by Tom & Carol Braford
The last couple years we had a couple of housemates who did most of the gardening at Culver Way Ecovillage. They were great at working up the soil in the spring, planting and even weeding, but they would forget to harvest and lots of stuff would go to seed or rot on the vine.
This seemed kind of odd to me at first, but I am starting to get that this is indicative of the St Louis character, and not just that of St Louis. I am originally from Michigan and I can see evidence of it all over the Midwest. We like to work hard and struggle. Our ancestors felled the forest, broke the sod and built the factories and our great cities. Somehow it wouldn’t be right if it were too easy.
Harvesting is easy and satisfying and fun, and we are just not comfortable with too much of that!
Another thing that all people, but I would say Midwesterners in particular, are uncomfortable with is having themselves and their worth and value appreciated and rewarded without a struggle. Come on now. We all know that we must earn our bread by the sweat of our brow, there’s no such thing as a free lunch and we must be vigilant and organize against the man!
So it is with reluctance that I invite you all to come be valued and harvest the value of the Culver Way Ecovillage.
We are working with a new form of finance that values people and community values, as well as money. But don’t worry; we are Midwesterners so I’m sure we can figure out a way to include lots of hard work and struggle as well!
To learn more about the first ecovillage, opportunities to collaborate as we create cooperatively owned businesses and plans for a whole network of Integral Urban Ecovillages, join us on June 11th for our monthly tour and open house at 11:00, followed by a potluck lunch. We’ll be at the National Cohousing Conference in DC on the third Saturday this month, so we’re doing the tour a week early.
Contacts:
Culver Way Ecovillage: Tom & Carol Braford
www.CulverWayEcovillage.com
braford@sbcglobal.net
314-534-4780
Green Beings Urban Farm: Michelle Erhard
www.greenbeings-stl.com
greenbeings@gmail.com