The sun was shining, the birds were chirping and the worms were mulching as Erin, Lucy, Phoebe and I set off on a lovely adventure to William Byrd Farm. When my friend Amanda first heard of where I was volunteering she assumed I was going to a bird sanctuary, which provided some good laughs. I was expecting a little community garden with maybe a few containers for compost. A few minor detours and back road routes led us too the farm at last and it was more majestic than I imagined. Downtown Richmond right off the highway lies a full quarter acre of a community garden, a large row of compost bins, a smaller educational community garden for children to learn about farming techniques around the world and eventually, thanks to some handy work by yours truly, a greenhouse. There is much more to William Byrd Farm then these physical aspects though, there is the love and kindness from Michael the young man who is basically lead caretaker of the place and a real life Professor Sprout!!
Michael is a brilliant man who knows all things about the earth! He shared his knowledge on what species are native, how an African key garden works, how you can tell if a nasty, giant spider is female and the every time a tree root is damaged it sends energy to that spot to sprout up a new tree there in order to heal itself. Michael’s love for the earth felt like a cool glass of lemonade in the warm summer sun and as I drank it up I felt inspired, encouraged and satisfied. What I appreciated most about our time with Michael was his constant awareness of how we interacted with the earth. While we built compost bins and a greenhouse we made sure our impact was as little as possible. All of the wood was recycled, the glass windows were donated and the mulch was made on site. We never dug where a tree root was growing and the only plants we removed were invasive grasses and weeds. One truly amazing sight, which I wish I had gotten a picture of, were two trees that grew around and intertwined with a fence so much so that it would be impossible to separate the metal from the wood.
When my family built our house by hand in Montana, it was designed to blend in with the natural beauty around it but now that I think back I remember many of the supplies were shipped in from other areas of the state. The stones for the fireplace were mined out of a mountain and the logs for the siding carried hundreds of miles from their birth site. These changes have huge affects on the landscape and geography of their regions but then again the phone that I carry and the computer I am typing on right now probably have even greater affects. While it would be very difficult, if I were president I would like to not only have where a product was manufactured printed on the item but also where each of the materials used to make it were manufactured. Over 500 mountains have been demolished in the process of coal mining just in West Virginia and Southern Virginia. If a product read, “Coal taken from what was known as the Blue Ridge Mountains” would you still buy it?
Kelly I really like your comparison between the intertwining of biological microcosms at the Farmlett and the wider interdependence of nature and man (especially man’s material needs). Your idea about stamping the place of origin is also very interesting but I’d question whether people’s behavior would change as a result of this new knowledge. For instance, we often see the little gold oval stickers reading ‘Made in China’ on the bottom of items or on the tags of clothes, but do not hesitate to buy them. There seems to be more of a positive trend associated with products that are “special” (aka made in America) rather than a boycott of items produced in other countries. Do you think people would buy differently if local (USA) products were stamped? Very nice post!