The Agrarian Art of Lisa Grossman

                                         Green Prairie-Passing Storms by Lisa Grossman

With no TV and the long dark nights of December, I recently finished Gene Logsdons' Agrarianism and the Mother of All Arts. This inspired me to start re-reading an old favorite, The Trees By Conrad Richter.

The Trees is set in eastern Ohio after the revolution, and tells the story of a pioneer family moving into a world of endless forests and trees so large that the sun cannot reach the forest floor. The trees almost take the role of a character in the novel. A small child lost in the forest is regarded as having been taken by the trees.
The story of that family is somewhat the story of my family (and many others). In 1797, Benedict Grossman and his wife crossed from what is now Adams County to pioneer near the headwaters of Slippery Rock Creek. 210+ years later, there are lots of Grossmans still in these parts. In fact so many we no longer all can figure out our relationships without a genealogy book. Pioneers like Benedict Grossman cleared a lot of trees, but they came back, especially as marginal farmland was abandoned. Trees define the landscape of rural Western Pennsylvania. Home to me is gray skies and rolling hills covered in trees.

Sometimes between the gray weather and the trees it can seem confining. In the Summer, vision in the woods is obstructed by tangles of underbrush, and in Winter the bare gray trees match the sky. Hills can also obstruct vision to make the world seem smaller. Many people escape this region to sunny Florida or sunny Arizona. I expect to die here, and I would rather die than live in a sunbelt suburb. Sometimes I do want to escape our weather, but my dream would be sunny Kansas. Some people like seashore and mountain. I love the broad flat grassy expanses of the Plains. I love the ability to see so far without obstruction by tree or hill.

Much to my delight, I recently discovered a distant cousin that not only moved to Kansas, but has become a part of Kansas. Lisa Grossman grew up not far from where old Benedict settled. She grew up in our world of gray skies and trees.  I am delighted she can show us how beautiful a place can be that many would dismiss as "flyover country". I think her art also gives us a measure for good agrarian stewardship. At our worst, we farmers try to square off corners and make the land fit the boxes in our heads. Even "flat" land contains subtle (and very feminine) curves. Those curves are dangerous, and plowing them under can be just as dumb as plowing the Appalachian hillsides where I live

The neoagrarian philosopher-king Wes Jackson talks about "becoming native to this place". Many Americans today are not native to anywhere. For the cause of community or conservation, no attitude can be more dangerous than the one that all places are alike. Lisa's art also shows us  that becoming native has nothing to do with where one was born. Becoming native is like marrying-it is an adult choice to stick with a place, and love it on its own terms. Her prairie art inspires me to stick with the grey skies and trees of my birthplace.   

The Prairies that Lisa paints are more endangered than most people realize. Because they are so overlooked they do not bring visitors like the more striking vistas of mountain and seashore. By showing us their beauty, she might help inspire people to steward them better.
Links to Lisa Grossman's Art:
Lisa Grossman Art
Land Institute Prairie Festival
Lawrence Kansas Arts Center

I'm a Farmer for Ron Paul

Regardless of political persuasion, the political media loves to say that votes make a difference. How many times Have you heard that THIS is the most important election of our lifetime? In a country with as many deep rooted cultural problems as ours, I rather think that our broken political system is only a reflection of our broken culture. Many other actions can make a bigger difference than politics. At this time of year, this one might be a good start. That said, I remain a stalwart Ron Paul supporter, as do many other farmers. Most notably, Joel Salatin of Polyface farms is now helping lead a committee of Farmers for Ron Paul. While I am not a complete advocate of Mr. Salatin's approaches for every farm, I think he is a decent Christian gentleman. He is also exactly right about the greatest problem facing most farmers today. Norman Rockwell once painted the old face of government on the family farm: A county agent bringing friendly advice.

The friendly County Agents are now mostly laid off. The face of government on the family farm now is more likely to look like this:

Ron Paul is the only candidate that has expressed any real concerns about our increasingly militarized federal agencies, warrant less searches and seizures, and issues like national animal ID. Family farmers have no better friend. If you Facebook, there is a page for Farmers for Ron Paul

Pepper Spray

The Agrarian tradition in America is basically conservative (not the fake conservatism of the likes of Hannity or Fox news), but it simultaneously harbors a broad populist streak that dislikes concentrations of power and wealth. I think many of the OWS crowd is clueless about solutions, but they are right that something is wrong. The banks own the government. Supporting the big business/big government alliance is neither conservative or agrarian. I have never known a farmer that did not regard bankers as somewhat akin to groundhogs-- basically a costly nuisance but in really hard times you might be able to eat a young fat one. I don't care much for public protests but I like injustice a whole lot less. Pepper spraying peaceful hippies at the behest of big banks is just plain wrong. I am glad I am not the only one who feels that way.... Great New Song by Rick Saenz in the rural populist tradition. Give a listen!

Black Friday Shopping

No Crowds Here

An email from a friend and reader reminded me I have been neglecting agrarian blogging, while living the agrarian life. I have never mastered the art of writing without excessive verbosity. I am going to try both shorter posts and more frequent posts...

