Julian Food Co-Op

While hiking some welcoming trails across the hills and meadows surrounding Julian I am mindful that nature holds a place for everyone.  The white sage likes a sunny south-facing slope, where moisture is scarce and the light is most intense.  Moving in this zone you can catch a heady scent when the air begins to warm, as though a fragrance of gratitude is wafting the atmosphere, returning a gift of sun received and passing it back to any fortunate visitor of this realm.  Perhaps it is the job of the passer-through to pass this sunlight beneficence along as a welcome fragrance too, with a restored presence of mind to fill the waiting places where he or she next walks. Thus optimism may flow into a place of pessimism and opportunity shine where none was seen before. Where there is weariness our presence may bring vitality and where sadness sits we may leave a sunnier scent of gladder possibilities. Perhaps this is an expression of our own flowering power for bearing future fruit, this capacity to pass along the gifts of life as does the humble sage, returning what it received, as each may do with a gift that is all their own. You start a life connection that begins with something as simple as a hike or a conversation. You find the power of many in the power unleashed in one, yourself venturing out like an expectant trail walker in the world. In this sense ‘Go take a hike’ takes on fresh meaning. 

While hiking my thoughts across the face of the globe, I am mindful of all the places waiting for each of us to fill with newly streaming sun-like hopes, soon to follow the current winter rains and snow.  Now the world at large is passing through its own winter season, part of a larger historical cycle that finds us in a most challenging decade.  As the fabric of the last century unravels, with social, economic, political and ecological systems in deep tumult and some near collapse, where are sunlight thoughts of spring growing now--the seedlings of rising dreams? 

Here is a story that recently appeared in the Los Angeles Times, entitled “In San Diego, fertile ground for the seeds of understanding . . .” It is a tale of two men who converged in the city from two very different war ravaged countries afar, found one another and started a community garden in a formerly desolate urban corner. Ou and Muya are their names.  One is from Cambodia, the other from Somalia. On a vacant dirt lot now a teeming oasis of year round fruits and vegetables they began a friendship that has spanned out to unfold other refugees from other troubled nations too.  At first the disparate groups feared one another, unsure how to span the alien ways of their separate cultural frames.  Physically safe in this new land yet unclear how to navigate the strange new cultural landscape, they found in the universal language of food a place to begin.  They did share one common experience: Sustenance farming had been their way of life back home, but now declining health from access to fast food and the absence of fresh and naturally grown produce was taking its toll.  So one Cambodian and one Somalian refugee teamed up and transformed a diverse community in Southeast San Diego with the ways of the plant world as master teacher.  Like a bursting seed fights to break the hardened ground, they fought for the unused city land and secured it for the neighborhood. After that, nature did its own healing work.  Now the New Roots Community Farm is a vibrant hub of nourishing human activity and resourcefulness.  The transformation was stunning. In the words of Muya, "My children used to say, 'I need hamburgers and pizza,’ Now they say, 'When can you go to the garden and pick some crops?'"  You can read the whole story here: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-farm15-2010jan15,0,3015631.story?page=1

And so in Julian our own tale is unfolding. The global trend toward community gardening during difficult times has become the next logical step for rural communities too. So with two beautiful community garden sites underway, and with other plans in sustainable living in development through the Julian Food Co-op, we are “officially” calling this endeavor the “Bearing Fruit Community Gardens.”  We thought you might like to notice the connection between this column and these blossoming activities on the ground.  You can visit the foundation for one of these gardens easily on your way through Wynola.  Look behind the Wynola Farms market place off Highway 78, perhaps while visiting this Sunday’s Farmers’ Market (Certified Organic!)  We have planted fruit trees and conifers, and are starting a native plant section with prickly pear, buckwheat and yerba santa already in the ground.  We are accepting donations of wood, straw bales or straw wattles for creating raised beds in time for Spring sowing.  We are seeking aviary wire and hardware cloth to protect the new roots as well. And most importantly we are inviting anyone to join us in the new plan for the garden layout, with invitations to select your own plot while deciding what you’d like to grow there. Is there something you’d like to produce as your own specialty? 

