Springing into Action

Well it is spring 2010 and I didn't write much on my Small Farm Life Blog over the winter.  Kind of lost my good humor a bit under the pressure of harsh economic times.  However, I was very busy lining up topics to write about this spring and summer.  I can't wait to spend a weekend at Moosicorn Ranch in June and tell you all about it.

For those of you who aren't ethnographers, I can tell you that the research side of our work is always a pleasure. For me and this project it means talking with farmers, learning about farming lifestyles, understanding farmer's needs, discovering innovation opportunity in the agriculture sector and networking to find and meet farmers and farm advocates and professionals around the world.  How fun is that!  It also means understanding what it means to live like a farmer by living as much like a farmer as I can. 

Last season as you may recall I didn't do so well what with my wimpy lettuce and small tomato crop.  We are still eating wonderful blackberry sauce on our French Toast and the plum sauce went over well as gifts so all was not lost and I am ramping up for more success as an ethnographer (film-maker and writer) and as a wannabe farmer this season.  Smart gal, last week I attended winter cover crop school and figured out that my soil is high in N and what will grow well in the garden this season. 

What is tres exciting for me now is that the ethnographic work has transitioned into more creative projects.   I think if I only studied farming the rest of my life the research would generate more projects than a 50 person company could complete! 

Here are a few of the creative projects that have come out of the early stage small farm research.

I am making a film called Golden Threads. It will tell the story of a creative thinking forum on Transitioning to a Viable Society that was recently held in Sydney Australia. Of course to me, soil, farming and food safety and production are central to any viable society story and that fact and my interest in how minds change from a cultural psychology point of view was what led me to that project. 

I got back from the shoot last weekend and am very excited about what I learned, who I met, the documentary footage that we shot and the film that is shaping up to be an amazing story about group genius, social change and the future of life on our planet.  Let me tell you I've never been with such a large group of civic minded people and I loved and was inspired by them. 

Sound big picture enough?  I'm looking forward to the editing and am digging up the money to get the work done. I need money for everything in fact, this wanna be farmer's cupboards are just about bare. That's what happens when you cross a start up business with an artistic temperment, farming, a passion for film-making and the motivation to be an entrepreneur. 

The other creative project to spin out of the early stage farm life ethnography...I am now the official Seattle Sustainable Agriculture Examiner. I've just published my first article and I'm already trying to figure out how to spend the .40 cents I've earned :-).  Join me?  Leave a comment?  You can help me boost my income to a dollar! (If you want to sponsor a film or invest in a start-up you can do that too.  Call me.)

Third project?  The Enumclaw Public Garden.  I'm coordinating it this season.  Our rural area has been hit hard by the recession and we can use something positive happening in our community.   How much more positive can you get than people growing food for each other? 

Spring makes me happy. Tulips are about to bloom in my yard. I loved having to run outside and pick two purple tulips to save them from the hail storm we had this morning. They are so precious. The air is very cold and the snow line is just above us in the foothills, quite a bit lower than it was yesterday. To think that just last month people were ready to start planting their gardens, forgetting or not knowing that we can't plant vegetable gardens here without fear of frost or snow until Mother's Day. I admit it, I did put some potato starts in a few days ago with some help from Zola and our beloved beasts. 
 
Photos
Top::  Zola helping to prepare the soil for planting white onions.
Middle:  Cyn just finishing up planting the red potatoes  eyes that sprouted in the drawer during my month away in Australia.
Bottom:  One of our dear Japanese Silver Phoenix Roosters; he's so pretty and so sweet.

Bye for now,
Cynthia
The Wannabe Farmer