Letter from your Agroecologist - Heat & Hope

Hey y'all

Preface: This letter is going to start out a little gloomy but I promise that it has an uplifting ending! I encourage you to read to the end.
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I have to keep it real with you all, June and July have been hot. Like scary hot. If you're anything like me, you might be feeling an underlying sense of anxiety when you see the forecast with 90+ degree days with no end in sight. As a beginner farmer, this anxiety comes in two flavors; one mostly consisting of the fact that there are plants that will need some extra TLC during hot & dry spells and the other relating to uncertainty around climate change. I often ask myself, “Is this the ‘New Normal’? Is there even a consistent New Normal?” After just

experiencing a Winter and Spring full of fluctuations, and in the midst of a Summer that is hot, hot, hot, I’m afraid I don’t have any satisfying answers yet.

As I spend my second year doing this work full time I am still getting used to having my hands in the soil almost every day and spending much more time outside than I was able to when I was in the world of academia. I try to maintain a sense of wonder in what I experience and many days I’m lucky that all it takes is a moment of pause to take in the natural world around me. However, I still wonder if the earlier blooms that I'm seeing are due to being in a different part of the country than I was 2 years ago, or if it is due to the warmer weather that we've experienced earlier and earlier in the year. I also have been feeling the difference between suburban/rural heat and urban heat on a daily basis. Living in Baltimore, the heat experienced in the city brings on a different kind of worry. It's the kind of oppressive heat where you know that all living with poor infrastructure or suffering from any sort of chronic illness will struggle to maintain any sense of stability and heat related mortality will rise. 

I am in no way trying to paint a picture of despair or hopelessness. I would not be in the career that I am if I were not fueled by hope. I am hopeful when I see our community come and spend time in nature in our gardens. I am hopeful when I see the bountiful harvest we are able to produce every week and donate to people experiencing food insecurity in our community. I am hopeful when I see a pollinator that I have only seen in pictures buzzing around one of our patches of flowers. I am hopeful when I walk by the pond in our climate victory garden and am greeted by the ‘cheep, plunk’ of a frog jumping into the water. I am hopeful when I see kiddos not even old enough to form full sentences running around in our woods taking in the immensity of a mature tulip poplar, scattering leaves with every pace. I am hopeful when I nourish myself and others with a delicious meal from food that my own hands grew. I am hopeful when I remind myself that the current climate crisis we are in is not my fault, yet I can still be a part of the solution and inspire others to do the same. I am hopeful when I find my hands buried in dirt, nail polish chipped and rings caked with healthy, nutrient-rich soil. And I am hopeful when I spend time with my friends, my coworkers, my family out in nature growing food, growing plants, and growing with one another in conversation about how we can see not only a future but a bright future ahead of us.

As someone who has spent time trying to be mindful about searching for hope I wanted to share some things that I have found helpful. I recognize that I am by no means a figure of authority in this field so please take what I share with you at face value. This is a little list that I had put together for myself in a time of anxiety when I needed to hear about solutions and not problems. I hope that these words can instill hope and maybe provide some comfort in a time that can make those two feelings a bit of a rare commodity. I also wanted to offer the chance for folks to take others' words and find solace in them in the way that I have been able to. So without further ado here’s said list:

Steps YOU can take towards climate action & building hope:

• Grow food/plants in your home space. This localizes your food system and engages you in a reciprocal relationship with the environment.
• Encourage and cultivate a climate of hope for youth. Despair leads to inaction, hope leads to action.
• Get to know your local food system. How do people feed themselves where you live?
• Make personal replacements that make you feel GOOD and make sense for YOU. This could be consuming less meat, using less single use plastic, buying renewable energy, making more mindful clothing purchases and many many other things.
• Be invested in your community! Get to know your neighbors, attend community gatherings, find or make 3rd spaces in your life.
• Check in with your relationship to nature. 
• Educate yourself, empower yourself.

Hopeful books:

• Natures Best Hope - Doug Tallamy
• Braiding Sweetgrass - Robin Wall Kimmerer
• How We Show Up - Mia Songbird
• We are the Ark - Mary Reynolds

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Voices of hope:

• Leah Penniman - Soul Fire Farm
• Erika Allen - Urban Growers Collective 
• Emma & Mary E. Kingsley - Lady Farmer
• Alexis Nicole Nelson - Black Forager

• Owen Taylor & Chris Bolden-Newsome - TrueLove Seeds, Seeds and their people

​Active avenues for hope:

• Community Ecology Institute
• Baltimore Farm Alliance
• Little portion farm
• Eco city farm
• Robinson Nature Center
• Howard county Conservancy

Ever Growing,
Simon