Contact Kathleen at 760-765-2548 or Laurel 760-765-0138 for more information. And visit the Julian Food Co-op at www.julianfoodco-op.org

We are each promising fruits born from the life stem of the universe. Every fruit starts as a bloom of beauty unfolding in the light. Each flower is a slow motion star explosion on the earth, emulating the parent sun that gave it birth. Every human heart that catches the sunlight of some deeper joy or love and beams it out again becomes a flower that ripens into sun bearing fruit of caring and sharing life. So are deeds of compassion, kindness and considerate regard. How like the teaming rows of any garden or a mountain hill of fragrant sage we are . . . or could be if we try.   

Bearing Fruit VIII
By John Raifsnider

A new thought is a light beam, flooding all places seen, creating things that have not been. A new world begins with a vision and a dream.  

Life provides. The earth is a wondrous nourishing system for all the life that swims, crawls, walks, slithers, and flies across its face. The force of life that moves upon the earth and the source of life that pulses from the Sun make a benign and supportive system—one that offers us something to emulate.  Do we emulate? 

Nature flows in an all reaching circulation, all parts exchanging with all other parts, ensuring balance--as though one big Self is seeing that its many little pieces work together in the business of sustaining one big life.  Yet human nature puts many blocks upon this circulating flow—including those we place upon the resources we receive from the earth, from the growing and distribution of food to the sharing of the fruits of our labors with others--unless of course a price tag is placed upon such ‘sharing.’  This little human thing we call ‘self’ seems frequently to intervene to block the intent of nature’s bigger Self.  But somewhere within that Great Self still lives. This is why we never feel quite right about the state of the world as it appears.  In acknowledging this, some of us throw up our hands and retreat and some of us roll up our sleeves to plan, create and meet.  I like to think that those of us in the second category are increasing, as more of those in the first grow restless to change the world as it is. 

At Winter Solstice these thoughts pour in, as the light of the Sun grows dim. So has it always been.  As the fire in the sky wanes the fire in the human heart burns brighter with the hope and promise of something more. As outer darkness reaches its deepest night let us vision a new possible world in the season of light.

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 Jane Goodall, the renowned scientist made famous from her study of chimp society in Africa has created a positive program for young people interested in making a difference all over the world. The Roots and Shoots program is about seeing positive change happen--for our communities, for animals and people, and for the environment. You can learn about it at www.rootsandshoots.org.  Here is her seed thought:

“Roots creep underground everywhere and make a firm foundation.  Shoots seem very weak, but to reach the light, they can break open brick walls. Imagine that the brick walls are all the problems we have inflicted on our planet.  Hundreds of thousands of roots and shoots, hundreds of thousands of young people around the world can break through these walls. You can change the world.”  Dr Jane Goodall 

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Winter actions are vibrantly underway in Julian on the gardening front. Kathleen Beck and Laurel Granquist have planted cover crop seeds of Crimson Clover, Purple Vetch and Fava at the Orchard Lane Garden.  A cover crop is sometimes called ‘green manure’ as it adds nitrogen and green matter to the soil, protects the plot in the dormant season and minimizes erosion. In the springtime the ground will share its gladness in welcoming new sprouting crop seeds.  Ten fruit trees, including peach, apricot, cherry, nectarine, pear and apple have been ordered for this space and the upcoming Intergenerational Community Teaching Garden behind the Wynola Farms marketplace. We are also making ready to plant a row of conifers in this new garden to protect from wind and the elements.  If you would like to learn more about planting plans for this large and very publically accessible space, please contact Kent Dover at 415-205-8742. We are actively open to receiving donations of garden helpful items such as tools, straw bails, soil amendments, etc. to help these projects thrive.

Have you visited the Julian Co-op website yet? Go to www.JulianFoodCo-Op.org to read our statement of purpose, and learn more about what is going on and how you might get involved.  If you have any suggestions, call our website creator Arlene Smith at 760-765-1825.   

Did you know that the Julian Certified Farmers’ Market at Wynola Farms 4470 Highway 78 is still going on every Sunday?  Hours go from 11:00 am to 4:00 pm. It is pleasing to see fresh produce, breads and hot food appearing here in the cooler months. Live and lively music still wafts upon the air.  Contact Albert Lewis at 760-885-8364 if you’d like to rent a space as part of the weekly gathering of food producers and vendors. 

Kathleen Beck is bringing her gracious locally grown food delivery service—Peoples Food Link--back to Julian.  Food boxes will be delivered to your door on Sundays.  Get on her email list at eletreebug@yahoo.com to be a part of this beneficence.

