Towards a Sustainable Culture

The sound of rain falling is a benediction tonight. I opened the window so I could hear it better. The cows are about halfway through their grazing rotation since we put them out onto the pasture earlier this month. It's been so dry, and unseasonably hot, that I was afraid the first paddock wasn't going to grow back by the time they came around again. The whole day has been lovely. I can't remember the last time I spent a day outside in a spring rain. I spent a good part of the day preparing the new ground I've been working up for a potato field. When I broke the sod the ground was baked as hard as it usually is in mid-summer. I could only work it very lightly with the rototiller. I picked the rocks off it, then worked it up again - a little deeper this time. Today I picked up rocks again in the rain, then tilled it once more, as deep as I could. The light showers we had today had moistened the top inch or two of soil, but it was very satisfying to till it under and turn up the dry soil that is now receiving a good soaking. I had fed the cows on that piece of ground for most of the winter, and the soil is a rich mix of decomposing manure and hay stalks. We have a nice balance of sandy loam soil here, not too alkaline, and it's been well taken care of. A commercial gardener who has visited this farm in the past told me recently that he wished he had soil half as good as we have. Working in it today I was reminded of Wendell Berry's essay, "The Gift of Good Land" where he is speaking of the Promised Land of the Old Testament story:

...the good land is not given as a reward. It is made clear that the people chosen for this gift do not deserve it, for they are "a stiff-necked people" who have been wicked and faithless. To such a people such a gift can be given only as a moral predicament: having failed to deserve it beforehand, they must prove worthy of it afterwards; they must use it well, or they will not continue long in it.

Berry goes on in the essay to articulate an understanding of charity that does not end with human "neighbours," but extends to all of creation.

Charity is a theological virtue and is prompted, no doubt, by a theological emotion, but it is also a practical virtue because it must be practiced. The requirements of this complex charity cannot be fulfilled by smiling in abstract beneficence on our neighbors and on the scenery. It must come to acts, which must come from skills. Real charity calls for the study of agriculture, soil husbandry, engineering, architecture, mining, manufacturing, transportation, the making of monuments and pictures, songs and stories. It calls not just for skills but for the study and criticism of skills, because in all of them a choice must be made: they can be used either charitably or uncharitably... The ability to be good is not the ability to do nothing. It is not negative or passive. It is the ability to do something well - to do good work for good reasons. In order to be good you have to know how - and this knowing is vast, complex, humble and humbling; it is of the mind and of the hands, of neither alone.

We'll be planting potatoes soon in this good soil. They're already laid out and sprouting in the summer kitchen - Superiors for new potatoes; lots of Yukon Gold which should be the backbone of our restaurant trade this season; and German Butterball, which I don't know much about. The seed potatoes I got from my father are small, and I think they'll make a tasty early potato. The name is certainly appealling, unless it makes you think of overweight Bavarians.

Mark Trealout is a chef and farmer who has started a company called Kawartha Ecological Growers. He has developed relationships with a number of chefs in high-end restaurants in Toronto who want to serve ecologically and locally grown food. We are planting the potato field to serve this market as a way of getting our feet wet in commercial production. The possibility of this and other markets for local, organic produce growing and developing is encouraging.

Shifting gears a little...

Andrew posted the following comment on the April 24 entry:

henry - i'm finding myself more and more interested in sustainability. not only in the environmental/ecological sense, but also in an ecclesiological sense.

what makes a church community sustainable? what does sustainable preaching look like? what does sustainable mission look like?

any thoughts?

I apologise that I haven't been keeping on top of the comments very well lately. I think Berry might have answered part of your question, and I refer you to his work for a fuller treatment. I'm planning on picking up on the relationship between ecclesiological sustainability and cultural sustainability as a whole when I get back onto the sustainability theme here shortly (honest).