We are what we eat, and the choices we make about food matter in terms of our personal health, the health of the soil, and energy consumption. So, to act on our good environmental intentions, and to connect ourselves more deeply with our local community, we joined with another couple to purchase a Community Supported Agriculture Share. Together with our friends, we will share in whatever a local organic farm, Tantre Farm, has on offer. Each week we’ll pick up our locally grown organic vegetable goodness from the Ann Arbor Farmer’s Market. I’m excited about this.
Particularly after reading The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less, which says that we are typically less happy with our decision the more choices we have to make, I appreciate the lack of choice we’ll have. We’ll pick up our share of whatever is growing at the Farm, radishes or lettuce, kale or beets. I also like the idea of eating what is fresh rather than what I’m used to grabbing from the produce aisle at the grocery store. I think I might try a few things I might not otherwise. I like the idea of my food making a short trip to my table, and the taste of something at the peak of its ripeness.
Today, I went with a friend to the work day at Tantre Farm. It was a spectacular sunny spring day, the fields had large leeks and tiny lettuce plants, and there were lots of seedlings waiting for planting in a kind of arched greenhouse. Seeing the rolling land and the open vistas was wonderful, and knowing the particular hillock where the lettuce grows is cool. The visit cemented further the sense of participating in a community by joining the CSA. We felt welcomed there.
I was expecting the plants and the open fields. I wasn’t expecting the animals. That very morning, one of the farm’s cows had given birth, and we wandered to the fence and looked into the eyes of the newborn calf. His mother was gently licking him clean, and he was standing, very stable, unafraid of all the interest. He seemed massive to be a newborn. The farm also had two 2-week-old two goat kids, two spring-loaded brothers who were very tentatively butting heads with each other. Though their coats were silky soft, they didn’t want to sit still and let me pet them. My friend did get their interest by drumming a tune on the milking station. He couldn’t convince them to butt heads with him, but I think they were half convinced. Makes me want to borrow some human kids to share the place with. What a joy to visit.