Call or email John Raifsnider at 760-765-2722 skyword@sbcglobal.net or Kathleen Beck at 760-765-2548 eletreebug@yahoo.com to network and offer your thoughts.

Bearing Fruit VI
By John Raifsnider

Escaping the Giant

Over the past 60 years small farms have been disappearing as corporate mergers have concentrated agriculture under the dominion of a few giant multinational companies. Like the Cyclops of old this daunting species of monolithic one-eyed colossi has wantonly roamed the earth, scooping up every appealing morsel of potential capital at will.  With that one eye it sees but one thing in the world that matters—profit.  Under its voracious gaze people do not matter, common health and happiness do not matter, humanity does not matter, respect for animals, water, land, soil and air quality do not matter. When blind-eye big rules mercilessly over all that is priceless and small, everything nourishing and meaningful is crushed under its gargantuan foot. Farming as a way of life has been disappearing like a wheat field under a locust storm. One hundred years ago family farms supplied most of our food.  We now have five million fewer farms than in the 1930’s.  Of the remaining two million farms only half are not corporately owned. The U.S. Census has dropped farming as a profession. If you are a farmer you must now place your ‘x’ in the box marked ‘other.’

Between 1995 and 2005 in Nebraska alone 500 hundred farmers committed suicide.  In India that number has reached 200,000 and counting.  Why?  It is a matter of desperation, a loss of hope for survival. The people that have fed us cannot now feed themselves, having been driven out of business, unable to compete with the all-grasping giant's fingers. Meanwhile the Cyclops of crushing debt—the ruination of family farms--has made us prisoners in his booty cave of ill-gotten gain.  Bad food raised under bad conditions, involving toxic to the land and toxic to our bodies agribusiness practices has made us diabetic, heart diseased and overweight.  The health care crisis begins here.  Our unhealthy food system is the source. We don’t know where our food comes from, under what conditions it was produced, and more importantly, who and what had to suffer to get it to us.  This represents an unhealthy disconnection from ourselves, a more knowing voice within us. In a world where factory farming sees animals, plants and people as mere commodities, not sovereign life forms and spirits of nature endowed with a larger significance, so do all become cheap product consumers in a rigidly rigged and gamed to the bottom system. Reduced to passive spectator status we create nothing of significance, becoming slaves to everything meaningless.  Alas, is this the end?  Thankfully it just might be, for without an end where can we find a beginning?

The global economic collapse has more and more of us thinking close up at the local level again.  We are coming full circle as our planetary awareness of what has gone wrong is giving us this local awareness of what can be set right. As the domain of the giant is hopelessly trapped in its small thinking--a head where stuff instead of life matters--so are the people at large increasingly beginning to think big.  This promises us freedom from the dark and joyless Cyclops cave.  As but two examples, see how Farmers’ Markets and Community Garden movements everywhere are stepping up to challenge the ever so clever but not too wise one-eyed giant.

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Please come to the Julian Farmers Market on Sunday!  Meet the source of your food untouched by the giant’s hand.  Pay a fair price to nourish a fair and healthy system for all.  Locally grown food tastes better and is bursting with more nutrients because it does not sit around long.  It has more genetic diversity (Google that one). Local food supports local farm families and builds a healing spirit of community.  Local food preserves vital open space, a cleaner environment and supports wildlife instead of rapacious commercial development. When you come to a Farmers’ Market you are arriving to meet a new world turning round to something happier and brighter in all of us. The Certified Julian Farmers’ Market is at Wynola Farms 4470 Highway 78 every Sunday from 11:00 am to 4:00 p.m..  As well as fresh produce, breads and hot food you will find vendors of locally made items such as jewelry, woodcarving and other local crafts. Try a lama ride, a massage and enjoy live music.  Contact Albert Lewis at 760-885-8364 if you’d like be part of the weekly gathering of food producers and vendors.

We are currently working on plans for two garden sites off

Come to our next Julian Food Co-op meeting on Wednesday Nov. 18^th at 4:00 p.m. at the Julian Library to hear about the latest developments in our Community Garden projects, practical ideas for a crop swapping system and some emerging bold ideas for putting Julian on the map as a globally aware and socially responsible sustainable agricultural community.  Contact John Raifsnider 760-765-2722 skyword@sbcglobal.net or Kathleen Beck at 760-765-2548 eletreebug@yahoo.com for more information.

