Connect With the Land

"When was the last time we looked at a flower with love as it asks nothing of us but to please us..."

In the mid 1990s, the Russian economy was experiencing severe difficulties, a country struggling in its attempt to move from a central planned economy to a modern market economy.   GDP was dropping rapidly (-12%), unemployment growing and there was rampant inflation (21% per month).  Despite all of the economic uncertainty the people managed to somehow survive.  One reason may have had to do with the peoples' right to individually own a plot of land.  Most Russians were (and are) avid gardeners - 54% percent of Russia's food supply is generated by backyard gardens.

Now the Russian predisposition towards gardening is not a surprise to me.  My wife came to Canada from Russia about six years ago and her first activity upon arrival was to transform our backyard into vegetable, fruit and flower gardens.  When visitors of Russian decent come to visit our backyard they invariably state that they feel like they are back in Russia.  My wife talks a great deal about a person called Anastasia and the books written about her dating back to the mid-1990's.  See  Anastasia (The Ringing Cedars, Book 1) .  

The series of 9 books were written in Russian but the first book, written in the mid-1990s, had been translated into English and more were in the works.  The books took Russia by storm.  Simply by word of mouth (no advertising) the book series sold more than 10 Million copies and had convinced some Russians to change their way of life - move to the countryside and start farming.  When a book about the universe and gardening takes a country like Russia (known for gardening) by storm you have to take notice. 

And so I did take notice.  In 2003, I was ordered to read the first book (by my wife).  I must confess that I found the book to be way out there in terms of credibility.  It certainly requires the ability to suspend one's belief to make it through the book.  The style of writing causes a polarized reaction among readers.  You will either love it or hate it.  There is no in between.  You can see this from the reviews of the first book at Amazon.com. 

Instead of trying to write my own book report I would provide some direct quotes from customer reviews at amazon.com:

"Anastasia has a powerful story to tell. Once you hear the story you will not look at the blade of grass reaching up through the cement side walk in the same way. The blue sky will radiate with new meaning. The animals who call earth their home will no longer seem like artifacts of the background noise. In fact, the background noise will suddenly narrow to all the superficial gadgets, social artifice, political posturing, historical manipulation, economic fallacy, physical disfiguration, and the ever increasing "data cloud" of distraction that we call our lives... Since reading the first book, and even more since reading all 9 books, I am obsessed with getting back to the land. I am designing our family's "space of love" or domain in my head until I am able to find the physical place. I am planning our future gardens. In the meantime, I am buying only organic, biodynamic foods that are not poisoned by chemicals and genetic monkey business so that my family can have a chance at healing. The incredible relevance of these simple acts becomes crystal clear upon reading these books. Farming has never had the revolutionary potential it has today."

"I found her insights into growing food to be superior to anything I have ever read on the subject. I put this method into practice and the value her words added to my communion with living edible plants pre and post consumption was and continues to be monumental."

The message I extracted from my read of the first book in the Anastasia series was that our ancestors had a connection with the land and that we must rediscover this connection.  As if to reinforce this message, my wife insisted that I submit to some (apparently) whacko ritiuals when planting tomato seeds.  This included placing the seeds in my mouth under my tongue for nine minutes before planting them. Now this seemed pretty silly at the time but modern science is now starting to clue into the symbiotic relationship between an entity and it's environment.  For example, we are now learning that ants use bacteria to protect their food supply against predators.  The "ritual" that Anastasia uses when planting seeds could be the deposition of one's own bacteria on and around the garden...

If you do nothing else today then at least watch this interview of Leonid Sharaskin, the man who translated the Anastasia series into English.

How Does Your Garden Grow?

Hello, everyone, and Happy Saturday! I'm afraid my entry's going to be on the short side today--we have a lot of family visiting from out of state for Mother's Day, and there's just tons to do! But I didn't want to go another week without a posting--last week we welcomed a new baby into our close circle of friends, and I was at the hospital taking care of his brothers and sisters.

At any rate, on to today's post! My husband and I have been trying to get into a CSA for years now--there are horribly long waiting lists in our area, but we continue to plug along, hoping for that golden day when we can start our working share.

I like the idea of a CSA--I like the thought of supporting a farmer who's trying to make a go of growing healthful, organic produce. I like being able to visit the farm where my salad comes from, and having my daughter be able to see the process from planting, maintaining, harvesting and finally, eating. I like the fact that we save on some emissions of more greenhouse gasses by eliminating a bit of the packaging and shipping of produce if we buy it straight from the farm. But I like the idea of a working share even more, because then not only will she know how it all works, she'll have had a hand in making it happen.

And if you know anything about kids at all (or have them!) you know that having a kid be integrally involved in their food preparation makes them much more likely to eat it.

In fact, the only problem I have with CSA shares is that they're expensive. Granted, if you averaged out the cost of store-bought produce and factored in time, it would even out. The thing is, though, I don't have to buy grocery store produce with a seasonal up front cost. I can buy it as I need it and as my finances will support.

So, I wanted to introduce you to an awesome idea for getting your kids involved in the farming process to a small degree: Community Gardening.

A community garden is, vey simply, a plot of land gardened by a group of people. Typically, a community garden happens in a plot of land in a reasonably urban area where the land has been reclaimed from a previous usage. Maybe it was a place where people dumped junk, or where a building was demolished and the land wasn't claimed for another purpose. But it doesn't have to be that--anywhere there's an empty spot of land, a community garden can occur.

There are a lot of advantages to participating in a community garden--you can be involved in growing produce that you and your family consume, you can build community and beautify the neighborhood while participating an an activity that enhances our environment.

Finding one in your area might be as simple as Googling "Community Garden" and your city name. Or, you can head over to the American Community Gardening Association and see what they have to offer.

Or, better yet, you can start your own!