Mother's Day on the farm

By Maria Marewski for Paradise Farms

Mother’s Day Brunch was the last event for the season at Paradise Farm Organics and its series of dinners and more recently, brunches on the farm. It seems somehow fitting that it was Mother’s Day. The end of a season, a project, an event can be bittersweet. If we look at the cycle of nature, we can see that endings are a natural part of change and growth and that endings do no signify failure, but growth.

And it is mothers who know more than anyone, that change and growth has its own rhythm of activity and quietness, of movement forward and movement backwards as challenge and integration mark the journey to change. Just before spurts of growth, many children exhibit regression to the safety of familiar younger behaviors. This retreat is a preparation for what will soon look like a leap.

At the Mother’s Day Brunch the talk at my table of ten turned to gardening, or perhaps more accurately, home farming. The mother of a young family of four was growing an edible garden to supplement the fresh, and very local, food available to her family. Her girls helped in the growing process. The grown family of three was also discovering the joys of home farming. Retired from the work-a-day world, this mature mother has been discovering not only her passion for agriculture but also a growing talent in building something which is essentially a system. Self taught, this mother has been benefitting from the other side effect of growing one’s own food, and that is growing one’s abilities and range through daily problem solving. The more you do it, the better you become, learning through meeting all kinds of new challenges, both big and small. Although there are accepted protocols and practices, farming is always specific to the piece of land on which one is farming. There is always the tweaking that comes from noticing, from giving attention to details, and it is here that the dialog between nature and humans is visible. This dialog brings us into the moment and helps us to be aware of and alive to the present moment.

Farming, like mothering, is about the daily rhythm of nurturing and care and a daily investment onto the future.

Change is afoot. Let us embrace it with the devotion, patience, intelligence, adaptability, and faith of Mother Nature herself.