Wheatberry Bakery
Grain CSA
Fields & Fire BlogGratitude Friday (more!)
Because there’s always more to be grateful for.
This morning, we have an email in our inbox from a very experienced, long-standing New England farmer who suffered terrible crop losses this year. So bad that he’s asking us to provide him with Early Riser corn seed for next year, which we’re going to do our best to get him. This year, with the bizarre weather patterns, was so bad that here in MA, Governor Deval Patrick filed for (and received) federal disaster relief funds for farmers in 12 counties, including our own Hampshire County. If you aren’t concerned about climate chaos yet, talk to a farmer. We have a bumper sticker from the American Farmland Trust that reads “No Farms No Food,” but perhaps what we really need to remember is, “No Farms, No Food, No People.”
So where’s the gratitude, you may ask. I am, and really the whole PVHG team is, so deeply deeply thankful that we got a harvest this year. Some farmers did not, or lost entire portions of their crop. We didn’t have a stellar year, but considering the conditions, considering this is our first year growing many of these crops, considering what our brothers and sisters and friends all around us are suffering through, we are blessed beyond belief. I know we are all anxious to get our hands on these beautiful grains, but let’s be patient as the corn finishes drying in the field. We wanted so badly to get all of you your shares by Thanksgiving, which won’t be possible, but today I am reminded to be to be thankful that we have a harvest to share.
this is beuautiful. THANK YOU for the work that you do and the reverence that you have. it inspires me to live more fully and be even more grateful.
Thank you Kayaleya!
I live surrounded by farmers–mostly organic dairy farmers–and even so it can be hard for me to remember how much they are subject to the whims of weather, how they must care for their animals and manage their land and somehow make a living while never taking a vacation in 16 years. Going to the office each day has value, too, of course–but it’s so radically different. We are generally so divorced from our surroundings, plugged into our electronic devices (hello, here I am!) that it is no wonder we forget to take seriously the real and ongoing destruction of our surroundings. Sometimes I don’t know what to do, except maybe put some Wendell Berry quotes on those horrible billboards they’ve put up, even here in the countryside. Thank goodness for people like you! Thank you for teaching me more about your work, and the work of other farmers!
Thank you so much for sharing these thoughts Sarah, and for your support!