Bearing Fruit V

The Gardening Revolution

The last edition of this column had me the telling the story of Hercules, representing the hero in you and me, subduing the bull of greed, representing the profit-before-humanity system now rapidly collapsing around us worldwide.  Since we began, a series of questions have been posed here.  In the forefront is the query: How do we move from a crazy bullish era of excess and waste, where manufactured desires have been confused with genuine human needs, to a promising new epoch of more healthy living, of sustainable life and consequent happier livelihoods for all?  The question is a worldwide one, for the present global economic outlook, impacting everyone, is not appearing as the most healing expression of what we can be. (Please raise your hand if you disagree.) I am proposing that the answer is a local one, for every person at every location on earth is facing a change of conditions in their immediate environment—from prospects of job and home loss, to mindful food budget and living expense decisions, to shifting climate conditions of world wide concern.  We are each being given choices to act in creative and promising new ways, out of pressure of necessity and planetary resource scarcity, starting in our own community.  Imagine a dynamic electric current of growing realization, now running through collective humankind and reaching each small community at every intersecting point upon the globe. When the global system falters and ceases to meet the needs of individuals and the communities they comprise, then comes a feedback current--surging from within individuals and communities, prompting us to re-set and re-fashion the dominant system.  This is where we are and where we now must start. The challenge is worldwide.  The solution begins right in our own yards.

Originally the word ‘garden’ meant ‘yard,’ the ground or enclosure around a house.  So from the beginning the place immediately surrounding you was also the space that nourished and supported you.  The teeming earth was there just waiting, right in your own space, welcoming you to cultivate, to plant, to nurture and work in partnership with the earth.  That patch of nature in front of you represented your sustenance and life support system.  Your neighbors knew this too, and with them you swapped and shared the resources of your own yard, your garden.  And so everyone, beginning with this intimate relationship with a garden, knew that they were related to everyone else through nature.  Life depended on it, and you depended on this shared life of relationship, a bonding to others through nature.  Sound like paradise, or just hard work?  Perhaps they are the same.  The well-known ancient story says that human beings began in a garden.  Our word ‘paradise’ comes from the Persian term ‘pardeiza,’ an enclosed space--in short, a garden.  Can we garden our way forward from here? 

The place we began is beginning to look like the place to which we are returning. Let us imagine that the practice of community gardening is sprouting shoots faster than the weeds of despair can overtake.  In the US alone the estimate by the American Community Garden Association says the number of thriving plots is at least 5000 and growing quickly (http://www.communitygarden.org).  What better metaphor for us to be moving from passive ‘consumer’ to active ‘producer’ than the image of people working side by side in partnership with nature once again. We are re-setting the system from our yards, our gardens and communities.   

The change is upon us. We have made ourselves lordly masters of the land and not its respectful servants. Long-term work in a garden is a humbling experience, as the gardener learns that he or she is not in charge of what magic happens there.  The garden is a metaphor for all relationships everywhere.  Everything in life of value requires careful and patient cultivation.  The imposition of force and haste will not yield healthy fruit from a garden. Our food suffers and our spirits suffer in consequence of that. This has been the error of our present system--profit driven and trying to force nature to obey the edicts of its self appointed kings rather than letting us be her partners in nature’s sublimely ordered plan.

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This Wednesday October 21^st at 4:00 pm come to the Julian Library for the next informative planning meeting of the new Julian Co-op. We will be sharing updates on recent developments in local Community Gardening prospects--with a report on the new Community Garden plot we’ve begun preparing on Orchard Lane, so thoughtfully made available by Michele Harvey and Michael Hart.  We need to come up with a name for that one. Other garden sites are also being looked into.  Come also to receive tips and materials on how to prepare your own winter garden—a report from Laurel Granquist after attending Ryan Wannamaker’s Winterizing Your Garden workshop at Camp Stevens. Arlene Smith will be showing us how to access and contribute to our new Food Co-op website (http://julianfoodco-op.org).  We’ll be discussing ideas on acquiring a physical base of operations in town, with prospects for a storefront/meeting place in the not too distant future.  We’ll also hear updates on how the new Julian Farmers’ Market is doing, including what new food items will be appearing there in coming weeks.  And the floor will be open as well for any new ideas and contributions, including the theme of crop sharing which we’re continuing to explore.

