Thinking in terms of community

General Discussions
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Self-sufficiency is good. Community sufficiency is better.

I’ll give an example.

In my area, grape vines do extremely well. So well that I’ve decided not to grow one. You see, several of my neighbors have way more grapes than they need every year, and are happy to share. I don’t need to grow grapes because they’re doing it for me.

Zucchinis also do extremely well here. I like them so much that I know I can easily eat a hundred all by myself in a year, so I grow lots. Meanwhile, my next door neighbor only wants an occasional zucchini, so she sometimes asks over the fence whether I have a spare. I usually do, and can give it to her. She doesn’t need to grow zucchinis because I’m doing it for her.

One of my long-term plans is to develop local landraces and keep enough seeds of them on hand to share them generously with anyone in my community who needs seeds. I’d particularly like to have crops that can thrive on neglect. Not everybody wants to garden. That’s okay! In a time when we need to grow our own food to live, I want to be able to hand those people seeds and say, “You can plant this and completely ignore it, except for harvesting food. Now you can eat, and spend the rest of your time doing things you like better than gardening.”

Maybe some of those people will like cooking. I don’t like cooking. I’d be delighted to grow all the food for someone else if they did all the cooking for me.

The best way to be of service to other people is not to guilt-trip yourself to do things you don’t like. It’s to look for ways to use the things you do like to do something helpful that no one else is doing.

That’s how you think in terms of community.

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You know how you can stabilize a plant population around a specific trait? You can stabilize a human community around a specific trait, too.

Communities, including families and friendship groups, can be positive or negative, depending on what binds and connects them. In any group of people, there will be a common thread. It may be a geographical location, or genetics, or a common interest, or something else.

If it’s a common interest, what is it?

If it’s something negative, such as a shared challenge, there is a risk that the community will become an echo chamber that keeps magnifying sorrow, frustration and anger. Every person there will become a worse version of themself.

It’s like stabilizing a landrace around the sharpest, longest thorns.

If it’s something positive, such as a shared virtue or passion for something good, it can become an echo chamber of joy, magnifying it with each person who shares more. Every person there will become a better version of themself.

It’s like stabilizing a landrace around tasty flavor.

Communities magnify whatever they focus on.

There is a time and place for shared sorrow. That time and place should be finite. It needs an end point. Even when it’s something everyone in a community has in common, it should never be the continuing thread that keeps binding them together.

I’ll give an example. A great many of my ancestors were driven out of their homes because of religious persecution. They underwent terrible hardships. They had a lot of extreme pain in common. But that was not the common thread they built their community on. They built it on faith, hope, and love for all people. Which is why it is still a wonderful community today.

I think this community, right here, is stabilizing around excitement to learn, humility, openness to trying new things, and joy. That’s why it is awesome.

Thank you for being here in it. :slight_smile:

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Just joined this community and this is my first post. I agree 100% that community resiliency is key to healthy personal resiliency. I live in a diverse agricultural valley filled with orchards, market farmers, wine grape growers, a few ranchers, and wheat fields to the east. I grow a large vegetable garden each year for both fresh eating and preservation but rely on professionals for my stone fruits, meat, and eggs. Despite the reality that 90% of our agricultural crops are exported out of the region, our region has a nonprofit that supports our local food economy, managing multiple farmers’ markets and incubators for value-added farm-to-table products. I recently started a community seed bank and plan to promote landrace gardening as the key to our community’s resiliency. So glad to have been introduced to this method at the recent Seed Library Summit.

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That is remarkable and delightful. What a wonderful community!

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At our annual local food festival. My community loved this. I have since started a seed library but handed operations over to more capable people so I can focus on the growing part. This way we can have some locally grown donations to it and I don’t have to play the role of administrator which I don’t like.

This was before I learned about landraces. I am so excited too!

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That rocks! I’d like for my community to have a seed library, too. I’d enjoy donating to it, and I don’t want to be the one organizing it. (Laugh.)

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Very nice seed station! Hope it will expand as the years go by. What crops grow well in your community? Or maybe I should ask, are there crops that bring your community together?

In my community, I would say tomatoes bring the community together. I used to help organize tomato tastings at our workplace because so many people were growing them. We ended up with an incredible variety of heirlooms, and people would take seeds from their favorites. One of our local community gardens offers a tomato sandwich party as an annual thank-you to their supporters. Fun times!

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Rhubarb has historical significance and is widely grown and given away. Preserves are big in the north including sauerkraut. We grow great cabbages. Berries/berry picking brings folks together. That sounds very nice what you’ve got going there. Working on fostering more of that kind of thing here. People liked the free seeds. Free things seem to appeal to folks quite a bit. Seeds in general seem to evoke a feeling of hope and the possibility of a brighter future.

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I did a presentation for my local gardening group the other day. We’re a tiny town, and lots of people seemed interested, especially when I said, “share seed because these are rough times right now, and if you have seed that you know will grow, it can really help your neighbours out”. In the north here our prices for fresh fruit and veggies are pretty rough.

I also managed to give away something like 70 packets of seed. It just feels so good to do!

We’ve also worked to put in some accessible community garden beds, hopefully by this spring. Funding is secured. We have a community garden already, but folks in scooters and chairs can’t use those beds.

All of this is to say I’m really excited about community right now!

(Come to think of it, my community could probably also use a “pick apples and learn to can them” day this fall. I wonder if the bear-aware folks would sponsor it?)

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That’s amazing! I’m thrilled for you, and your community!

The library in my town just started a seed library a few weeks ago. I found out last week, and I’m thrilled. I’ve been wishing we had one. I’m currently making a whole bunch of packets of cool seeds to donate!

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