Two humans arrived on ATG Farm on the same day this year. The first, named Linnea, came from the skies. The second, called Ev for short, came by car. Ev remembers that eventful day in January arriving on farm and being greeted with the good news from the farmhouse. A tired but happy farmer Andy showed Ev his sleep shack, and pointed out the kitchen and shower before heading back to the house alive with a newborn. Later that day Ev participated in his first Biodynamic stir, the Three Kings Preparation, spread in honor of the land at its creatures. Thus he came into what he had hoped to find: a spiritual approach to agriculture, in community.
Ev was not entirely a greenhorn. Always interested in approaches to meaningful reality, 5 years of occasional volunteering on a homestead, farm and community garden moved him to appreciate the land he was growing on. Then one day it hit him: “I want to work for a farm!” The life of a journalist in New York City “wasn’t what I wanted after all.” What New York did give him during the time of Covid was the opportunity to work long hours in a community garden. Eventually he was working half the plots in a ¼ acre community garden, finding relief from the stresses of job and lock down.
What clinched Ev’s decision to apply to ATG was the farm’s organic and Biodynamic approaches to agriculture and its unceasing desire to form community around the reality of providing neighbors with good food. This service orientation and attunement to spiritual aspects of agriculture seemed to suit him well. But especially surprising to him was, as he says, “how grounded it all feels. I’m in my head a lot; I’m a bit airy. But I’m surprised at how grounded I feel. I feel like I’m really working!” Surprised, too, how he has formed a relationship with the land. Being present in the moment. Everything seems real, having such a big relationship with the land, becoming friends with it.
Among Ev’s talents and interests is his deep love and knowledge of the world of birds. Always the first to spot a hawk, he is also deeply observant of the families of goldfinches as they arrive, nest and emerge from nesting to sport about the farm. Besides the flocks of house sparrows Ev observes bluebirds, bluejays and the occasional family of starlings. Usually invasive and overpowering, for some reason the starlings remain a subpopulation in the farm’s bird world, indicating a balanced avian ecosystem. And then the swallows, with their graceful flights and acrobatics in the barn, are dear to him as well. “Birds give me a lot of joy,” he says. Just when you think you know all the birds, says Ev, “You hear a call you don’t recognize. O, someone else is here!”
Ev points out that the ATG community can be proud of their mission of creating good food for neighbors. “It’s not shipped it off somewhere distant. Even when work is rough, you know people are accessing really good organic food.” It can be proud that the farm community has a lot of potential to grow, for people to work and live alongside one another. Ev sees it as radical, new and exciting. “Work is hard,” he says. “But I enjoy being here. I can’t imagine ever buying my food at a supermarket again. Just social foundations find a good foundation in growing food.”