Through the middle of our suburban sea of houses runs this creek with its accompanying wetland full of birds and bugs and willows. We can get on our bikes, and in a matter of minutes (and with a little imagination) feel like we are in a secret wilderness, ready for us to explore. It’s a really beautiful place– teaming with cat tails to fluff apart, snakes to catch, butterflies drinking from the sand, spent sunflower blooms waiting for the birds to get every last seed. I love that developers have had the forsight to include some open-space amid the sprawling subdivisions that Denver has– so that we don’t forget what this place REALLY looks like. Even more exciting to my mind is the suggestion made in this article that not only should we preserve the value of natural habitats by including open space in housing developments, but we should also be including community farms– places where we can see and experience and connect to where our food really comes from– places that will help transform our culture to one aware of what real food is, and how interconnected everything on earth really is. I love that idea. I have been sorely missing our CSA this summer. I loved picking up our box of freshly picked veggies every week. Not only did it force me to try, and learn to like, vegetables I never would have even tried to pronounce, let alone eat, but those veggies were grown by a family that we knew and loved. We could visit the farm, tour the rows and rows of tomatoes, bask in the peaceful songs of the birds, explore the woods, and pet the alpacas that fertilized it all.
Though I don’t agree with all of Mr. Pollan’s propsosals I do agree that our conveyor belt system of eating is hurting our nation and culture and needs to be addressed. We do need an “emergency grain preserve,” not only a national one, but one stored in buckets in every home.
I would love to not only be able to ride our bikes on a path through open space to nurture our spirits, but to have a farm at the heart of our place– to nurture our spirits and our bodies.
And then, maybe I could have my chickens!
