Today I visited a friend at a nearby CSA during her lunch break. She looked exhausted and had dirt smudged on her face and in the cracks of her neck. But, she was full of energy, gave me a big hug, and said, “Let’s go get lunch from the fields!”
I followed her toward the long rows of deep purple and all shades of green. She carried a multi-colored basket she wove out of old plastic bags and a harvest knife in her left hand. Within ten minutes we had enough ingredients for a salad and snap peas to dip in hummus.
The warm summer sun tickled our skin as we relished in our abundance. While we sat in her hut chowing down on a salad of greens, shredded beats, homemade croutons, tomatoes, scallions, and basil, we smiled at one another. A satisfying meal all from the fertile soil and the farm workers’ much appreciated labor is pure justice. “I think there is more energy in food that is recently picked than food that sits on a shelf,” I commented. My friend agreed and added that it is very rewarding to work all day, and then eat what you are tending from the earth to have more energy to work again. It’s a cycle. We are as much a part of the earth as the microbes in the soil.
At the end of a day when my back aches and I’m too tired to do yoga, it still feels worth it when I make a meal from sources I have a relationship with. I am living in luxury among the garlic scapes and radishes. As I work hard each day during the summer months, the abundant farm food sustains my energy to accomplish each task. I am surrounded by lots of real food at a time in the year when I need it most. Thank you, cycles of the earth for being so loyal.
Farming for Justice 