It was a real pleasure to read your "manifesto" about living close to the land and the benefits of that--to you, your family, the land, the animals and our world. It's great to have your perspective as part of the voices coming from the Sierra. While I'm not a farmer, I grew up in farming country and had a hand in our backyard garden. My folks made sure that I knew about farming by sending me to live for a few weeks each summer with family friends. I did exactly what the farmer's kids did: chores, chores, chores! Milking cows, stacking hay bales, slopping hogs, riding horses, learning about electric fences. The day we butchered and processed a couple hundred chickens was at first a scary and sad day for me. I called my mom and said I would NOT eat another chicken. But guess what was for dinner? Chicken! And boy was it good. I definitely recommend that if you eat meat, you should at least one time (and hopefully more than that) experience exactly how animals become part of your meal. Today I started with a walk through my small garden, weeding, putting up more net so the deer wouldn't eat ALL my peas, picking strawberries for breakfast and watering my kale, onions, lettuce and flowers and checking on my squash, cucumber, and tomato starts. I saw a red-headed flicker woodpecker rummaging for food and bringing insects back to the nest high in a cedar snag near the garden. There is something so fundamental about putting my hands in dirt that I can barely imagine life without the opportunity to be part of nature everyday. I guess I'm really a farmer at heart! I would also point any reader more interested in the process of farming and the farming way of life to read anything written by Kentucky farmer Wendell Berry. You might start with his excellent set of essays "What Are People For?" Catherine Stifter co-director Saving The Sierra
Thank you so much, Chris, for sharing your values
It was a real pleasure to read your "manifesto" about living close to the land and the benefits of that--to you, your family, the land, the animals and our world. It's great to have your perspective as part of the voices coming from the Sierra. While I'm not a farmer, I grew up in farming country and had a hand in our backyard garden. My folks made sure that I knew about farming by sending me to live for a few weeks each summer with family friends. I did exactly what the farmer's kids did: chores, chores, chores! Milking cows, stacking hay bales, slopping hogs, riding horses, learning about electric fences. The day we butchered and processed a couple hundred chickens was at first a scary and sad day for me. I called my mom and said I would NOT eat another chicken. But guess what was for dinner? Chicken! And boy was it good. I definitely recommend that if you eat meat, you should at least one time (and hopefully more than that) experience exactly how animals become part of your meal. Today I started with a walk through my small garden, weeding, putting up more net so the deer wouldn't eat ALL my peas, picking strawberries for breakfast and watering my kale, onions, lettuce and flowers and checking on my squash, cucumber, and tomato starts. I saw a red-headed flicker woodpecker rummaging for food and bringing insects back to the nest high in a cedar snag near the garden. There is something so fundamental about putting my hands in dirt that I can barely imagine life without the opportunity to be part of nature everyday. I guess I'm really a farmer at heart! I would also point any reader more interested in the process of farming and the farming way of life to read anything written by Kentucky farmer Wendell Berry. You might start with his excellent set of essays "What Are People For?" Catherine Stifter co-director Saving The Sierra