Team Sufficiency
For the past 9 years I have worked at a certified organic blueberry farm over Summer. For the last 6 years I have been the farm manager (or leading hand) for the season. It’s a good job to fill in the down time for my other work.
Yesterday I got to go to the farm and start learning how to prune the blueberry bushes. Plus some weeding and maintenance work. This is my first time on the pruning.
My arts work is virtually non existent at the moment due to Covid restrictions. So a day of outdoor farm slog and plant learning was fantastic.
I exchanged my day’s labour for a couple of kilos of frozen organic berries, fresh lemons and some frozen stewing cuts of their home bred lamb.
Yesterday not a cent changed hands but there were winners all around. I got a much needed escape, exercise, the beginning of some new gardening skills and some top quality, home grown,organic produce. The farm owners got an extra hand on the tools and some chores done. The improvements to the fruit harvest will, in turn, benefit us both come picking season.
We all like the idea of ‘self sufficiency’ but really the goal should be ‘team sufficiency’. A sharing of knowledge, time, labour and produce benefited 2 households yesterday.