I can’t say that growing up in Detroit exactly gave me a strong agricultural awareness. Though for five years my mom and dad had mobile home north of the urban sprawl and the trailer park was surrounded by undeveloped land — literally fields and even a small forest — none of it was farmed. I think the first time I saw a tractor was at the State Fair and it was parked, sparkling clean, gleaming in the artificial light of an exhibition hall.
One thing I truly enjoy about living in a farming community now is that the growing cycle parallels the cycle of seasons. Back in Detroit, it was the weather that marked the seasonal changes. Truth is, it’s more that the weather drives the growing cycle of food production. This seems obvious now but simply never occurred to me. When I was growing up, we got food at the grocery store. How it got there wasn’t anything we worried much about. That’s probably still true for most people. I hear that urban kids — at least up to a certain age, around 13 or 14 — now are shocked to find out that Chicken McNuggets didn’t magically show up at the Drive-Thru window of McDonald’s, that someone raised real live animals, chopped off their heads, yanked out the feathers, carved the deceased into bite-size chunks. This imagery is not exactly mouth-watering.
Anyway, as belated as my agricultural epiphany is, I’m finally aware of what’s been going on “behind the scenes” for 20,000 years now. Please don’t laugh. I know my ignorance is pathetic. But better late than never. Or is it?
I’ll pretend you didn’t answer that.
First stage in getting stuff to grow? Preparing the soil!
Actually I can relate. What boy doesn’t like to play in the dirt!
Preparing the soil — or more poetically, tilling the soil — takes two similar but distinct paths here.
One is churning dirt in order to grow vegetables. This looks the same as what they do in Ohio, Iowa, and Nebraska.
The second is what they do all over Asia, where rice is the main staple. It is more about churning mud.
There you have it. I make no apologies. This may seem mundane, quaint, or even boring to most of you. I’ve lived in farm country now for over ten years. I find it . . .
Comforting?
Ennobling?
Spiritual?
Actualizing?
Holistic?
As a writer, words are important to me. So I need to find that perfect word or phrase for capturing the cognitive and emotional essence of my reaction to all this plowing, turning, separating, blending, mangling and manipulation of dirt.
Ah! I’ve got it. I find all of this farming stuff . . .
Really neat!
