Recapping our wwoofing journey

Hi there, Its me, Crystal. It's been a while since I've personally updated the blog. Bjorn, the real farmer now has been writing in it since mid last year and lots of stuff has been happening in our lives and our journey, that may confuse readers! So I am now here gonna try to describe all that has evolved from our wwoof journey - coz that's initially what this blog was about. Wwoofing.

We came back to Singapore in December 2009 after wwoofing in the UK and Spain for about 6 months. We felt lost. What to do now. We did the wwoofing. Should we continue? What was our goal? Must we need a goal? Was life just about living in the moment and going with the flow?

Then 2010 began. And what a year.

In Dec '09, we met Lai Hock and GUI (ground-up initiative) and we were introduced to the organic movement in Singapore. Lai Hock told us how he is on this path, because he feels that connecting with the earth is one way to find that 'spirit', that meaning of life, that bigger consciousness. We kindda knew what he was on about. But never had anyone really put it that way before.

In Jan '10 , my grandma died which was tough on the family. Then we went to Bali for a month - intending to find organic farms/wwoof places. But had no luck, instead, we went for this meditation retreat called Bali Usada for one week in the mountains. And there, we faced our minds, ourselves. And we found the stillness that we never knew we needed but realised we did. For me, this was a huge pivotal point in my life. The clarity just slowly started to sink in. The retreat was a gift from nowhere. And I don't know how ever to thank the universe for it.

Feb to July '10 - A few more close people in our lives past away quite suddenly. I found yoga after the meditation retreat and fell in love with it more and more. I started relief teaching at my old secondary school - St anthony's convent and found so much love there. Bjorn started on this project - GUI Pathlight school vegetable farm which a couple of posts in 2010 on this blog is about. Then after Bjorns grandpa passed away in July, he decided to sign up for the Biodynamic agriculture course in East sussex England. And I decided to go to India to get my yogas teachers training certification.

Sep '10 - Bjorn left for England

Oct '10 - I left for India

Dec '10 - We met again in Singapore, spent Christmas and New years with friends and family

Jan '11 - I came back to England with Bjorn. We now live on college campus. We will be in Wales doing his farming attachment from Mar to Sep this year. And back here at Emerson college in Sep for his second year.

So what happened to wwoofing? What's the point of all this updates?

Looking back now, I realised that going wwoofing after quitting our corporate jobs was the best decision we've ever made. The wwoofing in 2009 was like a process of cracking us open to discover who we really are inside. It was just like chiselling slowly. Creating more obvious lines aned cracks everyday we were out there working out in the farm. We didnt know what we'd find. But we just kept going at it. It was therapeutic.

But once we were 'broken' into, we did not know what to do with all this new stuff we were experiencing. Going back home to Singapore, was a process of coming to terms with our new selves, our new lives. Not really new actually, more like, we removed the obstacles and barriers that was built up throughout our Singaporean, modern lifestyles. We knew the old us, wasnt us anymore. But who were these new people? And what purpose did they have? And 2010 was the 2nd part of the process. It the peeling away of those little egg shells that were cracked open. And finding all these things that were possible. Finding new ways of looking at things. Becoming less mad at the world, and realising that everything and everyone has their place in this complicated web of life. But in this web, we are all connected. And that, will give us an answer for every question we sought. 2010 was like a realisation. It felt like a lot of loose ends were tied up.

So this Thursday, is the start of the New Year in the Chinese Lunar Calendar. 2011 will be all about building up. I sense that. I have a gut feel that 2009 was deconstruction, 2010 was laying it all out and 2011 will be about growing.

And that's where the wwoofing has taken us. We will go back to Old Chapel Farm this summer to 'wwoof' there longer term. Bjorn will hopefully play a bigger role in terms of helping with the planning of the growing. And I will be a wwoofer / yoga teacher. It will be quite an awesome year.

Community Supported Agriculture- Are we ready for that?

