Loving the soil

The Barnstable Patriot - WOODSTOVE-Farms and soil.

A few years ago I went solo on a drive west and visited farm stores and vast agricultural enterprises. It was plowing season and if for no other reason I stopped to smell the turning soils and I wondered how long it would be before these great farms would become streets and houses like back home. David Kline is an Amish farmer and writer who speaks lovingly, as does Wendell Berry, of the pleasures of plowing. He writes, “Plowing encompasses more than just turning the soil… It is like being a part of a whole.” Some folks just don’t get it. Kline says, “Maybe I’m blind, but no matter which angle I look from I fail to see any drudgery in the work… In early spring my son and I, each with a team as eager to be out as we are, turn the mellow soil, feeling its coolness and tilth.” READ MORE ...