Over winter break I started reading one of my favorite books, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver with my 8 year old. It took me back to the first time I read this book and the impact it had on my thinking while navigating the concrete jungle of Manhattan.
Revisiting this old favorite and seeing it through his eyes as he experiences it for the first time has given me an opportunity to reflect on the twists and turns of our journey towards more sustainable living in the more than a decade since I first read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle.
The year I first read that book was the same summer I was reading Michael Pollan and Joel Salatin and we dove headfirst into local eating. During Philip’s summer internship in South Bend, Indiana I spent every morning at the farmers market and every afternoon canning. Never mind that we had no air conditioning in our apartment and I was eight months pregnant. The heat was worth it to have flats of preserves to take back to New York. That was the year we realized that only eating locally grown produce during a New York winter meant a lot of micro-greens, potatoes, and jams preserved from the summer.
To some it may seem that our path to building Ma’alot farms is a surprising departure, but this seed has been germinating within us for many years. Throughout rabbinical school we would discuss our dream of someday building an environmental education retreat center. There was the time I hung out the window of my Manhattan apartment and drilled planter boxes into the side of the building in order to plant an herb garden five stories up from the ground. The time we received a cease and desist letter from the co-op board of our Manhattan apartment building because the six foot tall tomato plants growing on our the eight inch decorative balconies were in violation of co-op rules. The time we rented a sod cutter and removed a three hundred square foot area of lawn from the synagogue parsonage we lived in in order to plant a massive vegetable garden in its place. (Don’t worry, we asked for permission first!)
Moving to California certainly expanded our growing season. We added chickens to the mix of backyard vegetables and our citrus trees moved back outside. It was when we started talking about adding goats to our 10,000 square foot suburban lot that we realized the time had come to take the next step in making Ma’alot farms a reality.
The process of building Ma’alot farms is one of patience and intentionality. Of observing the land and working with it to bring this dream to fulfillment. Of finding our role within the larger ecosystem and rebuilding and revitalizing our landscape. We will be sharing our journey here on this blog and you can join us in following Ma’alot farms as it develops.