I just love getting out into the sticks and the rural areas of the country. And what I hear from the farmers scares the hell out of me. But more of that later. This beautiful fella pictured there is my cow. He’s smiling because he’s happy and calm, living out in beautiful fields with all his family and friends. And the little fella right below here, well he’s about a day old, still wobbly on his little paws, his hide still damp from being inside his momma right there.
The pasture itself is apparently quite extraordinary….we traveled for miles and miles past hundreds of acres of similarly looking pasture, but the those fields don’t have that special mixture of grass found right here in this little bovine heaven where these guys and gals live. The mommas live quite a life…they’re prized possessions passed down through generations of Florida ranching royalty. Only the finest male gentlemen callers with the finest pedigree are allowed near these ladies….no stressed out large herd stocks here…this is small scale, specialty farming at its very finest. A kind of beautiful Florida cracker tradition that’s kind of slipping away. We’ll keep visiting and getting to know the little fella and his family and then one day a few months from now we’ll see him again, only he’ll be wrapped up all neat and tidy….in a couple hundred small plastic packages. And yes, we named him….his name is Dinner.
Next, and even deeper into the sticks is a sweeter piece of Florida cracker history and tradition…the cultivation of heirloom stocks of sugarcane….the secret ingredient in a priceless cracker commodity….grapefruit and orange and blueberry wine. This kind of farming is like religion….and the farmers are shaman…preserving and protecting those sacred parts of Florida history and tradition that are absolutely essential…for our economy and for our souls. Check out this website on chewing cane and order you a few shoots for yourself, if you’ve got the notion to grow and take a very active roll in the building blocks of your own personhood.
And like the rest of this country, these guys are being pinched and squeezed and pressured like never before. They’ve been sold out again and again and again in this state…and across this country. And the very same factors that are at play in the complex con that is high flying Wall Street finance is at play in the world of our food supply system….I wonder what the impact will be……
