Community and connections
Last week, Jenni and I had one of those experiences that make the stresses and strains of farming- and owning and operating a small farm business in particular- totally worth it all.
It was a Friday night supper at the home of Steve and Barb Nagel, CSA members in Winona since the very first days of the Featherstone Farm CSA program (1997). But not just any supper. This was a Shabbat dinner with three generations of Steve and Barb’s family, a celebration they share “40, maybe 45 weeks a year, for 20 years running” according to Steve. And what a celebration!!
The food itself was of course wonderful. Barb is dedicated to using Featherstone Farm produce in nearly every meal they serve in the house. And, after 25+ years, she’s gotten really good at this. Friday’s dinner featured spinach manicotti, gold beet pesto, and a fresh salad of grated carrots, kohlrabi and red cabbage (all veg from Featherstone). In his retirement, Steve has become a very serious trout fisherman; we had smoked trout served simply on flatbread, with a light crumble of bleu cheese and oil drizzle. For dessert, we had apple crisp made with Hoch apples from the CSA box.
It was a feast alright. But in retrospect it seems that the food was largely a good excuse for the social, family gathering. And what made the gathering so wonderful for me and for Jenni, was in part the ritual elements that Steve and Barb have developed over the years. In (perhaps modified) Shabbat tradition, there was the lighting of the candles, the series of songs and blessings (sung by grandkids as young as 3) and the ritual breaking and passing of bread, all around the big table. How wonderful to be invited to join in this rich occasion!
The conversation at the dinner table was also wonderful, and often came back around to experiences that our families have shared over the years; Barb was a preschool educator in Winona for all three of our kids; their daughter Gen cooked wonderful meals for our family and for the entire farm crew for several seasons. Steve has been an invaluable mentor and inspiration to me for a quarter century. At times, Jenni and I were the focus of a kind of celebrity spotlight (“kids, this is Jack and Jenni, the farmers that grow all this great food!!”).
Then of course there were readings from Barb’s 3 ring binder of collected CSA newsletters, going back to 1997/98, when Jenni was writing from our mobile home with Emmet napping nearby and Oscar on the way, the tomato canner hissing away in the next room. Jenni and I have been lucky enough to hear Barb read from this collection before; what a trip down memory lane!
The point of all this is not to suggest that such rituals can or should be part of everyone’s lives. Everyone’s experience is different. Our own family has relatively few such traditions, perhaps owing to the demands of a year round farm business; it doesn’t really matter. What I do take away from the experience, however, is what a blessing it is to be surprised by community connections whenever or wherever they appear in our lives. Particularly in the gloomy grey of early winter, when a bald farmer can find himself missing the forest for the trees in life, looking backward or forward rather than simply enjoying the moment.
Thank you Barb and Steve, Gen and Naren, Heather and Ben, Loretta and John and all others at the Shabbat supper the other night. The invitation and the experience meant the world to me and to Jenni!
Gratefully- J