Hello! I've enjoyed reading your posts, I'm in the Lot et Garonne. I think it's really important to keep talking and writing, as you are doing, to share ideas and practical means as to how we can all change our lives and thus our shared future in this magical realm. The spiritual connection to nature is really important and it needs reforging as well as the way we grow and who buy our food from.
Hello! Thank you for a lovely comment. I said to someone else that the posts that were harder to write because I felt they were too crusading, judgemental, etc have been the ones people most respond to. It's been very helpful to read your comments.
I completely agree re the spiritual aspect. Most of my hands-on courses (in the UK) focus on this, our relationship with Other in all its shapes, material or otherwise.
I know and love parts of the Lot. It was a possibility for us when we moved over (see my very first post!), but water stress is, I think, going to become a very serious issue. Here it's been raining non-stop for weeks, so it's a bit less likely in Brittany at the moment, anyway.
Hello Rebecca! Thank you. It's a funny thing, but the posts I feel most unsure about, the ones that could be seen as self-righteous, judgemental or just simply too hard (like eg A world on the brink, and this one) also seem to be the most popular. Delighted you rated it. x
That was so well written Roselle, you know without me saying anything at all that I agree with every word you wrote.
In the 20 years we’ve lived here, just on the hill, three small, traditional farms are gone, the land sold to younger farmers, all the hedges in all the fields removed to make way for huge machines, ancient oaks felled for the same reason, they were in the way. Where is the progress in that? It just makes me want to cry, as useless as that is….
Oh no, Susie. Somehow I kind of thought your area might be remote and hilly enough to be exempt from that kind of destruction. In Brittany there are calls for hedges to be replanted – is that happening in your area?
Brilliant article. I was a child in the 50’s and was brought up with ‘cooking from scratch’, growing and preserving our own veg for the winter, and only consuming a tiny fraction of the meat generally consumed today. Progress isn’t always positive, it can sometimes be exploitation.
I spent my childhood on a small family farm in the rural southeastern US, a lifeway very similar to what you describe (my first love was the family's dapple grey draft horse who was long since retired in favor of a tractor by the time I fell in love with her when I was a toddler). Back then, the family was able to provide for their own needs plus sell cash crops and cook from scratch and so on. But by the time I was a young adult, that lifeway was no longer feasible. Outside employment was necessary, and eventually the whole farm shut down, one piece at a time. I've watched this happen over and over again as industrial capitalism forces people into the rat race. It's unsustainable, and I only hope enough people can carve themselves out little refuges like yours before the whole thing caves in on itself. Because that's how we'll keep going, one small farm at a time.
Oh that's heartbreaking, Laura. And so familiar. And yes, I completely agree with your closing sentence. And I know you are doing something similar over there. It's important to remember we're not alone, I think.
Despite all the negative aspects of the Internet, I'm grateful that it allows me to connect with people like you so I do know that I am indeed not alone.
I absolutely adored this post, so insightful & beautifully worded. The foot & mouth crisis in the UK is burned into my memory from childhood too.
The system is so utterly defunct, it needs a total revolution.
I feel proud to say that I am a parsan, I moved to the wild to grow my own vegetables & keep a pig & some chickens. We tend a small plot of 5 hectares & trade or buy locally from others doing the same. We swapped a city life for this & couldn’t be happier.
I am now looking for the book on Amazon :) thankyou
Really informative and passionate post with so much to think about. Thank you!
Ah thank you Jan. And I'll respond to your last kind email - got email problems atm.
Hello! I've enjoyed reading your posts, I'm in the Lot et Garonne. I think it's really important to keep talking and writing, as you are doing, to share ideas and practical means as to how we can all change our lives and thus our shared future in this magical realm. The spiritual connection to nature is really important and it needs reforging as well as the way we grow and who buy our food from.
Hello! Thank you for a lovely comment. I said to someone else that the posts that were harder to write because I felt they were too crusading, judgemental, etc have been the ones people most respond to. It's been very helpful to read your comments.
I completely agree re the spiritual aspect. Most of my hands-on courses (in the UK) focus on this, our relationship with Other in all its shapes, material or otherwise.
I know and love parts of the Lot. It was a possibility for us when we moved over (see my very first post!), but water stress is, I think, going to become a very serious issue. Here it's been raining non-stop for weeks, so it's a bit less likely in Brittany at the moment, anyway.
This is a wonderful piece of writing.
Hello Rebecca! Thank you. It's a funny thing, but the posts I feel most unsure about, the ones that could be seen as self-righteous, judgemental or just simply too hard (like eg A world on the brink, and this one) also seem to be the most popular. Delighted you rated it. x
That was so well written Roselle, you know without me saying anything at all that I agree with every word you wrote.
In the 20 years we’ve lived here, just on the hill, three small, traditional farms are gone, the land sold to younger farmers, all the hedges in all the fields removed to make way for huge machines, ancient oaks felled for the same reason, they were in the way. Where is the progress in that? It just makes me want to cry, as useless as that is….
Oh no, Susie. Somehow I kind of thought your area might be remote and hilly enough to be exempt from that kind of destruction. In Brittany there are calls for hedges to be replanted – is that happening in your area?
And thank you.
Brilliant article. I was a child in the 50’s and was brought up with ‘cooking from scratch’, growing and preserving our own veg for the winter, and only consuming a tiny fraction of the meat generally consumed today. Progress isn’t always positive, it can sometimes be exploitation.
Thank you dear Chris. And yes. 'Progress isn’t always positive, it can sometimes be exploitation.' Thought-provoking statement.
I spent my childhood on a small family farm in the rural southeastern US, a lifeway very similar to what you describe (my first love was the family's dapple grey draft horse who was long since retired in favor of a tractor by the time I fell in love with her when I was a toddler). Back then, the family was able to provide for their own needs plus sell cash crops and cook from scratch and so on. But by the time I was a young adult, that lifeway was no longer feasible. Outside employment was necessary, and eventually the whole farm shut down, one piece at a time. I've watched this happen over and over again as industrial capitalism forces people into the rat race. It's unsustainable, and I only hope enough people can carve themselves out little refuges like yours before the whole thing caves in on itself. Because that's how we'll keep going, one small farm at a time.
Oh that's heartbreaking, Laura. And so familiar. And yes, I completely agree with your closing sentence. And I know you are doing something similar over there. It's important to remember we're not alone, I think.
Despite all the negative aspects of the Internet, I'm grateful that it allows me to connect with people like you so I do know that I am indeed not alone.
Yes, and ditto.
I absolutely adored this post, so insightful & beautifully worded. The foot & mouth crisis in the UK is burned into my memory from childhood too.
The system is so utterly defunct, it needs a total revolution.
I feel proud to say that I am a parsan, I moved to the wild to grow my own vegetables & keep a pig & some chickens. We tend a small plot of 5 hectares & trade or buy locally from others doing the same. We swapped a city life for this & couldn’t be happier.
I am now looking for the book on Amazon :) thankyou
Hello Jaymie! That's kind of you; thank you. And your life sounds wonderful – peasants of the world unite!