Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net>]

LocalHarvest Newsletter, December 15, 2009
Dinner at Beck Grove
Welcome back to the LocalHarvest newsletter.
 [Linked to  http://www.localharvest.org/farms/M7033?r=nl

A few years ago, my husband taught at a school for teenagers who didn't fit 
in any of the other schools in town. One day he asked his students how many 
of them regularly ate a meal with their parents. Of the ten kids who'd made 
it to class that day, only one raised his hand. The rest said they just 
fended for themselves, grazing in the cupboards when they got hungry enough 
to take a break from their video games. They shrugged when they said it, like 
it didn't matter. Most of these kids' parents were working long hours at 
several jobs just to get food in the house in the first place. Still, among 
the many hard things these kids faced, between ourselves we counted the 
absence of family meals high on the list.

Nowadays many families eat together only sporadically, due to parents' work 
schedules — driven by necessity or the habit of overwork — or to children's 
extracurricular activities. Yet this time is irreplaceable. It is, to my 
mind, what makes a house a home, and part of what makes a group of people a 
family. These are the people I come home to at the end of the day, and cook 
for and sit with; this is the hour we bless with our presence to one another.

There is much attention being given these days to the need to improve the 
quality of food served in our nation's public schools, and rightly so. To 
serve our children the best food, grown with care by farmers who are also 
part of the community in which the children reside is a sensible and widely 
beneficial thing.

But let us also remember the value of the meals we share at home.

Last night I spent an hour making supper, as I do almost every evening, and 
at some point between chopping the garlic and browning the onions, these 
thoughts came loudly to my mind, "I love to cook. I love to make food for my 
family." Yes, I thought, as I listened to my husband and daughter playing in 
the next room, this is a sweet part of the day. And then we sat down 
together, lit some candles, said our grace — "Thank You for this food, and 
that we are together" — and ate.

Cooking and eating together need not be elaborate, but it is best, it seems 
to me, when it is consistent. Like most such commitments — planting the seed 
planted in early spring, bringing the baby home from the hospital — the fruit 
may be months or years in the ripening.

At all times, but especially in this season of holiday bustle and stress, may 
we all slow down long enough to invite one another to the table, and when we 
get there, to look around and welcome with gratitude those who have gathered.

As always, take good care and eat well,

Erin Barnett
Director
LocalHarvest