Farming is about cycles. You know,
“for every season, turn, turn,” that sort of Mother-Earth-with-a-tambourine
sentiment. And I have to say, after an initial blush of enthusiasm for the
snake-eating-its-own-tail circle of life, I had come to hate the cycles. Spring
a time of rebirth and renewal? Yup – but also of killer frosts that occur AFTER
the last frost date (which is supposed to be an AVERAGE, so that makes no sense
to me), still born lambs, and the arrival of the lovely fluttering white moths
(that are NOT peaceful butterflies tipping their delicate wings to me as I
garden, the salute of a fellow creature – they are nasty parasites waiting to
lay the eggs of their vine borer evil spawn on my squash plants so monsters can
destroy it from the inside out and render me, again, the only gardener who
can’t grow zucchini).
This spring though, I might
reconsider. We are seeing the cycling back of people, and I am finding that more
enjoyable than watching livestock die. Green Fence Farm 2.0, Max and Vanessa, are
making great progress on their slice of farmland. And not only that, but Max has
started working for Tom Hayman of Grains of Sense, a craft coffee roaster
located in downtown Staunton. Grains of Sense was one of our tent neighbors
when Green Fence Farm sold at the Staunton Farmers Market, but the connectivity
doesn’t end there. Grains of Sense shares store-space with Nu Beginning Farm,
run by John and Stella Methany, also long-time Staunton Farmers Market vendors.
In addition, John worked for a couple of years on Green Fence Farm and was a
regular contributor (bread, jam, and vegetables) to our CSA back when we had
the energy for such things.
(OK, EVERYBODY! Will the circle be
unbroken…)
But I am not done yet. After John
left GFF for greener pastures (or, as they are called in agriculture, a
profitable business), we had for a season a fabulous intern, James Cooke, who
was trying everything he could think of to get out of being an Richmond architect,
including taking from us minimum wage and a lot of blow-hardy bad advice on how
to make a farm work (Ha! He should have been talking to John). Fast forward
three years, and Jamie has escaped Alcatraz and landed in his own business
(Black Swan Books and Music) in Staunton, just a couple blocks from John and
Tom’s store.
(By and by Lord, by and by…)
Still not done. Tomorrow 5-7 PM we
will be hosting a book signing for Nick’s new novel (he writes better than he
farms, I promise), Steel’s Treasure,
at, of course, Jamie’s store (see the poster for the event below, which was
designed by daughter Vivian, who will be around the farm this summer as she
returns to her job as a counselor at Camp Mont Shenandoah and her boyfriend
Will Root stays with Vanessa and Max and works for the summer on the farm which,
if I am figuring this right, means Will will probably be opening a pool hall in
Staunton about this time next year).
(There’s a better world a-waiting…)
Of course, John and Tom are invited
to the book signing, and Jamie will be there because he owns the place. Viv is
attending, as are Vanessa and Max and Austin and Liz, who are staying for the
weekend in what has become their vacation cabin, which is the house we built
twenty years ago so we would have a place to bring the newborn Viv to
experience the cycles of rural life.
(In the sky, Lord,
in…the….skkkyyyyyyy.)
