On Losing Our Rootedness in the Soil
"Most people of my grandparents’ generation had an intuitive sense of agricultural basics: when various fruits and vegetables come into season, which ones keep through the winter, how to preserve the others. On what day autumn’s frost will likely fall on their county, and when to expect the last one in spring. Which crops can be planted before the last frost, and which must wait. What animals and vegetables thrive in one’s immediate region and how to live well on those, with little else thrown into the mix beyond a bag of flour, a pinch of salt, and a handful of coffee. Few people of my generation, and approximately none of our children, could answer any of those questions, let alone all of them. This knowledge has largely vanished from our culture."
by Barbara Kingsolver | Orion Magazine March-April 2007
by Barbara Kingsolver | Orion Magazine March-April 2007
Labels: culture, education, Environment
2 Comments:
She is right. In my family, my great-grandparents lived on and were sustained by their farm and animals they raised. My grandmother had all the same knowledge, my mom had some of it - and I know nothing about it except a little gardening. It is too bad this has happened all over the world, but mainly here in the US.
I think the number of people with this knowledge has severely declined, but it hasn't vanished. Not in the south, anyway. And I'd have to disagree that the knowledge is or was in any way intuitive!
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