“Everything that slows us down and forces patience, everything that sets us back into the slow circles of nature is a help…Gardening is an instrument of Grace. A garden is always a series of losses set against a few triumphs, like life itself. Help us to be ever faithful gardeners of the spirit, who know that without darkness nothing comes to birth, and without light, nothing flowers.”  ~May Sarton

An open letter to the teachers, administration and fellow parents of Union Academy and surrounding community,
     
​     For years I have pondered the fact that Union Academy does not have an FFA, or Future Farmers of America. I know it seems outdated but there will be a whole generation of homeowners that won’t know how to prune their own shrubs or care for their yards, not to mention the very fundamental and necessary occupation of farming.  I recently had a customer, a grown woman, who asked me if she was supposed to use a shovel to dig a hole to plant the peony she bought from me.  Not how to care for the plant, how to DIG THE HOLE. Gardening/farming seems to be “beneath” a lot of people, or something to be admired, but that we pay other people to do…but not us, we don’t have time for it, it’s not our job, when we graduate from college, we will be flush with cash and we can just pay someone to do that stuff for us. This lack of patience is very frustrating to me.  I hear, almost daily, “I don’t have a green thumb,” or “I just kill everything.”  Green thumbs aren’t BORN, they are created by those with tenacity, patience, and ironically, many of the character traits that are deemed so very important in our school:
     Initiative:  I can’t think of a more fitting occupation for initiative than gardening or farming.  To make the statement, “I am going to take a tiny seed that I can barely see, that is so small, it gets stuck on the end of your finger, germinate that seed, watch is sprout, nurture, feed, water and grow it until it turns into a vegetable for my family to eat,” is no small feat, an everyday miracle of sorts.  I sit at the farmer’s market with these little green miracles that I have grown and marvel at how people will not bat an eye to shell out $5 for a coffee at Starbucks, but scoff at the same price for a plant that will feed their family all summer.  There is nothing more satisfying than plucking a ripe tomato from the vine, warm from the sun, and popping it in your mouth…noise that the skin makes just before an explosion of sweetness in your mouth that fills your brain with tasty bliss!
     Adaptability: I’ve grown many things weren’t successful.  You have to climb right back up on that horse.  If I grew something I really wanted but didn’t grow well, or people didn’t want to buy that year, I just find something else I was equally excited about and jump in with both feet the next year!
     Optimism is an inherit trait that every farmer or gardener has.  I cannot think of a more fitting occupation for optimism.  You wouldn’t believe how many times I have stood, disappointed and crushed with a plastic nursery pot in my hand, sometimes even on the verge of tears, looking at a plant that is seemingly dead: dried up, brown, crunchy…but I do not dare to give up on her.  I put her over to the side and tend it with all my other plants until spring, and sure enough, there she is…tiny little green sprout!  A phoenix rising from the ashes (or potting soil in this case, in my eyes equally amazing).  Optimism and Perseverance are what keep me pushing on.  It keeps me hopeful that all the gift certificates I have given out to teachers and staff over the years will ever be used.  I am optimistic that they will dig to the bottom of their desk drawer, dig it out, dust it off, and come pick up a plant.
     Respect and Compassion go hand in hand, don’t they?  Now this doesn’t have to do with FFA so much as supporting actual farmers and farmer’s markets. I am frequently disappointed in the turnout at the Union County farmer’s market, where I was a vendor for 2 years, not 3 miles away from our COMMUNITY driven school.  I can’t help but take it personally, and my spirit really takes a beating to hear so much about community and get such little support. There are a handful of UA families that shop there on a regular basis, and I usually only see one member of the family.  I am now at the Waxhaw Farmer’s Market, and I rarely see a familiar face there, either.  I get so excited to see a familiar face, and I will personally guarantee that you will get a hug if you show up!  We have got to teach our kids the importance of knowing where their food comes from, for SO many reasons, and respect for the hard working farmer’s and artisans of Union County can be exemplified at no better place than either the Monroe or the Waxhaw farmer’s markets.  We are all so busy, busy, busy…but when you bring your kids to the market, you are showing such extraordinary compassion and understanding for how hard the people that sell their local wares have worked to get there.  We don’t just magically appear there.  If you want a lesson in Compassion, I will share a personal story: I know a vendor that was supporting her disabled spouse, depending on people to show up at the market on Saturday to sell her items.  It is the only time she can leave her house and she and her husband were getting less than $20 a month in food stamps.  It is a very hard thing to carry this knowledge, that while she anxiously awaits the next person to slow down and look at what she is selling, all the while smiling and being friendly and seeming care-free, the response she gets is a snarky eye roll and someone who suck their teeth is a “tsk-tsk” manner.  They pick up her item, make a thoughtless comment under their breath about how they could buy (______) at the dollar store or Was-Mart for $2 less, set it down and walk off.  I know that feeling personally, and it is hurtful.
     Perseverance: If I gave up every time something died or failed to grow, I would have thrown in the towel years ago.  If I posted my failures along with all of my successes, I fear that I would scare people into not trying to grow something!  Several years ago, I had the brilliant (I thought so at the time) idea to create vivariums, (open terrariums) and sell them at the school carnival.  For 6 months, I gathered containers from thrift stores, Goodwill and yard sales.  Every night, I sat on the floor of my living room on an area rug, surrounded by bags of potting soil, aquarium stones and miniature plants.  For hours a night, I took salad tongs, carefully inserting the layers of stone, sand, carbon, soil and plants, hunched over, tongue sticking slightly out my mouth to the side, hands and back aching. I spent every last dime I had buying supplies for my venture.  By the time I was done, every surface of my house was covered in ornate, intricate little works of living art.  Getting them to the carnival proved tedious as well…you can imagine the numerous glass orbs clinking together, even though each one was wrapped in bubble wrap and newspaper.  I was so excited for my new venture.  By the time I was finished pricing them, very reasonably I might add, I began to realize that my venture was a total failure, even if I sold every one.  I sat there all day and didn’t sell one. Four years later, I still have one that I made out of an old glass drink dispenser, sitting in my living room on a table by the window as a reminder, almost as if it were mocking my failure.  The next year I did the whole thing again with hanging baskets and the next, fairy gardens.  Looking back, they all may have actually been good ideas, just before their time.
     Trustworthiness is defined as “the ability to be relied on as honest or truthful.”  Farmers are the heart of communities.  There is a humility and honestly in turning a tiny seed into food to feed your family.  We trust that there will be food in stores, we trust that younger generations will carry the torch and continue family traditions. But if we don’t teach our children that it is an occupation of dignity that is an admirable career choice, that torch will never be picked up.
     The values that this occupation instills are priceless, and it is worth the consideration of setting aside time and funds to support the Future Farmer’s of America.  You don’t have to become a farmer to gain knowledge, understanding, appreciation, but how can kids appreciate and respect an occupation about which they know nothing and have never been exposed to?  Mirabel Osler wrote that “There can be no other occupation like gardening in which, if you were to creep up behind someone at their work, you would find them smiling.”
Sincerely, 
Kristy Taylor
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