I sat in on the 15^th year anniversary of the first successful Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program in the UK which is incidentally based within the 2 farms around my college Tablehurst farm and Plaw hatch farm. The co-op was unofficially started in 1968 and formerly registered in the early 90’s and is one of the longest standing co-op in the UK today, incidentally wwoofing was also founded and started in these 2 farms which today led to a global movement.

There are currently 2 broad CSA models:

1) Being a Shareholder of a co-op and not expecting any materialistic returns

This is the basis of how many early CSA started and how the tablehurst and plaw hatch began, the farms were failing and wider community was concerned about the future of their food supply, the community came together and found a new model on saving and future management of the farm, they then started a co-op which allowed the community to buy a share into the farm with only a promise that the land will be farmed in an honest, organically and sustainable manner. Today the co-op has 600 members many who had donated much more than money but their time and sweat to the 2 farms.

2) Being a Shareholder of a co-op and getting something in return

This started the era of the vegetable box schemes. Support your local farmer by paying up-front for the vegetables you can expect to receive. With that upfront payment, the farmer will be able to farm the land and supply vegetables to you, sharing the risk with the farmer i.e. bad harvest= smaller share of vegetable for the week etc.

What would work for Singapore? Are we ready for model 1 where people are concerned enough that they will support a cause like that without being materialistic about it? Or perhaps a new model for our unique little culture? This is my take:

A community supported agriculture program simply means something created and maintained by the community. With over 300 community gardens in Singapore we have the opportunity to build up an intricate food growing system where these gardens are used for the production of vegetables for the community of a radius of a few HDB flat, they essentially form their own co-op to serve their own local neighbourhoods thus helping Singapore take that small step forward of becoming a little more self sustainable whilst creating jobs for our citizens and retirees keen on gardening and growing vegetables. This intricate web of community food gardens littered all over Singapore could provide a space or platform for educating our people about the importance of food and food miles, a place where they can come and learn, feel the soil and understand where their vegetable comes from. A place to foster relationships between neighbours something we can probably already see the benefit of in Singapore, a space for interaction, sharing and social cohesion. Seen in many successful models all over the world: Allotments and community garden projects in the UK have been used to rehabilitate refugees and integrate them into the community, why not use the space to help with our current social issues in Singapore?

A support function for the community gardens must exist or be in place so that this food growing organism can survive; agricultural know how, bringing fertility back into the land and education must be the cornerstone of this foundation. The survival of the Kranji countryside and existing farms in Singapore is also critical for the production and supply of fertility to these community gardens. The wealth of knowledge on crop growing in our tropical climate so eagerly guarded by the old time farmers could be released back to those that are keen to continue the work of food production.

We need to ask ourselves this: will this movement require the community to come together and drive it’s growth organically, each CSA program have to grow in it’s own way, at it’s own pace.

Or

Would a government led, corporate sponsored model prevail?

What would work for our small nation state of 6 million?

I’m excited to see what will happen in the next 2 years with all the buzz happening around community supported agriculture in Singapore!!

A profound statement

I share with you a statement we discussed in class this week. Reading it and typing it out again sends a chill down my spine. The great wisdom held by tribe people around the world may well be able to pull us all from this false reality we live in today.

‘In 1851 Seattle, chief of the suquamish and other Indian tribes around washington’s Puget sound, delivered what is considered to be one of the most beautiful and profound environmental statement ever made. The city of Seattle is named for the chief, who speech was in response to a proposed treaty under which the Indians were persuaded to sell two million acres of land for $150,000.

How can you buy and sell the sky, the warmth of the land? The idea is strange to us. If we do not own the freshness of the air and the sparkle of the water, how can you buy them? Every part of the earth is scared to my people. Every shining pine needle, every sandy shore, every mist in the dark woods, every clearing and humming insect is holy in the memory and experience of my people. The sap which courses through the trees carries memories of the red man.