Like most Americans did, I went shopping today. Bought a bag of dog treats and hot coffee at the local general store/diner (Pictured above in warmer weather).

We also drove to New Wilmington to pick up our big purchase. We ordered a Hickory chest as a combination sitting bench and firewood storage for our Hitzer parlor stove. An Amish acquaintance did the work. I made a kitchen firewood box from 1X6's but my wife wanted something pretty for the parlor. I felt good about spending the money, which was much better work than my DIY. The purchase helps sustain a family we like and I expect the bench to last the rest of my life.

It shocks me how people will camp out, endure crushing crowds, and even get peppered sprayed for some electronic gadget that might be out of fashion or break next year. I can attest that it is entirely possible to live a reasonable happy life without an IPAD, IPOD, a microwave, or a television. Though we do love our automatic dishwasher, and of course the laptop I typed this on..... So much for my Luddite purity.

Stacking the Deck Against Small Farms

Imagine owning a Mom and Pop Hardware Store. Imagine that every time you sell a power tool, a dollar is taken from you by the "Hardware Retail Alliance". This money goes to advertise your big box competitors like Lowes or Home Depot.

That is exactly what happens every time our small farm sends a steer or heifer to a livestock auction.Big Companies like Monsanto and Con Agra are using my beef checkoff money to sponsor something called the "Food Dialogues" a faux town hall meeting to try to undo the damage from Movies like Food Inc. and Farmageddon. You can read about is here in at the American Conservative Magazine's website (AmCon is one of the only truly conservative political magazines left in America).

To make things even better, a judge in Wisconsin has ruled that Americans have no right to produce and consume their own food.

I am no libertarian or anarchist. I do not believe rights are absolute; they end where your neighbors' rights begin. If you see my other blog, you may know that a large part of my off-farm professional work deal with balancing property rights against those of a neighbor or a community at large. Local law properly executed can protect private property while minimizing restrictions. What this judge has done is the equivalent of changing a zoning ordinance from regulating the size of a building to mandating the color of the kitchen walls. It may be a reasonable exercise of law to ban selling tainted milk to school children. What is on my dinner plate from my goat or my garden is my own business.

As Walter Jeffries said, we need to start raising a stink. A good start is buying local and ending EVERY FARM SUBSIDY.

New rant at the new blog

I try to write with charity, but I drove by something today worth a rant.

Endings and Beginnings (what happened to granny miller blog)

Update, November 2012 : The site has been restored at granny-miller.com

I received a comment today asking about the new site. It is not complete, but it can be found here After years of blogging, I never wrote about how I make my off-farm living. Inspired by my friend Herrick Kimball's wonderful blog about our agrarian past, I will be looking at the prospects for an agrarian future in the midst of urban America.

I also owe many of the readers of my wife's now defunct website a more complete obituary. Early this year, my wife made the conscious decision to spend a lot less time on the web, and more time living her life. As Granny Miller became more popular, it was taking 3+ hours of each day. She really did want to keep the site and videos up until December, but in the midst of this, we had to care for a very sick family member. With my very time consuming business, our farm, and the need to care for a loved one, the accidental loss of the website seemed of little consequence. Since the You tube videos were only an introduction that linked to necessary and more in depth information on the website, she removed them out of a sense of responsibility that someone not misuse something incomplete.

I know there is strong interest out there for homesteading skills. The best advice I can give someone who wants to learn canning and small farming is to find a real world Granny or Grandpa. They are out there, even in cities. Last year I had a fascinating conservation with an older Bulgarian man about food preservation and scything fodder for livestock. We had this conversation on the stoop of a Manhattan apartment. There are people with skills worth learning wherever you live. Go meet them.

When my wife started Granny Miller, there were not as many homesteading sites on the web. It seems there is a new one every day. As someone who was raised on a farm and has consciously practiced homesteading skills for decades, I am not sure this is completely a good thing. The information I see on the web ranges from worthwhile to dangerously idiotic. Bad canning practices will kill you as quick as tainted industrial food.

If you are interested in seriously building agrarian skills, the best information is still in print media. Countryside and Small Stock and its family of magazines is a treasure of good information. I have copies back to the 70's. A small magazine out of Ohio called Farming is also worth its weight in Gold. One of the lessons I have learned from Media Ecology is that we also retain information better from the printed word than electronic media, so the small cost of these magazines is a great investment for any aspiring agrarian.

I also want to let Granny Miller readers know that she is doing well. She is training a rat terrier puppy, learning to upholster furniture, painting our new chicken coop, and cleaning up the last of this year's garden. She is also stumping locally for Ron Paul. Her Internet use these days is limited to Netflix and following celebrity gossip (we all have our vices!). I would be shocked it she ever returns to blogging.

I will continue to write as time permits as my professional obligations keep me at a computer for several hours each day. If you are interested, I look forward to seeing you over at the the Agrarian Urbanist.