Week 5, Summer 2023
Hello all,
This weekend was the first farmers market of the season! Acacia and Daniel woke up with the sun to go buy a tent before the market. While at the store, a storm rolled in and they were forced to shelter in place with all the Walmart employees.
Monday we welcomed the last member of our summer cohort, Lev. However, the house feels El and Zoe’s absence. We are so excited for when we are finally all together again.
We spent the morning weeding and transplanting blueberries, cabbages, and peppers. In the afternoon, we washed mushroom tents and buckets and attended to different plants’ needs around the farm. Daniel extra slayed by killing many Japanese Beetles. (Ideas shared during lunch to address the beetle problem included making Voodoo dolls from beetles or putting dead beetles in a jar as a scare tactic).
On Tuesday, four brave souls waded through the cornstalks to collect soil samples. We continued mulching the trees, set up drip lines to the fruit trees, and worked on other odd tasks around the farm. JR continued the outhouse project. The workday ended with us all lying on the floor in sweaty heaps. We revitalized ourselves with a trip to Johny’s pool and Fourth of July fireworks.
Wednesday, we had a huge push to mulch the trees. We also inoculated mushrooms, transplanted, and brought produce to the food pantry. At the food pantry, Nadav learned about some upcoming community events we are excited to attend.
In the afternoon, we welcomed Jordan Wax to the farm. Jordan is a Yiddish scholar and musician who brings together the rich musical heritage of New Mexico that weaves together Spanish, Mexican, Indigenous, European immigrant, Anglo-American, and Afro-American musical influences. We learned about translation in music and discussed different ways of relating to the Yiddish language.
Thursday, we continued soil sampling in the corn and soy fields. We trellised the tomatoes, weedwacked around the trees, inoculated mushrooms, and planned for our field day in two weeks.
In the evening, a local stray cat followed Miriam home on her sunset walk. She is incredibly affectionate, constantly head butting for scratches, tripping in order to get loving attention, and suckling on fingers. Nooch had much to say about our guest, however, by the end of the night, they seemed happy to coexist. The active communication and non violent conflict negotiation followed our community guidelines and felt representative of the Zumwalt community.
On Friday, we worked together to care for the squash in ATR (the bed across the road). We harvested for the farmer’s market and Acacia led us in context conversation on composting systems and how we want to compost at ZA. In the afternoon, we continued work around the farm and helped with hay bailing. After a long week, we are ready to welcome in Shabbat and dedicate time to community rest.
This week's Torah portion is Parashat Pinchas. God gives Pinchas a covenant of peace, explains the apportionment of the Land of Israel, the daughters of Tzelophechad petition to inherit their father's land as females in a male inheritance system, and Moses appoints Joshua his successor. The story of the Tzelophechad sisters feels especially resonant to Zumwalt Acres.
Prior to this story, land was only passed to men. At the time it was ludicrous to think of women inheriting land yet today in many parts of the world, it is a given. This makes me think about land reallocation and reparations. Currently, land is possessed and passed between people through agreements of money or family inheritance. However, like the inclusion of all genders in land ownership today, that could be changed to create a new baseline norm of our relationship to land and land ownership.
When asking for land, the sisters ask God why should the name of their father disappear from the clan just because he has no sons to pass down land to? They are not asking on the basis of equity but rather strategically appeal to preexisting norms in order to fulfill their own needs of creating a new order. In our work of reimagining agriculture and land use, how do we balance navigating existing systems and creating radically new ways of being in the world?
This story also serves as a reminder of the need to adapt and respond to changing circumstances. In our community guidelines for the season we wrote “allow yourself and others space to change throughout the season.” As a community, we strive to adapt to the changing needs of each other, the plants, and the earth. We will take this time to reflect and push ourselves in how we change to different needs in the future.
