It has been a few weeks since my last post. A few weeks I will never forget. As most of you already know, on August 28th the state of Vermont was devastated by tropical storm Irene. Among the Vermont towns hit the hardest was our quaint little village of Wilmington. While our small farmstead weathered the storm with nothing more than a few damaged plants, I am sad to say that many of our fellow community members, business owners, farmers and friends were not as fortunate as tremendous losses have occurred. My heart goes out to them. Every day I wish I had supernatural powers that could either make the situation go away or to alleviate the damage that has already been done. With that said, I know that once the dust settles (literally), the state of Vermont will come out stronger on the other side. As roads are re-opened and rebuilt and small businesses seek ways to sweep away remnants of Mother Nature’s fury, the spirit here in the Green Mountains still shines bright.
Recently, as harvest peaked with beauty and bounty, I have been putting a lot of thought into what will essentially be my final post of this amazing journey via CUpS. And while I am excited to share the final sequences of my personal transformation and discovery of our nation’s food system and communities, I wanted to share with you some of the most meaningful and inspirational words spoken by the tremendous people I encountered on this trip. Here are just a few. Enjoy.
“When I was farming with my grandfather he made all of the decisions. Right down to the littlest of details. I vowed I would never be that way. When I bought this farm from my father he said ‘Son, you will never make a go of it.’ But somehow I did.” – Dick Hall
“What I am trying to get through to people is that permaculture is not about a bunch of happy little hippies in the backyard growing a few potatoes. We are talking about production agriculture for our carbohydrates, protein and oil.” –Mark Shepard
“There are so many people out there who have this mentality that one person cannot make a difference. One might say ‘why should I stop eating factory farmed foods when there are still going to be millions of others who will? What difference will it make?’ I feel that if we all take action we could create a viable and local economy and prevent industrial agriculture from taking over.” – Ari Rosenberg
Read the Unconventional Harvest series:
- On the Road to Find the Future of Food and Farming
- Grassland Organic Farm
- Wellspring Farm
- My Visit to an Amish Farm in New York
- Farm Sanctuary
- An Urban Oasis for Food
- Tantré Farm
- Conventional Dairy Farmer Art Thelen
- New Forest Farm
- A Large No-Till Organic Farm
- Melstone, Montana—Population 136
- In the Farmers Own Words