17 Comments

Lovely to hear your voice narrating john. It is so interesting to hear about the efforts of humans to make a life in a very specific place. There has been so much change, error, slow learning and unlearning. This restorative project sounds wonderful and I hope there is much success in it for all.

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Thank you, Jen! I hope to bring updates as the project unfolds.

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Thank you did sharing this series. This is an exciting development. Wonderful to hear about this happening in my region (I live in Bellevue).

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Oh, thanks so much, Kim, for these kind words! I feel that these things are just a little bit more possible in this region.

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I love this! Not just that the Land Trust stepped in and saved the day, but also the partnership with the school. I’d love to come over and tour the farm. I teach a section in my class on local farms. As many of the students are in central Illinois, I concentrate on that area, but I like to be able to bring up other examples too.

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Yes! I was thinking the other day that you should visit the farm. They have open house days, plus Judy's super accommodating with meetings and tours for folks who have an interest. The website is https://organicfarmschool.org/. I'll send you an email with Judy's email. Let me know when you visit and if I can help out with logistics at all. I'm 5 minutes from the farm.

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Perfect! I’ll try to get over soon...before the weather turns over to winter. I’d like to see it at different stages in this process. I’ll look for your email. Thanks, John!

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John, I have so enjoyed this series. You manage to convey so much sweep of history in such straightforward posts. The connection between Scotland and Whidbey Island makes sense not only because of your migration but because of this giant family farm issue, which is so relatable. My family arrived at the southern end of Puget Sound in the 1870s and sold the old family farm (a dairy) in the 1940s. You may already have read my "Stumps" essay, which is also about going forward on the land by turning back. https://open.substack.com/pub/enchantedinamerica/p/stumps?r=1mk0zn&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web . I really felt these essays.

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Tara, thank you so much for reading, and for your comments. I'm glad the family farm issue resonated. That was the hardest part to write. It's a small island, so I know several of these farmers personally.

I had not read that essay, but will do!

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I absolutely loved this series John. Only got time to finish reading all of it today. What a trip! Let's dream of and work towards a world where communal landholding becomes a reality again and redefines the innate power of a community in the post-modern world.

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I really appreciate your reading through all of this and your thoughtful comments.

We have no idea how the recent the phenomenon of personal land ownership is, nor that it is inseparable from colonialism.

I've written a series of posts exactly about that power of community. We all recognize it and appreciate it in parts of our lives. Can we make the jump to see how that power of community can be applied to the problems we face around land, water, the environment, and climate?

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The short answer is, let’s hope so!

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So heartening to hear of efforts like this--I really liked framing it in the context of the history, and of working to not just do the same thing through inertia.

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Thanks so much, Freya. I'm looking forward to following this project over the coming years and reporting back from time to time.

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So much to appreciate and respond to in here, though my brain got stuck on the thistles. I went for spot-spraying the ones in my yard with high-concentrate vinegar for a couple of years but it was a huge time investment and didn’t seem to get much done. I’ve kind of despairingly given up.

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I've done the same, with similar results. Apparently it's "one of the worst invasive weeds worldwide".

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