Welcome to Lotus Arts Farm Sanctuary’s First Summer Blog!
Reflections on Riding Summer Currents of Rest, Play, and Offering A workshop at Gaining Ground, Concord, MA, July 16, 2022
How to capture the many moments of Saturday’s workshop for families at Gaining Ground?
Kisses of humidity and sweat rolled down our backs as clouds chased the sun
Fascinating, fermenting smells of leaf compost rich and thick as clumps of dark chocolate smooth and soothing to our hands
The sprinkling play-of-water on tomato vines and three girls in our workshop running through a white dome of plants
wide smiles of summer on their lips
And so much more—
Click-Click of glass beads, girls and mothers at play
Then,
the making
of
wind-chimes
Shells
dancing
in
wind
I feel an enormous satisfaction in my body as I sit at my lap-top, tired and a little sore from a good day’s work. We weeded the edges of beet beds, spread layers of rich, black leaves on an adjacent garden bed creating soil for new growth, learned about no-till farming and Gaining Ground, chatted with one another, and toured the sweeping, gorgeous grounds of Gaining Ground with farmer Ava. Ava’s unbridled enthusiasm for her work was contagious and irresistible!
Gaining Ground produces and provides 127,334 lbs or more of fresh produce a year to the food insecure in the Boston, Lowell, and Concord area, from a mere three acres of land!
To be a part of this extraordinary effort as a volunteer, buoyed by the beauty and regenerative spirit of the place, so close to the wisdom ways and early farming practices of the Nipmuc who lived and farmed here for centuries before, feels truly a blessed and sacred thing.
Ava showed us beds of carrot, turnip, broccoli, peas, beet, cucumber, watermelon, lettuce, Swiss chard, tomatoes, potatoes, clusters of garlic harvested beneath last week’s full moon, summer squashes, zucchini, elderberry plants, flowers, herbs, apple and pear trees, and so much more…
The land of Gaining Ground and her many gardens sings with a multiplicity of flowers and plants. These plants and flowers attract pollinators and keep pests at bay in a synergistic web of beauty and design; principles well understood by farmers trained in the art of permaculture and biodynamic farming. These are the regenerative farming practices Gaining Ground and many other local farms in the area employ in an effort to reclaim our relationship with earth and the way we grow food, changing paradigms of farming to one of reciprocity and generosity from that of mono-crops and the destruction of soil & natural systems set into motion by the big Ag industry middle of the 20th century.
My body feels a gentle, almost sweet ache from stretch and lift not familiar to my daily routine. It feels an apt metaphor for the ways we are being asked to stretch and grow as individuals and communities in these changing times; even as this hour and a quarter offering service to Gaining Ground in the hot sun may have felt a stretch to the young girls at times.
There was the pleasure of water
Even as we experience a drought
Song
The heartbeat of drum as we walked in procession between fields—mothers, daughters and friends
The kiss of shade beneath a white tent
Mats for laying down
Rest
(When was the last time someone invited you simply to rest?) Play
Snacks of homemade hummus, chips, fresh cucumber, local blueberries
Sylvana’s cadent voice as she read us a story about a boy in Malawi who learns to harness the wind
While the girls and women played
with beads, shells and stones
on grass, turquoise, blue, and lavender colored mats and scarves
A gentle game of toss as we became the prevailing winds between North America, Europe, Africa and South America
The making of wind chimes from shells and beads
Soft summer breezes and wind
Chocolate
Gratitude
And a spontaneous procession back to the parking lot
This time, the girls and our two drums, assorted rattles and wind-chimes at the helm: Future farmers, creators, engineers and more
Who knows what possibilities
Whisper in the wind?