One of the strengths of traditional farming over the years has been the passing down of the family farm from generation to generation. However, in the more recent years and decades that strength is waning. More often than not the children who are growing up on these farms (which are now more like big corporations) are not making themselves available for that passing down thing. One might ask what has happened? Or maybe a more important question to ask is what can we learn from how this has happened?
For this movement of small acreage farming to become a sustainable entity in our country though this seems to be a key learning and thing to build into this burgeoning movement. We know that movements often begin strong but then seem to find ways to fizzle. In this short blog I can’t address all issues that could cause the fizzle, but allow me to suggest a small but important way to have this larger gardening/small farm movement to continue to grow and be utilized in our society as an important way to become not only more self subsistent, but also introduce more and more better food options (grown with true organics in mind), into our communities.
I would contend one of the most impactful ways is to introduce this to the younger generation as soon as you can and introduce it in a way that the importance of it is seen. It won’t have to be carried out in the same way the generation before them has done so. That is it won’t have to be a family business handed down or become full time work for the greater majority, but the principles and practices of this movement will instill more backyard gardens, shared community gardens, or any number of ways that has communities of people growing and sharing food!
The pictures I provided along with this blog are pictures of the next generation in our family (grandkids) being introduced to gardening in papa’s backyard and in my kids backyard. Getting their hands dirty and learning about how much fun and pleasure can be found in this is the way to plant seeds of becoming future gardeners/farmers.
Like so many things in life the saying that things are more caught than taught truly is the way forward.
My wife and I have the privilege to be working on Flourish Farms right alongside my son and his wife who have been introduced to gardening/farming already in their life and have a passion for this. Along with this, my other children along with their spouses and children have spent time up at the farm getting their hands dirty, as they gain their own appreciation for this in their lives. I have been glad to have been a small part of passing this along and hope that it becomes practiced that way by many others in our country!
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