Sustainability is a Relationship

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To me sustainability is a relationship and any working, thriving relationship relies on communication.  Whether it's a friend, girlfriend, tree, family member, carrot, employer etc the strength and vitality of that relationship will rely on some form of communication.   To clarify, this does not necessarily mean verbal communication.  Taking from the old saying, "it's not what you say it's how you say it,"  I can remember visiting Venezuela, as an insecure 6 or 7 year old that felt so confused and disconnected because I did not speak a word of Spanish, but yet found friends and laughed harder than ever.  There was something outside of the language and it doesn't seem to be any different than the communication we need to have with our land and food, in order to have a strong sustainable relationship.  I think it has become very obvious that our nation's agricultural system has dismissed this idea of communication.  Instead we've replaced a continuous, complex, conversation with "we know best" and stopped listening.  This concept of definitive and exact understanding of something as dynamic and fickle as nature is becoming counterintuitive, the more I learn about farming.  I've heard a lot of people associate sustainability with having to give up something in order to have a more sustainable relationship with our food i.e. lower yields, more pest problems, more people without access to affordable food, but I think it's just the opposite because when you really love and want something to work for the long term, we don't give anything up, we are actually gaining something much more valuable and long lasting.  A few months ago I posted a TED talk from Dan Barber, Executive Chef and Co-owner of Blue Hill restaurant which is located on the property of Stone Barns, the farm I currently work on.  His talk was about a sustainable fish farm in Spain.  A great storyteller, this time he uses another interesting and unique example from his personal experience to show the incentives and beauty of sustainability.  

Holy Shiite: A more in depth look at an ancient Indian tea

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  While volunteering on a weekly basis, I was constantly missing huge pieces of the farming puzzle including many stages of plant development from seed to harvest which left me with an incomplete feeling.  I could read and talk about what was happening while I was sitting behind my desk Cubing in Rockefeller Plaza, but to me theorizing never feels as good as the real thing...experiencing something for myself.  Similar to a classroom, without real world application, it's all just an idea and not a reality.  So after a year of thinking, reading, listening and dreaming, I'm finally getting my first taste of what it's like to care for these plants through each stage of growth.  Holy basil (AKA Sacred Basil or Tulsi) is a plant that caught my palette from first steep.  Difficult to walk past without stopping to stare at it's beauty and stature.  Although attention grabbing, it wasn't until I finally got to work hands on with this ancient Indian panacea that I learned that the real power was actually found...

Pic of the Week

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In life, sometimes your hat will also be your salad bowl

When Will Then Be Now?...Soon

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What's wrong with now?  When a good idea sprouts in my head, sometimes I think "I can't wait to get started" yet I just go back to what I was doing and leave it for the ominous later, but so much happens between now and later that nothing ever gets done.  If I truly wanted that idea to turn into something real, wouldn't I want to start that process now?  But now is a beginning, a transition, a first step of many and that can be extremely intimidating.  Acting now requires sacrificing something in the short term for something better in the future, but it's a trade without guarantees.  There is also fear of making a mistake, or following the wrong path too far and wasting your time.  The truth is acting now and failing is not failing at all, it's taking a step in the direction of your ultimate goal even if...

One Long Saturday

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Well it's been a while since my last post, not in actual days and minutes, but in its feeling.  Seems like a lifetime ago, which reminds me of how relative time really is.  There's a huge difference between feeling like the days will never end and the days are way too short.  This change was an incredibly subtle moment that altered my perception of everyday life in such a profound way.  Since making the switch from finance to farming, I haven't had a minute to do what seemed so commonplace before.  Checking emails has become an incredibly difficult task, but not as hard as simply finding the time to set up a wifi connection.  Nevertheless, time is what you make of it and with two separate phone calls from some of the people that helped me set up this website telling me basically it is true that "if you don't use it, you do lose it, I've decided to make some time.  Welcome to the office/farm/lab/university/playground...

Veggie Sandwich: Simpler than you think

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As a former college athlete and active person in general, I never thought it made much of a difference what I put in my body since I was always burning so many calories every day.  As a skinnier kid, playing basketball at a high level, I was also pushed by my trainers to eat large quantities without much focus on where the food was coming from, if it was available I should eat it.  Once Matt and I began our time on the farm and researching food more thoroughly, I realized the more I learned about the agricultural state of the US, the less I wanted to eat here (i.e. industrial farming practices involving intense chemical spraying, close quartered livestock factory farms using heavy doses of unnecessary hormones and antibiotics, etc.), but while that seems like a strongly negative statement, the grass can be greener on this side of the fence too.  What does this mean?  It means I finally realize what my dad's been trying to ingrain in my head since I was a little kid...

The Proof is In the Nails

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I can't tell if it's me or this city, but over the last couple of years I've started to notice a ton of farm stands and locally sourced restaurants in Manhattan.  This may simply be white car syndrome, once you want to buy a white car you start noticing white cars everywhere you go.  Nevertheless, it has been great to come across all of these new options (at least new for me).  While walking down on Carmine street and 6th avenue (near the W 4th street stop on the E, F train), I came across Woori farm stand.  With a table completely covered in greens, I couldn't help but stop and check out the goods.  It turns out...

What A Beautiful Day For Some "Mistakes"

"I am not discouraged because every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward"

- Thomas A Edison

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As the soil continues to warm and the spring rains pour down, each clear day on the farm shines with an incredible wild, colorful beauty unlike anything I've experienced in the city.  This drastic change in climate propels the growth of a lush, green, unkempt pasture whose call to lie down is rivaled only by the extreme comfort of your bed in the morning when you have to get up way before you are ready.  What a beautiful day for some...