Farmer John Writes about Farm Monogamy

I was driving along one of our fields the other day, and a gleam of light caught my eye. I backed up and spotted what looked like plastic trash. I was about to get out of my vehicle to pick up the shiny intruder when I noticed that it was emblazoned with the words I LOVE YOU

I LOVE YOU (Neighbor’s farm is in the background; maybe it loves the neighbor?)

Who, Who Do You Love?
This was just a cheap, garish balloon, but it was announcing that it loves me. What does this I LOVE YOU mean, I wondered?  Does it love me? Did it love someone else? Perhaps it’s in a serial relationship, and used to love someone else, but now loves me. Perhaps it’s a polyamorous ballon and it loves me and someone else. I began to feel that my irritation with this dishevelled balloon was inappropriate. It’s saying it loves me. Maybe I should just take a deep breath and let it in.

I left the balloon where it had landed and drove off, pondering the nature of love. What makes love authentic? Is it the person, or balloon, who declares it? Is it authentic depending on how the love is proclaimed? Does it depend on the setting in which it is delivered?

Love…I thought about the love for a farm. What has to be in place for there to be love for a farm?

Relationship has to be in place for there to be love for a farm.

Community Supported Agriculture
Relationship to a farm is a central premise of Community Supported Agriculture. People can love food, love organics, love sustainability, but these broad loves differentiate and deepen when they relate to a place, a real place here on earth.

There are many ways to buy healthy, organic food today: grocery stores, home delivery aggregators, farmers’ markets, Community Supported Agriculture, etc. This is a blessing for the earth and for consumers, but a relationship builds out of connection to place, to a farm, that is hard to achieve by simply going out and buying organic. Community Supported Agriculture builds relationship to place, to earth.

Your Very Own Farm
When you join a farm, you are blessed because you have a relationship to the source of your food. You are blessed because you have a relationship to weather, soil, farmer, farm workers, barns, shed, weeds, bugs, machinery—the great, ongoing adventure of farming, of coaxing food from the land. This relationship is not theoretical or abstract; it unfolds out of your belonging to the farm, and the farm belonging to you, a place you can visit.

The farm becomes a focal point for earth stewardship, when, week after week, you eat from our fields and you read on these very pages the story of your farm and the vegetables you are receiving. Your life is enriched when the farm to which you give your heart, your concern and your trust rewards you with food, stories and a place to call your own.

I have a farm in my heart—it’s been the same farm for my whole life. I love many other farms, but I have a primary relationship with Angelic Organics. I approach my farm with full devotion and commitment. I suppose this qualifies as Farm Monogamy.

One could also practice Farm Polyamorism, and attempt to have a rich relationship with several farms simultaneously. This broad approach of multiple loves requires a lot of work and won’t likely lead to the depth of farm love that can be achieved by having one primary farm.

Find a farm to know and love, and you will experience your food in the rich context of soil, season, place, community, history, and the farming process. You will be blessed with much more than food; you will be blessed with wonder, relationship, and a feeling of love.