Be sure to visit the Julian Certified Farmers’ Market at Wynola Farms 4470 Highway 78 every Sunday.  New hours now run from 11:00 am to 4:00 pm.  As well as fresh produce, breads and hot food you will find vendors of locally made items such as jewelry, woodcarving, lama rides, planned activities for children and live music.  Contact Albert Lewis at 760-885-8364 if you’d like to rent a space as part of the weekly gathering of food producers and vendors.

On Halloween morning there will be a garlic planting party assembling at the Orchard Lane Community Garden.  I predict a scarcity of werewolves in that vicinity come evening time. Contact Laurel Granquist for more information at 760-765-0138.

Call or email John Raifsnider at 760-765-2722 skyword@sbcglobal.net or Kathleen Beck at 760-765-2548 eletreebug@yahoo.com to network and offer your thoughts.

 

“A properly ordered economy, putting nature first and consumption last, would start with the subsistence or household economy and proceed from that to the economy of markets. It would be the means by which people provide to themselves and to others the things necessary to support life: goods coming from nature and human work. It would distinguish between needs and mere wants, and it would grant a firm precedence to needs.”   

Wendell Berry, farmer activist and poet

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Bearing Fruit IV

The harvest season is upon us as autumn’s bounty falls into our hands.  But something is not quite right throughout the land.  Take a look at a well-known symbol for this season and time.  Where did the image of the cornucopia, the horn of plenty, come from?  It seems traditionally American doesn’t it?  But I must say its Greek to me.  From that ancient land comes a most arresting myth, which tells of the struggle of Hercules to overcome a stubborn and dangerous bull whose form was assumed by a mighty river god as a test.  The rampaging bull had been laying waste to the land and threatening its inhabitants who lived in fear.  Something needed to be done. The daring Hercules accepted the challenge.  He found the bull and met it head on, grabbing its horns, wrestling it to the ground, subduing it and tearing off one horn in the act. The bull was pacified and became a servant. The hero raised the broken horn in the air and from it flowed an abundant harvest of spectacular fruits for the people to receive.  And so was born the horn of plenty. 

What does the encounter between Hercules and the bull represent? Think of Hercules as the original archetype of the superhero. Within us each burns a little pilot light of caring awareness, a flickering flame of courage on the ready to ignite for a worthy cause—our own version of coming to the rescue.  All we need is a bigger vision and a challenging task with which to grapple.  When conditions seem easy the hero within falls asleep in his armchair, letting the world go by.  In perilous times he stirs and wakes.  The ancient hero stands for that rising spirit in each of us which wakes to aid the world if given the necessary cause and condition.  As for the bull—this creature has long been associated with the human selfish acquisitive instinct in its unleashed state.  “Worshiping the golden calf” is one of its younger incarnations. Witness our current teetering system of muscular profit at the expense of helping people, of possessive wealth instead of conscious health, of dirty oil instead of healthy soil, of traded military arms instead of thriving family farms.  Look no further than the famous Wall Street statue of a massive bull, snorting and pawing the ground proudly from its location in front of the New York stock exchange.  There you will see no statue of Hercules, the mighty servant of mankind.  Where is he?  Or rather where is the “he” that is “we?”

Flying well beneath the radar of popular media, the urgent news is that a global food crisis is developing. Vast populations of the world are struggling as a result of a great imbalance in priorities.  Out of an approaching population of seven billion people, one billion are under-nourished or chronically hungry while another one billion are over-nourished or chronically over-fed.  Why is it that the under-nourished come from the major food producing nations?  Why is it that the over-nourished reside in wealthier nations where fast food reigns supreme?  Does this look like a serious imbalance?  How can the scales be tipped aright? 

While the beast of acquisitive consumption has been rampaging the land there are signs that the hero of an awakening humanity is about to take the bull by the horns.  In small towns and within big cities across the continent citizen co-ops are planting community gardens, forming alliances for helping those in need, initiating crop swapping systems, reintroducing the ancient concept of bartering, promoting farmer’s markets and regionally grown food, educating the public about ecologically sound and sustainable food production.  We are taking the bull by the horns, wrestling it down, tearing off the horn of aggressive materialism that our times may flow with something more benign and nourishing for all.  This is the promise. There is a benevolence and generosity that runs beneath the appearance of things, like the flowing river god who for a time took the form of the bull of greed.  We have had our fill of bull.  We are opening out to the healing of the earth and the soul of humanity again. We have a beautiful place to begin--a small town where the benign heart of a community can be found beating strong.  We are strong in heart and mind, strong in numbers united. We are an outpost of the world and also a world in the making. When money is tight and personal resources become scarce there is something we still have in plenty—a bountiful capacity for sharing, connection and mutual support, plus largesse of spirit for embracing buoyant possibilities with a call for transformative action. Let us be this flowing river of life, that benevolent spirit, this sharing generosity abounding with plentiful creativity.  Let us raise our horn of plenty.

