Local Food Economy: Community Harvest Gathering (DTube)
Greetings Steem Fam! Today I am excited to share with you an event that happened over the weekend in my local area.
Community is one of the most important aspects of homesteading. Indeed without community life looks a lot more bleak and with it we have better chances of thriving!
Why is that? In a world of lone wolf & hero myths, we're often taught to "sink or swim alone" or to become "self made" people who battle against the world to achieve our dreams.
Yet the blunt truth is that in this interconnected world not only is it less fun to "go at it alone", we actually need others!
It is no different in the country living a homestead-based life.
Surpluses happen as do total crop failures. Perhaps your neighbor grew really good squash this year and yours all died or another has a killer heirloom seed that's perfect in your bioregion and you'd also like to grow it. You have more milk from your goat than you know what to do with, but you need some more seed garlic. All of these trades could be done in the marketplace, but it's so damn empowering when we can skip the halls of commerce and play instead within a 20 mile radius and forgo the fiat economy altogether!
Our good friend Amelia sees this vision and she got a SARE grant (Sustainable Agriculture Research & Education) to help bring our community together, to organize and make a directory, among other things!
I invite you to watch the video in this post (I've uploaded it to YouTube as well so look at the end if DTube isn't working for you) to hear her talk about it and to watch some scenes from our gathering.
And of course there must be music!
Local folk group, Hot Missoury
Gathering
At our gatherings, we nearly always have a potluck with delicious, unique and homegrown food. This sets the stage for enthusiastic conversations, meaningful connections and a more rooted connection to place. Sharing food is but one way we share as we swap experiences, successes and failures and make plans for future collaborations.
We all live full lives and most of us work on many levels, so these gatherings are a great way to feel the connections between us. It's not always easy to get together but we really need each other for support and connection. We are so much stronger together and we need to forge bonds with each other through the highs and lows. This last gathering was certainly a high!
Gatherings give time for reflections as we see ourselves in others. We are share a bioregion, and many of us also share a watershed. This weaves us together for better or worse and learning to live with this awareness is in part what this gathering is helping us do.
We all need water, to eat, to be healed, to be protected and seen. Community is crucial for this.
▶️ DTube
▶️ IPFS
Yes so true!!This world is completely interconnected and we are a part of this. Even those who claim they did "it" (anything) completely alone rarely actually did if we look closely enough at "it". All of us have support, help from others either past or present on some level, and we all need each other!
Yes yes yes, so well said 💙✨
That's neat and sublime.
I upvoted your post.
Keep steeming for a better tomorrow.
@Acknowledgement - God Bless
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Looks like a wonderful gathering. It takes a village. For sure.
Here's something you probably never would have guessed about me. When I was little, we went to the Sundown to Sunup Gossip Sing in Springdale Arkansas a couple of times. Which was started and later named for Arthur Brumley who wrote among other songs "I'll Fly Away"
My mom and dad retired and moved to Bella Vista Arkansas which was just up the road from where Brumley had lived. Every visit to see them included an evening out to hear music.... Sometimes in a church or even in a remodeled chicken coop.
OMG this is just getting spooky. Too many intersections in our lives. My parents owned a lot a Bella Vista. We vacationed there some but they never built a house. Then we moved farther away and stopped going there.
That is quite amazing! We were probably all shopping in Harps at the same time!
Oh cool! And you’re right- would not have guessed :)
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Thanks!! 😁
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Good people, good food, good music, great ideas and community feeling - perfect event! Looks like you had a blast!
:) yes a combo for a great time 😊✨✨
You make me long for that kind of community in my life. What a wonderful get together! I love the sticker that says Security is a well fed neighbor. It could be such a wonderful world, and it seems that in your part of the world, it already is!
Yes we’re getting there! It could indeed be such a wonderful world; we certainly need each other to make it so. 💚
Idea is good and appreciated but don't happened in my country. We aren't human.