The white man’s dead forget the country of their birth when they go to walk among the stars. Our dead never forget this beautiful earth, for it is the mother of the red man. We are part of the earth and it is part of us. The perfumed flowers are our sisters; the deer, the horse, the great eagle, these are our brothers. The rocky crests, the juice in the meadows, the body heat of the pony, and man—all belong to the same family.

So when the great chief in Washington sends word that he wishes to buy our land, he asks much of us. The great chief sends word he will reserve us a place so that we can live comfortably to ourselves. He will be our father and we will be his children.

So we will consider your offer to buy our land. But it will not be easy. For this land is sacred to us.

The shining water that moves in the streams and rivers is not just water but the blood of our ancestors. If we sell you the land, you must remember that it is sacred, and you must teach your children that it is sacred that each ghostly reflection in the clear water of the lakes tells of events and memories in the life of my people. The water’s murmur is the voice of my father’s father. The rivers are our brothers, they quench our thirst. The rivers carry our canoes and feed our children.

If we sell you our land, you must remember, and teach your children, that the rivers are our brothers and yours, and you must henceforth give the rivers the kindness you would give any brother.

We know that the white man does not understand our ways. One portion of land is the same to him as the next, for he is a stranger who comes in the night and takes from the land whatever he needs. The earth is not his brother, but his enemy and when he has conquered it, he moves on. He leaves his father’s grave behind, and does not care. He kidnaps the earth from his children, and he does not care. His father’s grave, and his children birthright are forgotten. He treats his mother, the earth, and his brother, the sky, as things to be bought, plundered, sold like sheep or bright beads. His appetite will devour the earth and leave behind only a desert.

I do not know. Our ways are different that your ways. The sight of your cities pains the eyes of the red man. There is no quiet place in the white man’s cities. No place to hear the unfurling of leaves in spring or the rustle of the insect’s wings.

The clatter only seems to insult our ears. And what is there to life if a man cannot hear the lonely cry of the whippoorwill or the arguments of the frogs around the pond at night? I am a red man and do not understand. The Indian prefers the soft sound of the wind darting over the face of a pond and the smell of the wind itself, cleaned by the midday rain, or scented with pinon pine.

The air is precious to the red man for all things share the same breath, the beast, the tree, the man, they all share the same breath. The white man does not seem to notice the air he breathes. Like a man dying for many days he is numb to stench. But if we sell you our land, you must remember that the air is precious to us, that the air shares its spirit with all the life it supports

The wind that gave our grandfather his first breath also receives his last sigh. And if we sell you our land, you must keep it apart and sacred as a place where even the white man can go to taste the wind that is sweetened by the meadow’s flowers.

So we will consider your offer to buy our land. If we decide to accept. I will make one condition- the white man must treat the beasts of the land as his brothers. I am a savage and do not understand any other way. I have seen a thousand rotting buffaloes on the prairie, left by the white man who shot them from a passing train. I am a savage and do not understand how the smoking iron horse can be made more important than the buffalo that we kill only to stay alive. What is man without the beasts? If all the beasts were gone, man would die from a great loneliness of the spirit. For whatever happens to the beasts, soon happens to man. All things are connected.

You must teach your children that the ground beneath their feet is the ashes of our grandfathers. So that they will respect the land, tell your children that the earth is rich with the lives of our kin. Teach your children that we have taught our children that the earth is our mother. Whatever befalls the earth befalls the son of earth. If men spit upon the ground, they spit upon themselves. This we know. All things are connected like the blood which unites one family. All things are connected.

Even the white man, whose god walks and talks with him as friend to friend, cannot be exempt from the common destiny. We may be brothers after all. We shall see. One thing we know which the white man may one day discover; our god is the same god. You may think now that you own him as you wish your own our land; but you cannot. He is the god of man, and his compassion is equal for the red man and the white. The earth is precious to Him and to harm the earth is to heap contempt on its creator.

