Farming and Wildness

Apparently, windsurfing and farming are not enough to keep the modern man in top physical condition. During one of the transitory runs at Essex Farms, I found myself alone alongside the madmen himself. I pestered him with questions and he did his best to answer but there was one particular moment that stuck out to me. To be entirely honest, I don’t even remember exactly what I asked him. All I know is that he said that, “I’m going to put a pack on and walk out my door.” The fact that Mark Kimball is able to do so characterizes the wilderness traditions of the Adirondacks and suggests that the Adirondack inhabitant might have a unique perspective on wilderness. This suggests that farming and wildness may have more in common than one might think

Farming by necessity, teaches the value of hard work.  On the whirlwind tour of the farm, we only got an all too brief sniff of what it really means to be a farmer. Kimball did, if I correctly go into great detail about the actual process of farming. But it is clear to me at least, both from our brief time at the farm and our reading of his wife’s book, The Dirty Life, how hard he and his family had to work. Farming means breathing life into the land only to pull out death. It meant early mornings and long hours. It meant sore feet and a sore back. It meant toil, sweat, and agonizing over every little detail. It meant bringing people together through good wholesome food. It meant making people happy. But ultimately all of this happens because farming ultimately involves putting hour and hours of difficult labor into the land. Farming teaches that hard work is required to produce something from the land

            Farming and wildness both teach perspective. The main focus of our tour was this feature of farming. Kimball took us to a secluded corner of the farm. There, as he told us about his meditative habits, I couldn’t help but feel that he truly loved this place. He knew he was doing something special. Furthermore, when asked about his hope for the future, he deferred to a rock. He is fully aware that his time on the earth and his impact on it is ultimately, marginal. He got to this point both through his understanding of farming and through his understanding of nature. This suggests that while farming and wildness may appear to be opposites, they have much in common.