community practices · ecological sustainability

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The Garden
CSA
Bees
Wildfarming

The Garden
We are dedicated to growing food organically, integrating many principles of biodynamic gardening, permaculture, and wildfarming. With a commitment to work without machinery that is noisy, invasive, and dependent on fossil fuels, we prioritize planting with hand tools, which offer us a more contemplative relationship with the elements, the soil, and the plants and animals. In time we intend to bring draft horses to support the work of the larger field crops.

 

Suddenly I seemed to see the mist as a shimmering gossamer tissue and the harebells, appearing here and there, seemed to shine with a brilliant fire. Somehow I understood that this was the living tissue of life itself, in which all that we call consciousness is embedded, appearing here and there as a shining focus of energy in the more diffused whole. In that moment I knew that I had my special place, as had all other things, animate and so-called inanimate, and that we were all part of this universal tissue which was both fragile yet immensely strong, and utterly good and beneficent.
~Robinson


The C.S.A.
(Community Supported Agriculture)
Metta Earth Community Garden

We look forward to providing high quality, local, organic produce in the years to come. A distinctive aspect of the Metta Earth Community Garden C.S.A. is its intention to be a working membership, which means that shareholders make a smaller financial investment than usual, and instead take part in the work of the garden. This model offers members a chance to learn about gardening together, enjoy the synergy of working cooperatively, and celebrate community efforts with seasonal garden festivals.

Also particular to this C.S.A. is the focus on wild farming, integrating ecologically sustainable small-scale farming with wildlife and wilderness values. It is our intention to help build a human community that lives in harmony with the surrounding natural community.

I’m going to plant a heart in the earth
water it with love from a vein.
I’m going to praise it with the push of muscle
and care for it in the sound of all dimensions.
I’m going to leave a heart in the earth
so it may grow and flower
a heart that throbs with longing
that adores everything green
that will be strength and nourishment for birds
that will be the sap of plants and mountains.
~ Murillo


Bees and Beekeeping

The humble bee is crucial for the pollination of our food sources. With this awareness, we are devoted to the protection, cultivation, and care of bees. Observing the bees and their relationships to the humans, the plants, and the bears, who of course love their honey, we have an intention to honor the lively dynamic of this interconnection. We bring our fascination to this endeavor of supporting a healthy and balanced habitat for all. As well as the essential gift of pollination, the honey, beeswax, propolis, and bee pollen are real treasures. The mysterious queendom of the bees is one of the great wonders of earth.


The temple bell
stops ringing
but the sound keeps coming
out of the flowers.
~ Basho

Wild Farming

In keeping with conservation easements to protect and restore the wildlands and its wild
inhabitants, we are commited to agricultural principles and practices that interface with nature as graciously as possible. The term “Wildfarming” originates in the conservation movement as an inpiration for farming in balance with natural ecosystems on the planet.

Metta Earth Community Garden is being developed as a community-based farm that integrates wildlands values.

Visit the Wild Farm Alliance website with this link to learn more about the very conscientiously cultivated wildfarm guidelines.
www.wildfarmalliance.org

The Peace of Wild Things

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.
~ Wendell Berry

 

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