• Common Ground •Macoun in Bloom

One of my mothers' favorite apples was the Macoun. I dug the hole and we planted this tree. I think that I was 13 which would have been the spring of 1973. That summer my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer and had an immediate mastectomy when she went in for a biopsy. Seven years later she had a recurrence and subsequently perished the same day that the Beirut Embassy was bombed October 23 1983.

I am sure that each of us marks significant events in our lives in different ways. It seems that many agrarian folks plant trees or other enduring plants to mark the passing and memory of loved ones. The most amazing and powerful thing is a seed, an egg, or a blossom. Something so frail yet containing or announcing the coming life potential.

It is wonderful to be surrounded by life!

This Macoun tree, from which we harvest and eat apples, is a daily reminder to me of the foresight of my parents, who understood the value of providing for the future. The Bosc pear tree from which we have all enjoyed the pears, was planted the year that my sister was born here. When our memory has passed from this farm there may be no one to recall who planted the trees but it is my ambition that there will be people here who value the fruit nonetheless.

One of the benefits of your CSA membership is that you are welcome to come and enjoy the farm; not simply as the source of your food, but as a center of life, and healing, and a gateway to nature. I can't stress enough, to those of you who have been unable to visit, that you should come and smell the earth and feel the earth and hear the sounds of nature where your food is grown. Experience the farm with all your senses and be richer for it.

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