Week 10, Fall ‘20
By Remi Welbel
It’s our tenth week here and we are dancing like the flames in our kiln.
On Monday, we had our team meeting to discuss our goals and plans for the week. We scheduled the timing and feedstock of each biochar burn, and determined what our last two weeks together will look like! Our greens in the greenhouse are thriving, so we are looking forward to consuming many fresh radishes and lettuces in the next couple weeks. We also figured out what steps we need to take to begin our mushroom cultivation and what care they will require when we are not living here full-time in the winter months. Additionally, we planned for the talk-back portion of the BOOST 2020 Midwest’s Emerging Entrepreneurs in Sustainability event on Tuesday and for our apprentice Zoom informational session on Friday. Overall, a productive and slightly nostalgic meeting. After our meeting, we did our first biochar burn of the week, a typical wood burn. After the burn, we began working on a Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) grant.
For dinner, Samm and Julia made pasta, tomato sauce, salad, and roasted potatoes.
On Tuesday morning, we met with Kate from the Savannah Institute to reconvene on our agroforestry policy research. We had a fruitful conversation about different avenues through which agroforestry can be supported in the Midwest, and beyond. We’re really excited about where this work will lead us! After our meeting, we began our second biochar burn of the week. We also worked on digging out a second trench for one of our raised beds so that we can build up the walls, using logs from trees that had died. In the evening, we all eagerly tuned in to the BOOST event and watched all of the finalists’ wonderful pitch videos. After the presentations, Gavi and I, along with the other finalists, answered questions during the talk-back portion of the event.
For dinner, Sophie and Claire made roasted green beans, brussels sprouts, and chickpeas.
On Wednesday, we received some very exciting news, the Lumpkin Family Foundation awarded us $25,000 to fund our agroforest! This funding will contribute immensely to our work here. We are so grateful to the Foundation for believing in our project, and believing in us. We also owe great thanks to the Delta Institute for offering to partner with us on the grant. I am so proud of the work we have done and everything we have accomplished this fall. None of this would have been possible without such an incredibly strong, dedicated team of people! Even the flames in our biochar kiln were dancing after we found out the news. Later in the day, we met with some of the folks at Delta Institute to discuss financial planning. We also worked on editing our SARE grant application.
In the evening, we had our weekly context conversation. Gavi and Julia led a discussion on Black, Indigenous, and POC farmers. It was so disheartening to read about the discriminatory financial obstacles Black, indigenous, and POC farmers continue to face in 2020. We also discussed the true genesis of “Forty Acres and a Mule,” the case for reparations for Black farmers, and the inspiring stories of Black farming organizations, such as Black Oaks center in Chicago and Soul Fire Farm in New York. After reading and reflecting, we continued an ongoing discussion of how we, as an organization, act in accordance with values of equity and justice. If you are interested in learning more, I’ve linked a few of our readings for the week below.
The Guardian “There were nearly a million Black farmers in 1920. Why have they disappeared?”: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/apr/29/why-have-americas-black-farmers-disappeared
PBS “The Truth Behind ‘Forty Acres and a Mule’”: https://www.pbs.org/wnet/african-americans-many-rivers-to-cross/history/the-truth-behind-40-acres-and-a-mule/
Soul Fire Farm “Reparations” Page: https://www.soulfirefarm.org/get-involved/reparations/
Black Oaks Center “Our Story” Page: https://www.blackoakscenter.org/our-story
For dinner, Gavi and Max made a vegetable stir fry with tofu.
On Thursday, we woke up and set out for the fields to collect corn stover for our corn biochar burn. After corn collecting, we worked together to finish and submit our SARE grant application. We also continued preparing for our zoom informational session on Friday.
In the evening, we received very sad news. Gavi’s and my beloved grandmother, Mary Jane, passed away at 92-years-old. It has been such a blessing to be able to visit her so frequently this fall. Truly an incredible woman and an incredible life who, until the very end, supported and encouraged Gavi and I to be change-makers in the world. Her spirit will always live on in our hearts and in the work we are doing at the farm where she lived and raised her three wonderful children. We are grateful to carry on her legacy of caring for others and her community as we work to transform the farm.
For dinner, Sophie and Julia made roasted sweet potatoes, squash, and salad.
On Friday morning, Sophie met with a graduate student at Yale who we are collaborating with. In the afternoon, we experimented with burning nutshells for biochar and continued to prepare for our Zoom apprenticeship informational session. We also activated a huge amount of biochar from this week’s burns by layering biochar, soil, and manure in the activation tub, mixing it, and adding water. In the evening, we were so excited to present to 20 people interested in becoming future apprentices at Zumwalt Acres! It was so wonderful to see so many faces and hear everyone’s enthusiasm and insightful questions. We are really looking forward to reading everyone’s applications at the end of the month and welcoming in another incredible cohort in the spring.
For Shabbat dinner, Sophie, Julia, Claire, and I teamed up. We made Challah, carrot soup, beet chips, miso tofu, and a beautiful salad with our greenhouse greens (huge shout-out to Sophie who has tended and cared for our greens!).
After Shabbat dinner, we opened our fill jars and spent time decompressing from quite a week together.