I'm Back

Have I said this before?

After a long hiatus I'm picking up my pen to flail myself back into action. It's been a year or more, the last entries coming from Susan and inspired by our trip to Morocco. We did indeed learn from that supposedly underdeveloped country. Not so much how we should live our lives and conduct our polity. More about where we've come from, how humble is in fact noble, how simple is an abstraction of complex.

So where am I going now with this blog?

The subjects and projects that motivate and excite me have much to do with food and living. Those of you who follow the progress of our winery and vineyard (which I now refer to as "our farm") know that we have progressed from a singular focus on winegrapes and the resulting wines, to an obsession with sustainability both on the ground and in the community. This has manefested itself here with habitat and hedgerows, crop diversification and fallow land, the farmers market, a community Board, and a deepening relationship with a milk goat.

Our latest project is Holistic Farm Management. I'm still learning what it's all about, but I think it can and should lead to the integration of grazing animals with our other growing things. I'll write a lot more about it as we get more involved, but I'm thinking this farming model will bring us more in line with the philosophies, teachings and ruminations of Rudolf Steiner and Wendell Berry, not to mention the currently fashionable Barbara Kingsolver and Michael Pollan.

Farming should be simple. But it's more of a Churchillian riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.

Lou

Comments

[Melinda]

Lou, we're all waiting with baited breath... are you really back?! Just got our blog up and running, after a series of crazy technical complications. Per your request, in all its glory: http://www.elementsintime.com/blog

-Melinda (& Matt)

[Bill Merkes]

Hi Lou...

Jan pointed me to your blog page so here I am.

I have not yet delved deeply into your website and in fact have only read this one post titled 'I'm back'.

I've always lived in the larger cities, but locked up inside of me has been an appreciation for our Universe, which of course includes all the land, water, and air on this rock we inhabit. Working in the electronics industry all my career, in operations and manufacturing management, certainly had it's rewarding moments. But the real feeling of accomplishment always followed something that I built with my own hands; a piece of furniture, a loaf of rustic bread, a piece of art, landscaping, remodeling, etc. I now feel privileged to live in the Healdsburg area where I can fully explore how I, and Jan, can live off of the land to the fullest extent of practicality.

A couple of quick comments on people, cities, and farming.

Most people live in the cities or within the bedroom communities surrounding the cities. Those that live in apartments/condos typically do not have land, and those who live in houses on a parcel of land are greatly restricted by covenants.

Two areas that can use further discussion and some action for change are; Can the covenants that govern a majority of people be turned back to allow chickens, or a goat, or vegetable gardens, etc.? And, more cities need to set aside public space, with 200 square foot parcels available for gardening for those who don't have land with their residences. These two very small changes, although controversial I'm sure, allow lots of people the option to find a little sustainability in their lives...

Bill

[Lou]

Hi Bill,

Glad you found my "I'm back"! What's that quote about great intentions? I've been meaning to resussitate my blog for a long time now and yours is the goad that might make it happen.

I agree with your comments about urban farming. You know Healdsburg so I can cite the image and example of "Healdsburg Commons" which could have been a wonderful city garden complete with farmstand (the old service station). Instead of course we have those spiritless contractor-created condos or townhouses that cover about 90% of the land surface with barley a patch of dirt for hopelessly inappropriate street trees. Where's the commons? It's too bad.

After WWII the Europeans discovered the therapeutic and nutrient-providing value of city gardens used for food production... especially important when much of the populace was deprived. Well much of our population here and now is deprived and would benefit from a few square meters of cabbage or a couple of hens.

I often wonder how we can let our people experience deprivation when surrounded by such opulence. The American way?

Lou

[Bill Merkes]

Hi Lou,

Well...there's nothing like a little goad to go with your bread and wine!!

Don't you just love urban planning? One would think the city/county would take it upon themselves to designate certain items for the public; like sidewalks, bike paths, public parks, mass-transit, ample parking, public restrooms, pedestrian access points, etc. Yet in most places I have lived, it usually takes threats or legal action from the citizens to force planning commissions to do what to me makes perfect sense; to provide a viable environment and community for people.

I guess in all fairness to love and politics, for each person like myself, there is another person, or two, who refuses to vote or fund anything, and this is their right. Their minds are stuck in the Great Depression or in the sand, and they won't spend a penny on education, libraries, and other reasonably people-oriented necessities. This is unlikely to change so the goal must be to get more younger people involved in their communities and let them grow into managing our citizens.

And speaking of public financing, I laugh at all the politics today from the presidential candidates, and hear them talking about eliminating 'two Americas', eliminating poverty, making sure all people have jobs, making sure all people earn a living wage, providing free health care to all Americans, etc. But not once does anyone talk about where the horrendous amounts of money will come from for these euphoric ideals. In the US, on health care alone, Americans now spend about $2 trillion per year and this is estimated to increase to $4 trillion in just five years.