The whites too shall pass; perhaps sooner than all other tribes. Contaminate your bed and you will one night suffocate in your own waste. But your perishing you will shine brightly fired by the strength of the God who brought you to this land and for some special purpose gave you dominion over this land and over the red man.

That destiny is a mystery to us, for we do not understand when the buffalo are all slaughtered, the wild horses are tamed, the secret corners of the forest heavy with the scent of many men and the view of the ripe hills blotted by talking wires. Where is the thicket? Gone. Where is the eagle? Gone.

The end of living and the beginning of survival.

Check and balance

Organic farms, biodynamic farms, conventional farms, they are all the same!

Overworked farmers and farm hands, full of diesel guzzling tractors and machineries all aiming to increase crop and livestock yield, so that they can feed this ever growing and very demanding world. And in parts of developed society you have groups of people using their strength and energy perform activities like crossfit, or running on a treadmill in an air conditioned gym when they could be contributing their strength to pulling a plough, hoeing the land or simply weeding.

Sometimes this warped and misguided part of society just do not deserve the food they eat to just expend it on something mindless like this. Where is the balance?? Where are the checks and measures.

Oh wait, we do have one very bias measure: money

The farmers are tired, the people working on the farms are worn out, the machineries keep breaking down and the animals looks lost. Maybe it's just today, or maybe it's the weather, winter is setting in and now comes the time for self reflection and thinking, and so I conclude with this:

If everyone takes charge of growing their own food, and manage their calorie intake in accordance to energy expended on food production perhaps achieving a close looped system, the world may yet become a more balanced one, and you will get fit in the process of doing it ;-)

Products Of Mother Earth

Interesting fact I learnt this week.

'We're all connected' humans, plants and animals, just look at the chemical makeup of hemoglobin and chlorophyll, the structure of the cells are the same, the only diffrence comes from the core of iron and magnesium.

If you put chlorophyll under UV light it will give off a red glow and vice versa for blood.

Uncanny isn't it.

Think about this when you drink your next glass of milk

We go by everyday consuming food not being aware of what it takes to produce that piece of cheese or that glass of milk. What goes on in a dairy industry is away from many peoples general awareness, it's a ugly ugly industry and dairy farms are generally a very depressing place to be.

I spent the last 3 days working on an organic dairy farm, 200 cows cross bred between the holstein and freesia, this create a breed that is able to produce up to 7000 liters of milk a year from one cow! These cows are not the work of nature but a manipulation of humans growing demand for milk and milk related products, and the ultimate victims are the cows themselves. Most cows have lots of trouble carrying their huge udders around something whic was bred into them, they're more prone to injury due to the disproportionate body frames, many sprained ankles, tumor on legs and broken backs. They don't lead a particularly good life being forced through the milk production line twice a day they hardly ever get time out at the fields. The calves spend their first 4 days with the mother and are weaned off, this cause great stress for both calf and mother. The cows kept in a concrete floored barn literally swim in their own piss and poo.

I'm depressed, and very saddened by this whole experience, but very glad I was able to see and work for a couple of days in this dairy farm. If I do consider to continue drinking milk in the future I will be more aware of where my milk comes from before buying, but i'm leaning towards dropping dairy from my diet altogether.

Life on college

Being surrounded by the seasons again is refreshing from the monotony of Singapore's tropical climate I've been surrounded with these past month. Weather is starting to get Chilly and the leaves are turning red then brown and finally will fall back onto the ground, the mushrooms are receding and the last of the autumn squashes are harvested and feasted upon. This is the season when the earth breaths in, a time when it rest and recover only to breath out in spring again and give life to all around.

Enjoy!

The grounds of Emerson College, really a place of outstanding natural beauty

Can't be in Agriculture school without a vegetable garden

College life with people, picking mushrooms and feeding people with it, I think the drummer had too one too many mushroom ;-)

Pepenbury an area for adults with learning disability where they do horticulture therapy, arts and craft and woodwork. They also work with animals which helps them keep in touch with nature and ground them to become more aware of their surroundings! A very special place!