In the work of rebuilding our regional food system we often hear a lot about eating seasonally, but on this especially cold day I want to talk about living seasonally—which is to say, living fully in the season we are in. Many of us have a favorite season that we wait for while we endure the others for three quarters of the year, yet there is so much to gain from being present.
It’s the new year, and we are just beginning to recover from the last. This was definitely a “hold on for the ride” kind of year for all of us at Farmers To You. I know that for many of you it has been the same.
I am looking forward to getting out of reaction mode this year. We have so many great improvements in store for our little food system—because even though our staff were swamped with the week-to-week volume of ordering and scrambling, they still found time to continue to work on projects and goals that we are passionate about. They are so amazing!
Every year we at Farmers To You get amazing holiday and new year cards from you, our families. Some might think this a rather mundane effort, but to receive these cards makes my heart swell with pride and joy. I feel this especially in reading the messages from our founding families. For some of you, I have watched your children come into this world and for the last ten years grow healthy and strong. We may not live in the same community, but there is something about feeding people that has always inspired and nourished me.
It has been hard to concentrate with all of the news coming from our nation’s capital these past days. Each media outlet that I find myself following seems to only be focusing on the extremes of each side. Unfortunately this leaves little space for dialog or commitment to resolve the issues at hand. And there are many, occurring at the intersections of wealth inequality, climate change impacts, public health, homelessness and substance abuse, to name only a few.
One of my New Year’s resolutions is to increase my positive impact on my community and the planet, through looking at the second- and third-degree benefits or harm my decisions, choices and purchases have on the world. I am already a bit confronted by how unconscious I can be at times.
