Thursday, October 17, 2013

sad farm news


note:
this news is sad, but no one was physically hurt.
i've waited a few weeks to share this.

you need to know that our farm,
earthly delightsis an urban farm.
casey farms a few privately owned
backyards in northwest boise.
it's a beautiful thing to see regular backyards
transformed into hard-working organic gardens.

one of casey's backyard properties had recently
changed hands, and she had been having
a difficult season with the new owners.

on sunday, september 29th,
after the final week of the csa,
those difficulties came to a head
when the landowners,
without warning or notice,
hired a neighbor to bulldoze casey's garden.
there were 73 crops in all,
including over 20 unharvested seed crops.
most of those crops were still producing food.

this is the garden.
it is the one we worked in on labor day.

a neighbor saw what was happening
and called casey to notify her.
casey rushed to the property and had
an intense, heated exchange with the owners
while the tractor kept mowing down her crops.

in the end, casey was threatened with arrest
if she ever sets foot on their property
{i.e. her farm} again.

although she lost much of the food she
and her interns were counting on to
feed them through the fall & winter,
the income she would have earned
from the lost seed crops,
as well as some irreplaceable seeds,
casey is choosing to react with positivity
to this devastating experience.

she has faith that her loss
will be a blessing in disguise.

casey is not alone.
many farmers in our area farm land
they don't own with little or no formal contracts.
casey's tragedy
sheds light on this tenuous situation.

she is organizing an appeal to the city of boise
to designate pieces of city property to be leased
to farmers at reasonable rates and livable terms.

on sunday, october 6th, casey held
a peaceful demonstration at catalpa park
in support of earthly delights farm
and other landless farmers in the valley. 

the demonstration was followed by
a vigil for the plants that were lost.

this is the end of a sweet, uplifting circle song
that we sang after the vigil.


we love casey.
we love the food she grows.
we love her commitment to this important work.
by supporting her, we are casting our vote
for locally grown organic food.



3 comments:

Emily said...

This just makes my heart sink low. I wish the original owners had only sold to someone committed to keeping the farm. Or I wish the new owners waited to "mow" it down until the harvest was all gone. Still not a great solution, but better than what they did. How can people be so heartless? I feel for Casey and I know she is important to you and your family. I will keep positive with her and I hop all is okay. I'm so sorry Catie!

catie said...

emily ~ and ground cherries are one of the seed crops that was lost : (

Dawn said...

Oh this is heart breaking :( it kills me when some people become so emotional and then immediately act on that emotion without any thought of how their actions will affect others. .good will prevail..it has to!

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