Full Shares: Salad Mix, Broccolini, Garlic Scapes, Carrots, Kale, and Cucumbers.

Partial Shares: Salad Mix, Broccolini, Carrots, Garlic Scapes, Basil, and Cucumbers

Hello CSA members!

Happy Fourth of July!! I spent a lot of time out in the broccolini patch this morning, which perhaps gave me a bit too much time to ponder Independence Day. Have any of you ever read the book Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow (yes, the book the musical was based on)? It’s an interesting fact that the founding fathers of this county had differing views of what our country should look like. George Washington and Thomas Jefferson believed we should have an agricultural society (we’re going to ignore the role of slavery in this discussion for now), because farmers are able to grow their own food and produce their own fiber, fuel, transportation, and animal feed. And by being self-sufficient and widely dispersed across the land, farmers would be independent and therefore free of being manipulated or oppressed by a future government or monarchy. In other words, an agricultural society would be a highly independent society. And then there was Alexander Hamilton ( and to some degree John Adams), who believed in a model of industrialization, global trade, and a Big Banking sector. Which progressed to a system where people moved to cities and specialized in one specific job or task, and then used the earnings from that job to buy all their other needs and wants. Which led us to the idea of a consumer economy. And I think it’s safe to say that right around World War II, when the industrial war machine adjusted its focus to domestic life, our country transitioned from the former model to the latter. And in doing so, we shifted from a model supporting independence, to a model that promoted dependence.

I can get onboard with the July 4th holiday, because I love waking up in America every morning knowing that I am free to make my own choices each day. We are free to choose our own paths, and we have the freedom to voice our opinions with a lower chance of getting disappeared in the night than in some other places. But when I look at our modern culture, while I see freedom and ease and convenience, I don’t see much in the way of independence. We depend on others to grow our food, make our clothes, build our homes, provide our energy and transportation….all the things…..and we have lost the skills and knowledge to do it ourselves. While the “others” we relied on used to be friends, neighbors and community members in the time of Hamilton, in todays world it is increasingly large corporations. We may no longer be at the mercy of the Monarchy, but I think we are way more beholden to multinational companies than we’d like to admit. Which given their track record, I don’t give much trust, and the whole arrangement makes me feel a bit uneasy.

Take for instance the fact that 97% of the food consumed in Montana is imported from out of state. I wonder how many people assume that the agricultural production that they see all around them is producing food for our community? I would imagine many people would be shocked by that statistic. Or the fact that at any point in time, we have 3 days worth of food supply in Montana, so if a major disruption occurs, that’s how many days we can feed ourselves. It’s as if we’re living in a game of musical chairs, and our strategy is to just hope that the music never stops, as opposed to being proactive and building more chairs so that everyone has a seat. As a farmer, I’ve always wondered why local food systems aren’t talked about more as being a buffer of resilience in the face of disruption or change.

But as you know, I tend to ponder lots of things, and in general end up pretty perplexed by why we do things the way we do in our culture.

As far as the CSA goes, there is a lot of broccolini coming out of the fields these days, so you’ll be getting a generous dose of it. Same could be said for the cucumbers, which have come on strong in just one week. You’ll see the CSA standard Salad Mix, we’ll have carrots again, as well as a few miscellaneous items. If you haven’t made Garlic Scape Pesto yet, this might be your last week to give it a shot!

The warm spring has dried out the landscape really quickly here on the farm, the insect pest pressure is ramping up, and the Stillwater River is surprisingly low on water for early July. If you needed any further proof it was a warm spring, there is a saying in this country that corn needs to be “knee high by the Fourth of July”. While most years we can hit that mark, this year it is already taller than Rebecca!

OK, I’m going to go cool off in the river. Happy Independence Day! I’ll see you at CSA Pickup!

Todd