And speaking of trillion$, how many average people can comprehend this number? Hey...how many can comprehend $100,000? How many people know or care about a $9 trillion US debt? How many people know that the Bush budget is projecting $11.5 trillion debt in 2011?

So I just wasted 1-1/2 paragraphs getting to this point; whether at the local levels in dealing with financing community gardens, or on the national level dealing with $2-4 trillion for health care or whatever, it seems that most all issues have become, or are becoming critical issues, but the cost for improvement is so astronomical that in financial reality the solutions are really not viable.

On top of this insanity, in other areas which seem relatively void of comprehension as well, what will be the impact of global climate changes? How about oil dependence? How about those 1.5 billion Muslims and the rest of the world that the US has pissed off lately? And if this nation came to a stand-still over 9/11, what is possible if a natural disaster does major damage to LA, NY, SF, SEA?

Sounds like doom and gloom but for me most of this stuff is just reality, and reality can be dealt with very easily in the form of focus and planning and implementation.

If not, then consume boat-loads of goad and grog...

[Lou]

Since New Years is upon us boatloads of grog seems appropriate...it's got my vote.

The dilemma you pose of insoluble problems, astronomical costs, dearth of money and lack of focus says to me the answer must come from the people, not from government. And unfortunately it probably won't be all the people, just those with perspicacity and passion. Makes me think of an issue closer to my own heart and stomach which is the piss poor diet we Americans put up with and (barely) survive on. We are led by the professionals to accept industrially-produced plonk and then compensate for its poverty by the use of incredibly expensive pharmaceuticals and medical therapies and supplements of dubious effectiveness. But some of us are waking up to smell the spinach. There IS an alternative to shopping at Safeway or Costco or the Boxstore du Jour. And it is we the people reading Pollan and Kingsolver and Fallon and Berry and Steiner who will sidetrack this self-serving and poisonous steamroller called agribusiness.

I believe a solution lies in food communities. Slow Food, Community Alliance with Family Farmers, Organic Growers, Raw Foodists, Fermentation Revolutionaries, Native Peoples, and ethnic enclaves, who will enable us to return to our traditional values and relationships. If we eat well and share what we eat and know the land that gives us our sustenance then surely we can reclaim our civility and our civilization. We just have to do it on our own.

[Bill Merkes]

So when we enter our friendly grocery stores; Our produce might be tainted with E.coli and other bacteria and parasites. The beef might have Mad Cow disease or E.coli. Pork is filled with roundworms. Seafood has varying levels of mercury. All the meat groups might contain synthetic growth hormones. And most of the packaged 'processed' foods contain every imaginable synthetic chemical known to mankind to preserve the foods longer than most marriages last! All packaged foods have consumer labels, and they are not called 'information labels', they are called 'warning labels'!!

But the busiest corner of the store is the pharmacy where myriad organic and synthetic elements are formed into thousands of grossly over-priced but pretty multi-colored pills to prolong our lives and keep us happy.

We the people are free to make our own choices...we just need to be smarter about these choices...

[Bill Merkes]

Copy of letter sent to the Healdsburg City Council...

Lisa Schaffner, Mayor
Jim Wood, Vice-Mayor
Mike McGuire, Councilmember
Gary Plass, Councilmember
Eric Ziedrich, Councilmember


This communication with the City of Healdsburg is to request that you consider creating a 'public gardens' area along Grove Street, from Westside Road north to the Montessori school, and/or in any other applicable areas within the Healdsburg city limits.

The spaces should vary in size from 100 to 200 square feet with the shapes to be determined by fences, sidewalks and curbs which are currently in place. The City provides water access, and with a lottery system, selects interested parties to use this public space for planting flowers, green plants, or vegetables. Perhaps charge a nominal fee or let it be free. They can be leased for one-year periods and extended if there is no waiting list. The items that are produced cannot be used in commerce...solely for personal and public enjoyment. The City will have guidelines establishing minimal maintenance conditions. There may be a civic organization, with the use of volunteers, who might consider the management of such a program for the City.

When the community is fully involved in these gardens, an annual contest for the best maintained, or most creative garden can receive a cash award or garden equipment. I believe the cash and the garden equipment will be in the form of donations...no cost to the City. And with this annual recognition it will elevate the public interests, and the creativity and care that will go into these gardens.

The concept of having public gardens in as many areas as possible will lesson the expenses for the City to maintain these currently unused areas.

Once in place, the City and Chamber of Commerce can promote these areas, and since they will be within walking distance of the city center, this will help distribute tourists onto the connecting streets which will benefit business.

It should also be encouraged that within these public garden areas, that the City continue to provide artistic sculptures and other works of art.

For those of you who have some concept in which we reap personal benefits by growing our own vegetables and flowers within an organic or biodynamic system, if you combine this with the agriculture and viticulture history of this area, taking steps to provide public gardens allows Healdsburg to be an active participant in 'sustainable' lifestyles.

It's the right thing to do...