Day 3, 4, 5: Relationships and food

The days are pretty packed here. There is so much I could tell you about. As I was saying in my last post, on Monday we went to a large scale mushroom operation. The owner's son showed us around. Yes, mushrooms are grown in chicken poop, like I thought, but it's also mixed with hay, gypsum, compost and other stuff. And put into these beds which are stacked one on top of another (like bunk beds)in a climate controlled concrete room. Inside the room we saw the pickers putting the white button mushrooms directly into those little plastic boxes you buy at the store. We could hear several different languages being spoken, as most are recent immigrants. It was a fascinating operation. Low in terms of chemical inputs, but probably high in terms of energy needed to keep the rooms at a particular temperature (and sterilize each room after each batch. By heating it up tso 160 degrees!). Also the fact that immigrants are used, and are paid so little created lots of debate about workers rights, fair wages, etc. among us otesha tour members, etc.

Later in the day we had a workshop on how to save seeds (which was given by a dedicated woman who has the seeds for 310 different varieties of tomatoes). People like her are doing amazing work maintaining the genetic diversity of our plants. So much of it has been lost already. Her bean collection - just the small part that I saw - was astounding! Other than say kidney, black, navy, and maybe green beans - we're just not exposed to all the diversity that has evolved. That night for dinner our guest was a man from the Seneca first nation. He told us story after story of his people and their relationship to eachother and to the land - they are and were farming. Their staple crops were the three sisters (beans, corn and squash). I wish I could adequately convey his stories. But the main impression I got was just how connected to the land and all living beings. It also reminded me of something said by the young farmer working at Roots and Shoots: the difference between industrial agriculture and organic is that industrial agriculture feeds the plant (and often depletes the soil and hurts the environment) organic agriculture feeds the soil. In fact, these farmers hope to leave the soil healthier than when they found it. It's all about rethinking our relationship with the earth. And changing your perspective. It is not something many of us think about, but if pushed to define it, I think I probably grew up thinking the land was something you either used or protected. Using was necessary but bad (like building roads, etc.). And therefore, we need to save it and protect it. But using and protecting and even better, respecting and nourishing the land at the same time just didn't seem possible. But it can be -- if we change our perspective. If we work with natural processes and honour them. But it's not easy. It takes a tonne of knowledge. And some of it I think has been lost and some of it needs adapting to our time and place.