Holding Hands with the Land
They mix, knead, pour, roll, and pinch off hidden tastes. They leave streaks of butter on my glasses or fingerprints of flour on my clothes. Scattered burns, cuts, and calluses…
To Dig a Hole (You Create a Heap)
Here’s a joke… Question: Who made money during the Gold Rush? Answer: The ones who sold the shovels. “You were asked to dig a hole? Do you…
Enemy of the State
Botanical illustrations of the early modern period (1550-1800), the “big science” of their day, served as documentation of useful plants found in colonial territories. Plants such as tobacco, sugar cane,…
Revisiting a Geography of Hope
To be a farmer, at any point in history, means you grow food. You steward the land – soil, water, air, energy, plants, and animals – and make a living…
Fields of Knowing
Orientation First, know food From food All things are born By food they live Toward food they move And into food they return ~~ Upanishads How do…
Landscape Amnesia
As the last horse trailer passes you by on the potholed road you take an exit. Across a green pasture you park the car. You stretch your legs. Gravel grinds…
Rural Art is…
This is an extract from Myvillages, ‘Rural Art Is…’, in The Rural, eds. Kathrin Böhm and Wapke Feenstra (London: Whitechapel Gallery/Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2019) If you don’t…
Editorial: Fields
In May 1982, American artist Agnes Denes began to transform a two acre empty plot at the foot of the World Trade Center into her work Wheatfield – A Confrontation,…