home, as well as a tilapia harvest every 5 months. Anderson and I thought it would be something fun to try on a smaller scale. While it hasn’t been without difficulty (who knew that newer windows blocked out much needed UV rays?!), it has been an excellent experience of learning to tend – to both plants and animals all at once. We currently have 7 fish (although not for harvesting), and are always playing around with the system to see what grows best. It has been so interesting to see the positive effects of both the fish waste for the plants, and the plants for the water purification. I’ve included a couple of pictures for you to check out our humble system…there isn’t much growing in it right now, as you can see, but learning what works in it is part of the fun!

If you’re curious about aquaponics, come and join us at our second “Seeds for the Soul” event on Wednesday, July 6th at the Camrose Public Library. From 6 – 7 p.m., Anderson will be leading a tutorial of how to make your own home aquaponics system (a slightly smaller scale than ours), and from 7-8 p.m., we will be talking about the chapter “The Illusion of Scarcity” from Charles Eisenstein’s book Sacred Economics. (Check it out here: http://sacred-economics.com/sacred-economics-chapter-2-the-illusion-of-scarcity/). All ages are welcome, so grab a friend and come on down!

Tending to it has also been an interesting experience, and I have learned it is a lot of becoming familiar with the system, and what influences what within it. Likewise, tending to our world and ourselves means becoming familiar with our relationship with everything else. And so, we must learn to tend.

One of the projects that we are working on this summer is a Spirit of the Land garden. Located at the community gardens near the fire hall, we hope to use this space to grow food for both SoL class meals and to donate to the food bank.

We planted the garden about two weeks ago, with the lovely help of John and Treva, who were willing to gift us leftover seeds and lend us gardening tools for the summer. They referred us to YardMasterz reviews & buyers guides for top yard products to learn about our options, should we want to purchase anything extra for ourselves. We planted a variety of things, including a pumpkin, zucchini, squash, beets, radishes, carrots, parsnips, potatoes, green onion, white onion, yellow beans, orca beans, kale, swiss chard, spinach and parsley.

Personally, I’ve never had a garden before- growing herbs in a pot is the greenest my thumb has been. But growing up, I remember visiting my grandma who had a quarter-acre plot, spending her mornings (and sometimes evenings too) out in garden, tending to her flowers and vegetables, sprinkling carefully saved eggshells and weeding out the dandelions. Every time we would visit, there would be fresh strawberries for breakfast and an assortment of veggies for dinner, as well as homemade raspberry ice cream. My grandma always found a sense of peace in her garden, using the time to reflect on her day, recall pleasant memories and feel connected to the ecosystem around her.

I never really understood the appeal of a garden- why toil in the dirt when you can drive to the supermarket

and pull a box from a freezer that magically becomes dinner? Over time, however, I began to appreciate all that gardens can give us. More than just sustenance, gardens create a space of quiet, a time away from technology and the busyness of life, allowing us to simply be, in the moment. Gardens allow us to get our hands dirty, both literally and figuratively. By working in gardens, we can intimately understand how our food comes to be on our plate, and the holistic relationship that exists between all living things to get it there. Gardens can also be a place of activism and justice. By growing a garden, no matter the size, you are moving away from the industrial paradigm that demands scarcity and separates us from our food. Gardens grow food, but they also grow connections- relationships blossom in a garden, where people of all walks of life can come together under one common need- sustenance. Gardens do all this and more, and I can’t wait to see what we can grow this summer.

*I am posting this blog for Anderson, who is currently in Minnesota*

A couple of weeks ago my fellow interns and I  had the opportunity to head up to Edmonton to learn from Ryan and Cathryn at Reclaim Urban Farms once again. Since it was my first time going up, I was excited to see what we would be doing and meet Ryan and Cathryn in person. We arrived at the SPUD (Sustainable Produce Urban Delivery) distribution centre where Reclaim rents a small corner to grow all of their micro greens, as well as do some of their processing of produce. Ryan and Cathryn arrived a little late as they had started bright and early at 6 am to do some harvesting at some of the other sites so we would have some produce to start getting ready for the farmers market.

Ryan showed Kate and me upstairs where we would work harvesting and packaging micro greens. Carley was downstairs with Cathryn to start washing all the salad greens and some of the micro greens as well.

We spent the rest of the day learning about farmers market preparation and all that it entailed: different weeds that we had to take out of the salad greens during the washing process, the three sinks each green needed to go through; what micro green planting, harvesting, and packaging looked like; and the importance of proper sanitation (read: washing ALOT of grow trays). I learned that although growing plants is a lot of work, that isn’t where the process stops. There is a massive amount of time that goes into the harvesting, processing, and packaging the produce–and it has to happen pretty much every week! We finished u a long day of washing and packaging, and headed back home for some rest before we returned the next day to get back at it.

The next day, we woke up bright and early again to meet back at Cathryn’s house, where we continued washing a myriad of different vegetables as well as weighing and packaging many more.

All of this has certainly affected the way I look at a bag of salad at the market! It is not just the planting, growing, and harvesting, but hours of harvesting, separating, washing, drying, weighing, packaging, and selling…it is no easy task.

After finishing the last of the prepping and packaging for the farmers market the following day, we headed to a new site, where the skeleton of a greenhouse and landscaping fabric were already in place. There, we spent our time transplanting broccoli, peppers, tomatoes, and squash–and a lot of it! We also helped to put up the plastic for the greenhouse, and it was crazy how quickly it got warmer inside after just some of it was up.
It was interesting to see the interactions with the community and the urban farm as people walked by. Many of them asked questions and seemed excited about the reclaimed use of vacant lots and spaces within the city; in such a high-visibility area, it was great to see that people wanted to ask questions and interact with some of the ideas behind Reclaim Urban Farm.

All of these two days left me far more appreciative of the food I purchase and the work that goes into it, with a new excitement about the possibility of potentially adapting the program/model to Camrose, with a better understanding of how Reclaim works…and, incredibly tired!