Suspended disbelief

The New York essayist and cultural commentator Fran Lebowitz has a bit where she talks about wanting to write a manifesto called “Pretend it’s a city” – which is her snarky way of saying that we should pay more attention to our surroundings and make reasonable accommodations for others as we move about in public spaces. Listening to Elizabeth May give an address in Halifax recently, I thought maybe she should write a manifesto called “Pretend it’s a country.”

OH, AUBERGINE!

Some of us – especially men, I think – feel entitled to a personal indulgence at or around middle age. Kind of pathetic, but there it is. You know you’ve swallowed your pride when you’re willing to accept a consolation prize from yourself. I always thought mine would be a motorcycle – even took the course, got my licence, and priced out a little Suzuki TU250 that would perhaps not make me appear too desperate.

SO SHALL WE REAP

In the December 2023 issue of Rural Delivery, we ran an article about seed storage (“Viable options,” by Zack Metcalfe) which mentioned the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. Opened in 2008, this facility on the remote island of Spitsbergen, in northern Norway, now contains 1.25 million samples from around the world, making it the largest and most diverse seed library on Earth – and it has the capacity to hold 4.5 million samples. Two key figures in establishing this “Doomsday” vault, Dr. Geoffrey Hawtin and Dr. Cary Fowler, were recently named joint recipients of the 2024 World Food Prize, in recognition of their efforts to protect global crop biodiversity and food security.

Multi-purpose

This world of vivid green is our great hope, and our only one. And often it’s a lesson in patience. After another mild winter, you might have expected an early spring – but that’s not really the way it works. This wondrous riot of photosynthesis takes a while to build up. When I called Rusty Bittermann one morning in mid-May, just as he was returning to the house after putting his sheep out to graze, he remarked on the fact that forage growth hadn’t gained momentum yet. “It’s sort of sacrifice pasture, in some cases. I’m going to let them graze sooner than I should, and then reseed,” he said.

Category mistakes

In her book Why Fish Don’t Exist, Lulu Miller talks about the philosophical idea that abstract things – “like justice, nostalgia, infinity, love, or sin” – do not come into being until we invent a word for them. Only after we name them do they become real, and potentially powerful. “We can declare war, truce, bankruptcy, love, innocence, or guilt,” writes Miller, “and in so doing, change the course of people’s lives.”

Good intentions, excellent nutrition

I don’t think I’m going out on a limb – and I certainly don’t mean to be insensitive – by predicting that Jimmy Carter will die pretty soon, triggering the publication of numerous tributes and commentaries that have been on file for quite a long time.

Now and then elated

Comes a day in March when you feel the sun on your face, and there is some real heat in it, and you know for sure that winter is winding down – even if we have to ride out a couple more blasts of icy weather. That’s a good feeling.

Shine and rise!

The days are definitely getting longer. If you don’t set the alarm, you could end up sleeping right through sunrise. We’re still a long way from spring, but for greenhouse growers who rely on natural light, there is the promise that dormant crops huddled close to the ground will soon stir themselves, somehow mustering the energy to grow – which is amazing, if you care to think about it.

Here and now and after

They say that with advanced age we spend more time pondering the hereafter – because we frequently walk into a room and ask ourselves, “Now, what was I here after?” In the moment, maybe we’ve just lost our train of thought. We’ll find our keys, or get a glass of water, or whatever. But the existential questions are still in the room with us. We may be casting around for a purpose, or a promise – something to last us out, and perhaps even outlast us.

Certifiable

In recent years, there has been an effort by agri-business interests to portray opposition to genetically modified crops as “anti-science” – and worse yet, as an obstruction to feeding the world’s population in this era of climate change. Both characterizations are disingenuous…

For the ages

by Rupert Jannasch
Several weeks after what many call a one-in-a-thousand-year storm, it is still hard to grasp the full scale of the West Hants flood disaster. It all started without warning. The July 21-22 weather forecast for this part of Nova Scotia was wet but benign. What followed was an epic thunderstorm, with fork lightning styled after a horror movie. And there came rain. In just hours, several hydroelectric dams were at risk of breaching, and the first of a string of evacuation alerts was sent. The trouble was, chronic gaps in local cellphone coverage meant some residents didn’t receive the message. 

An assemblage of sensations

One of the first items on our to-do list for this summer was a shingling job that should have been done last summer. There are lots of household tasks that get postponed (adding to the overall maintenance deficit) because they are unpleasant or complicated, but this was just a case of time constraints and competing commitments. Installing wood shingles is actually a pretty zen task, requiring neither specialized skills nor significant exertion. (Right up my alley!)

As heads is tails

What a pleasure it is to have the windows open, to let a little taste of the great outdoors float into our house. It was dead still the other morning as I sat down with my first cup of coffee, savouring the fresh new day, when I heard a vaguely familiar call in the distance. Though it was barely audible (my hearing ain’t what it used to be), I detected a Whoo-whoo. Not an owl, I thought. Maybe a Mourning dove? No, the phrase didn’t have that two-note intro; it was just a single note repeated. 

Seeking connection

With the days getting warmer, we’ve been watching for salamanders. Probably they have already appeared in some places, but around here none have been spotted. (Sorry.)
In my mind I hear the sweet voice of Sarah Harmer singing, “Salamandre, Salamandre, / Il faut m’aider comprendre / Touts les mystères de la forêt, / La carte secrète, l’arbre d’oré, / Patiemment, je vous attends.”

A good source of fibre

Many of us – men especially – like to pretend that we have no interest in clothes. This makes about as much sense as claiming to have no interest in food. With very few exceptions, post-Edenic people have felt the need to cover themselves. It is a uniquely human frailty – a reflection of our bodily shame and our vulnerability to the elements.

Three succession stories

Charles Keddy, a well-known member of the Annapolis Valley’s agriculture community, was moderator for a panel discussion on farm succession at the 2023 Scotia Horticulture Congress, held Jan. 23-24 at the Old Orchard Inn near Wolfville, N.S. He said the topic is important because the average age of Nova Scotia farmers is now 56. (There were guffaws from the audience when Keddy suggested that he is helping to keep the average down.)

Knowing ourselves and other animals

This winter I finally got around to reading Charles Foster’s book Being a Beast, which had been recommended to me in the strongest terms. I have never been good at following advice of any kind, nor have I ever been a great fan of nature writing – but I am at least aware that both these things make me a bad person, and that I should try to be better. So eventually I took a crack at it, and was glad I did.

Getting squeezed

For this issue of Rural Delivery, we briefly discussed using a seasonal cover image that would represent not just simplicity-by-choice, but simplicity-by-necessity, to acknowledge the fact that many people at home and abroad are going through tough times. It probably would have come across as disrespectful, or too dark, or just maudlin. At this time of year especially, it’s hard to strike the right tone.