I’m downright shaken to the core by Wendell Berry’s writing. When is the last time you read someone who simultaneously made you want to be a better mother and wife, grow a garden, raise some livestock and read more poetry and Homer? He is a prophet of sorts, providing insightful and critical commentary on our modern way of life and the sad separation between us and our land, our food and most importantly our families. We have grown up in an era where we are cut off from so much of our humanity. We have become poor caretakers of all entrusted to us and the result is a society that is overfed but undernourished, information rich but wisdom poor, exhaustingly busy but often lonely and unsatisfied.
He offers some complicated analysis on how we got to where we are but his solutions seem to be fairly simple. Slow down. Grow some food. Cook it yourself. Raise a few animals. Know what you’re eating. Be faithful to the land, to your children, to your wife. Relearn the simple pleasures of life that can’t be bought but must be nurtured.
His writing has been so timely for us too. We had already committed to raising a few chickens and growing a small kitchen garden. But the way he writes about it makes it seem so much more meaningful and profound. He advocates change in the only way it’s possible—-“I bid you to a one-man revolution—The only revolution that is coming.”
So, I thought I’d show you the tiny little spot we carved out for a kitchen/herb/vegetable garden. We’ll be ready to plant soon so I’ve been doing lots of reading and planning. It’s about 10×12 feet and right beside our garage. It gets full sun until around 2p and is within our sprinkler system so watering will be easy!
I found some good information on this site, including some help in planning my layout. I’ll keep you updated on the progress!
“Sowing” by Wendell Berry
In the stilled place that once was a road going down
from the town to the river, and where the lives of marriages grew
a house, a cistern and barn, flowers, the tilted stone of borders,
and the deed of their lives ran to neglect, and honeysuckle
and then the fire overgrew it all, I walk heavy
with seed, spreading on the cleared hill the beginnings
of green, clover and grass to be pasture. Between
history’s death upon the place and the trees that would have come
I claim, and act, and am mingled in the fate of the world.
I highly recommend The Art of the Commonplace: The Agrarian Essays of Wendell Berry
My new blog friend, Marie, has a great blog about all her farming/growing adventures! And she recently had a chocolate chip cookie taste test that looked so much fun!
Now tell me all about your gardens, I’m dying to know!
Also, check out lifeingracegirls today where Meaghan is doing the most adorable bow tie tutorial!