Mesa by Pastotnik • November 17, 2012

Linocut with handset type on tan BFK Reeves archival paper • 14 in w x 11 in h

Artist: Chad Pastotnik

Poet: Helena Mesa

Poem: Mechanics of Early Autumn

available from Kalamazoo Book Arts Center

In This Issue: Efficiency, relationship, and the care and eating of animals.

But first, what would you like to see in a rural innovation lab / maker space / education space / community hub? We really really want to know. It won’t take long— tell us here.

The Honorable Harvest and the Work of Small Farmers

“Caitlin, nursing her own infant, would look knowingly at the other women in the group when talking about the challenges of birth, suckling, and weaning, and they would nod or grimace or laugh in this shared experience—a circle of understanding which clearly included the mama sows in the barn. ”

Part 3 of a series on shifting our culture toward ecological ways of being in the world.

You don’t need to read parts 1 or 2 to make sense of this, but if you prefer to go in order, start here.

My first memory of the Northern Michigan Small Farm Conference was a session on raising sheep, taught by an MSU Extension agent. I’m certainly misquoting him, but the gist of his lesson was “wait until you’re having a really bad morning, feeling grouchy, and mad at the animals. That’s when you make your cull list.” The point, he then clarified, was that running a sheep farm is a difficult business with thin margins, and a farmer can’t afford to let an attachment to an underperforming animal get in the way of good business. A sheep with sub-par genetics or a bad temper should be first on the trailer to the butcher.

Much of farming instruction comes in this mode, which contains an unspoken argument that there are two kinds of farmers — those that commit to efficiency and best practices, and so thrive, and those that putz around with a few acres for fun, and so never get to quit their day jobs.

I’m not opposed to this argument, or those best practices, delivered sincerely by Extension agents and others of their kind. They’re absolutely right — farming is damn hard, with the thinnest of margins and all sorts of uncertainty. In the face of so many risks, following a set of well-studied best practices is the surest route to success. Then there are the risks: dangerous chemicals and large equipment designed to cut, shred and pulverize; the unpredictable outdoors, and, most importantly, a farmer’s ongoing responsibility to produce food that’s safe to eat. Any error in these small margins can cause injury, illness, or death. The history of farming is basically one long cautionary tale. Many of the sessions at the conference are focused on these dangers, and cover policy compliance, insurance, and other necessary acts of paperwork. FISMA, GAAMP, MAEAP, OEFA, GAP, GHP, and HACCP are just the beginning of the processes and policies designed to protect people and the environment, and the workshops devoted to these topics demand clarity, nuance, and authoritative delivery.

Can you tell I’m prefacing? Because I’m prefacing.

Because I also want to talk about Mary Donner.

Read the full essay (2157 words, 9-minute read)

The Warp — Ideas and Inspiration

|| 1 || I’m not sure where this fits yet, but I was profoundly interested in a brief comment by an attendee at the conference, in the same roundtable referenced in the essay above. The attendee, whose name (I think) was Nico, and who I didn’t get a chance to follow up with, first described the cultural advocacy of the Deaf community, which, summarized by the National Association of the Deaf, is “Deaf people like being Deaf, want to be Deaf, and are proud of their Deafness”. Many members of the Deaf community resist the idea that deafness is a medical disability that should be cured, rather than a culture worthy of inherent respect.

Because the conversation at that moment was about our relationship to the land, Nico made an apt but astonishing (to me) comparison about how we engage with our own notions of “restoration” and “regeneration” and how we may be fixing something that doesn’t want to be fixed and is offended at the notion.

I love this. Without following up with Nico, I can’t speak with any clarity about their larger point, but I love the image of a barren, lichen-covered field not wanting any nitrogen; of a fresh burnt forest so glad to expose its seed bank to the sun and not wanting muck-booted foresters shoving fresh pines into the soil, or even of an ineffable but not warring relationship between a dying ash tree and the borer living under it’s bark.