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 Crop Swapping is coming to Julian.  Broadly defined it is a way to get crops, products and services to those who can use them, with minimum waste in time and space. Our task is to establish connections of supply, i.e. who has what linked with those in need. It is a way to engage people directly with one another while giving everyone access, by way of exchange, to necessities that might have been lost. If a farmer has an over supply of something he or she can post notice of it through a community network.  A number of us are discussing how to implement such a system to make good on this promise. How to best set this up is the topic of the hour.  Toward this end the Julian Food Co-op has come into being, sporting its own website: www.julianfoodco-op.org There you will find postings of events, a list of tips and advice on gardening, crop swapping items, locally produced foods available and in season, regional and global links, access to local experts and specialists, and opportunities for support and participation.  Meet our virtual community of minds, the vibrant thoughts behind the faces you see coming and going on Main Street.

The Certified Julian Farmers Market has initiated its first weekly Sunday appearance on October 4^th from 12:00-5:00 pm at the Wynola Farms Marketplace, 4470 highway 78 (next to Mom’s Pies).  It is scheduled to run year round, through all the seasons. Here you will find hot food, local produce, artisans, craftspeople, musical entertainment, and local farmers and gardeners to meet.  Come to share, celebrate and partake!  Contact Albert Lewis at 760-885-8364 if you’d like to proffer your goods or services in this ongoing enterprise.

The next Julian Food Co-op planning meeting happens on October 21, Wednesday, at 4:00 pm in the Julian Library.  Come to hear more about Crop Swapping and ponder the part you might play.  

Call or email John Raifsnider at 760-765-2722 skyword@sbcglobal.net or Kathleen Beck at 760-765-2548 eletreebug@yahoo.com to network and offer your thoughts.

***Note: No actual bulls were harmed in the writing of this article***

A gathering of 28 people, some hailing from as far away as Del Mar and Pauma Valley, assembled at the Julian Library on August 18^th to plant seeds for a food cooperative in the Julian area.  Some came to support plans for a community garden and some came seeking support and expertise for their own home gardens.  The room hummed with incoming possibilities and contained a good mixture of the practically minded and soulfully inspired.  It appears that Julian contains an amply rich human soil, containing the right ph balance toward the prospect of bearing much fruit!

Many spoke and many listened at the gathering.  Many voices will grace this column in coming editions.  Here are a few:

Janice Duval shared her plans to teach school children the art of gardening with the aim of cultivating an understanding of where the food we eat comes from.  Kate Shapiro introduced the idea of a phone tree that people might use to inform one another of free produce in the area as well as u-pick opportunities.  Kathleen Beck who started the fresh food pickup and delivery service ‘People’s Food Link’ facilitated the enthusiastic crowd like a skilled air traffic controller welcoming new ideas rapidly coming in for a landing.  In forthcoming editions of this column we’ll be reporting many individual and collective efforts along these and other lines.  Think rows in a garden, laid out for everyone to access and tend by choice what green shoots there grow.  

Out of the meeting came incentive for developing a local ‘crop swap’ network for back country residents who would like to be involved.  Those who have extra veggies, fruits or locally crafted products would be connected to those ready to share or barter goods and even services of complementary value. It is said that the Spanish conquerors were baffled by the ancient Inca indifference to gold as an object of material lust.  There’s was a vast and impressive bartering economy based on reciprocity and the distribution of mutually beneficial goods. Will we baffle or impress by this experiment in bypassing traditional monetary transactions for the treasures of human value and shared connection? Perhaps the added goodwill and cooperation of many may come as new gold to this old gold mining town. 

The library gathering also welcomed the prospect of a food co-op for our region.  Imagine having a local store front for a community run source of earth friendly supplies and knowledge resources, a lively place that could also serve as a clearing house for events and ideas, a meeting place, library and gathering whole (play on word intended) for neighbors, friends and even far away visitors in which to plan, ponder and generate projects over a cup of organic herbal tea . . . and far more.  We may not have a town square like the eastern model but perhaps we can make a town round, as we meet in a circle of possibilities that radiates out in ways to exceed present imaginings.  Perhaps driving to the far off city to ‘gather provisions’ may be just slightly offset in our power to provide for one another. 

