Jun 3, 20203 min read

Lessons from the Land {Week 3 CSA}

Updated: Jun 23, 2020

Despite the balmy weather passing by, it feels as though we're in the midst of a storm. Unpredictable days, weeks, and months ahead meet tumultuous news reports by the hour. Out here, we find ourselves turning off our devices and digging deeper into the dirt for reprieve—and answers.

Fortunately, nature is quick to remind us of her wisdom. Lingering with her roots long enough reveals their unfathomable depth and the networks operating endlessly around and within us. Our smallness in this infinite matrix is a relief when the problems we face feel so huge and unyielding. While acknowledging the tasks at hand, we find calmness in her expansive timeline, remembering that the soil is both what nourishes us all now and what recycles us all later. Perspective is an effective balm, and we find farming offers a lot of it.

As large, interdependent systems are strained, the resilience of our local infrastructure is revealed. In mid-March, when fears of the Coronavirus first spiked, we saw widespread food shortages in local supermarkets and intense strain on national distribution networks. Grocery stores were being rationed staple foods and supplies, and I-80 closing for a day (during a storm) only fueled more fearful hoarding.

As a small, local farm running the only farmers market in the off-season then, we saw a huge surge of interest in supporting local producers. People who we'd never seen at the farmers market suddenly wanted to know all about where they could connect with market vendors. Local veggies, meats, eggs, baked goods, and even hand-crafted items gained a new audience—one they'd been seeking for years.

Supporting local not only benefits individuals in our community, but also helps to reestablish regional independence. Gone are the days when every community had tradesmen/women for any sort of local need. After all, who needs a shoemaker (with her tailor-made prices) when China makes the same kicks for one-tenth the price? Beyond the lack of traceability (of all those hidden costs, or "externalities") of far-away businesses is a more obvious issue: what happens when those trade pathways close? What happens when the I-80 closes? Or there's a huge crop failure across a swath of California? These are questions localists have been positing for years, but only recently do they seem more pressing than abstract.

Enter: local artisans. The greater Reno-Tahoe-Truckee community has a wonderful affection for its local makers, bakers, and farmers. It's a diehard group of people (likely including you) who seek local goods first and it's recently enjoyed a big enrollment. But the question local producers are asking is: will it stick?

We sure hope so. Appreciating locally grown, raised, or made products takes some experience. The improved flavors of fresh, small-batch sourdough might seem subtle to those used to mass-produced versions. Small farm organic produce often looks nothing like what shows up at Costco with the same organic label. But we believe that reaching across those expectations with transparency about the intentions, integrity, and people behind each business is what fortifies our local economy. So, we'll continue to work on showing it and we thank you for having the vision to see it.