There’s a lesson here about humility, but also some amazing poetry alive in this idea. I’ve been interested in disability culture for the last few years, thanks to some incredible sessions at the Artist Communities Alliance conferences the last few years, as well as some friends with the patience to educate me, as well as with my own dawning realization about my neurodivergence and autism-spectrum traits and those in my family. I don’t claim the label “disabled,” and I’ve not yet woven disability culture into my thinking about ecology and land use, in any meaningful way, but I’m excited to wiggle down that rabbit hole. Join me!

|| 2|| We’re continuing the call for Land-Based Projects, even those in the most formative stages. If you or someone you know works on an outdoor festival, a skill-share, an eco-village, intentional community, public-facing farmstead, or any other project that connects people on and around the landscape, fill out this form. It’s quick.

|| 3 || Likewise, we’re interested in your ideas for a rural innovation hub aka maker-space aka community project on the land in Bellaire. Another quick survey. Fill them both out and I’ll buy you coffee.

|| 4 || Speaking of coffee, last TWF, in a digression about metamodernism, I asked “is there something sturdy underneath all this plurality, and if so, how do we find it and make sensible use of it?” and then offered, “If this is profoundly interesting to you too, let’s grab coffee.” I’m so glad that two folks—one friend and one stranger—reached out to take me up on the offer. I haven’t had a chance to grab coffee with them yet, but I’m looking forward to the conversations.

I’d love to hear from you too. What keeps you reading these essays and emails? What else can we offer? What would you like to dive deeper into? And do you want to write one for us? Or do you want to drink coffee and talk shop?

Let me know at brad@crosshatch.org. Thanks for hanging in there with me. Share this around with other friends deep in these rabbit-holes.

The Weft — News and Events

|| 1 || Despite being in love with live music and a proud partner at the Alluvion, I still have no idea how you convince people to take a chance on an artist they haven’t heard before. That said, there are two shows that I really want you to see.

The first show is this Friday, and features five different songwriters playing together for a very short tour, including this one performance in Traverse City. Ok, but just about every lyrical song has a songwriter, so what does that term “songwriter” really even mean?

In this case, it means a group of artists who are patient observers of life, and who create songs that are rooted in place, or in missed momentary nuances of relationship, or in fleeting thoughts, or fuzzy emotions, or in critiques of power, or in telling a simple story plainly, and building a room you can sit down in and be a slightly brighter or darker version of yourself for a few minutes. And it means a bunch of damn good songs. $25

The next night, one of those songwriters will stick around and will be joined by her partner. This is Jean Rohe and Liam Robinson—Robinson and Rohe. I’ve known these two for a while now, and we’ve become friends, and I still don’t quite know how to describe their music. I mean, just listen to Louisa. Ack! $20 for this show.

Both nights promise to be special. I hope you can join us.

|| 2 || The 2nd annual Perennial Farm Ecosystem Conference is coming on September 8th in Leelanau County. Join the Leelanau Conservation District and partners to learn about a systems approach to growing perennial crops. Experts will discuss the importance of integrating native beneficial habitat for pollinators and soil invertebrates, how to improve soil health and its benefits, the impact of alley vegetation management, and the value of sap analysis for nutrient balance. $25

|| 3 || I haven’t met Helen Raica-Klotz yet but she’s been knocking it out of the park with the new Antrim County Writers’ Project. Crosshatch is proud to partner with her to bring two of my favorite Michigan authors, Anne-Marie Oomen and Keith Taylor, to Bellaire and Elk Rapids. Each author has two events.

August 22 @ 7 pm — Anne-Marie Oomen Reading and Book Release of The Long Fields

August 23 @ 2:30 pm — Anne-Marie Oomen Memoir Writing Workshop

October 24 @ 7 pm — Keith Taylor’s Reading and Book Discussion of The Bird-while

October 25 @ 2:30 pm — Keith Taylor Poetry Writing Workshop

The Whole Field • Volume 2 • No. 16 • New Moon • August 16, 2023