Out of the August gathering emerged the following mission statement:

As members of Julian and the surrounding community we pledge to work together toward these and further common goals:

• To promote regionally grown food whenever possible.• To advance the cultivation of seasonally grown local food.

• To encourage sustainability for the ecosystem and the benefit of the people.

• To endorse the concept of ‘traceability’--the honest labeling of products.

• To advance enlightened community education, sharing and communication.

• To facilitate and participate in the bartering of goods, services and skills.

• To support the local economy and to enhance its presence as a vibrant center of art,    culture and desirable living. 

Development of this mission statement will likely be an ongoing cycle, as new ideas come and better ways of voicing ones already stated continues.  This is a living thing, like a plant reaching from the ground up toward the light that is impelling its growth.

The consensus is that starting small is the way of wisdom as we grow.  Perhaps the penned goals of a mission statement are like a packet of seeds of many varieties.  Our task would be to prepare the ground and sow.  Come one, come all to add your thoughts, refinements, and wise co-direction to the process!

Before the modern origin of the word ‘bank’ as ‘a money changers table,’ was the more ancient meaning ‘a mound of earth.’  While mainstream media talks of ‘bank bailouts’ perhaps we are here creating a ‘bank buildup’—that is, here are people raising a mound of new ground, a human energy bank of rich earth, fit for a coming harvest of hope, promise and practical solutions.  It seems we are reaching for the future by reviving, retrieving, reclaiming and reinvesting the wisdom seeds of our ancient past.  Could these become the roots without which there could be no branches, leaves and future fruit?

Welcome to Bearing Fruit.  This column has come into being because a growing number of us believe that Julian is ripe for a change in the way we gather and distribute our goods.

Could the goods that we gather be a living expression of the good we have to offer one another?  This series will be a place of sharing, where we may exchange tips and information on where to obtain clean, green and healthier food that our farmers grow, including what we can grow on our own. It will be a resource for learning about what, how and where things grow locally. It will also be an information source on growing global trends impacting each of us profoundly as individuals.  Let us harvest the creative abundance of our shared resources, tending the best in one another during these challenging economic times. 

And so to begin, here are a few simple tips and suggestions:

Aren’t we all happier when we have a good companion with us?  Well our friends, the veggies in our garden, seem happier and healthier when they are planted near their good companions. For instance corn provides a stalk for the beans to climb, as squash proffers shade for the roots of taller plants, thereby creating less evaporation from the soil surface.  Marigolds and calendula create a soil environment that keeps nematodes away and tomatoes happy. By planting strong smelling plants such as lavender, chives, garlic and tobacco, you can disguise the sweet smell of edibles that you wish shall remain uneaten by insects. Big green tomato worms do not like borage flowers. Plant them with tomatoes for a happy bunch. We have been experimenting with combinations such as these this summer, with great results!

All around Julian there is fruit that may at times be going to waste. If this is the case and you wish to create a crop swap situation for yourself, let us know of your offerings and what you would like to see in exchange. We have been discussing setting up a barter type system where farmers needs and consumer’s needs are all being addressed, resulting in zero waste.  This is an ancient concept, long ago practiced and coming round again to shape our future.  What is old is new again!  This time of challenge brings with it fresh hope.

There is much we can do as participants in the vibrant network of one community.  Many possibilities invite exploration!  We can together move, pragmatically and creatively, from a heavily commercialized culture of waste and frequently fruitless labor to a community of plentiful sharing, support and cooperative endeavor.  Let us replenish ourselves from the roots of new joyful endeavors, creating fresh potential for enriching all in the long-term future.

Who is not hungry for a better world, one that is rich and fruitful for everyone?  Many are waiting for it to happen.  Others believe it will never happen.  This column shall speak to all who stand ready to make it happen.  Whether laboring in ones own garden or the garden of the world at large let us work to make it happen. Will not such labors of love bear the promise of abundant fruit?

             “I associate the garden with the whole experience of being alive,

and so there is nothing in the range of human experience

that is separate from what the garden can signify

in its eagerness and its insistence,

and in its driving energy to live----to grow, to bear fruit.”

Stanley Kunitz, nationally honored poet, celebrating his 100th birthday in his garden