Images from the West Bank • Pat ApPaul • 2013

Embeddedness, Part Two—An Example.

Gaza, Limits, and Showing Up.

The last piece that I wrote explored the term “embeddedness.” Specifically, I landed with an understanding of the term as:

A commitment to place over time
that also involves deeply relational aspects (“relationships good enough to trust”)
and an accounting of interactions, human and beyond, akin to ecological understanding.

If you breeze through the writing, an obvious question rears its head: where does this leave the places and people and all things that lie outside of whatever boundary I seemingly think necessary to maintain for embeddedness?

Here’s a rough answer in progress:

Embeddedness, or meaningful relationship to place, doesn’t impose borders on care. But care, when flung far and haphazardly, isn’t always sufficient. Good intentions can lose their bearings, particularly when geographic, cultural, and experiential disconnect is involved. Grounded care and grounded intentions are needed. These seeds grow best when rooted in the depth and complexity of other places, nourished by knowledge and humility.

That’s wordy. The question deserves a real-world example.

I met him at a gathering at Wagbo Farm and Education Center. He was thoughtful and well-spoken, and we had a place in common — he worked for a coffee company in the same small city where I had learned to love coffee a decade ago; the same city we had moved to from rural Ohio a little over a decade before that. I didn’t dare ask where he was from. My inability to identify his accent would give away my ignorance. I had no idea what he was planning at that time, and I had no idea he’d still be at it now as I write this.

Pat’s workplace, one of Muskegon’s third places, carries with it conversation, perhaps more earnest than most, fueled with caffeine. From time to time, Pat would hear impassioned discussions. The idea that those talks only happen in large cities, hubs of progressive energy, is a myth. One of those shop conversations was sticking with Pat. People were asking hard questions about Palestine. And, as far as I know, unlike most of them, Pat had been there…

Click Here to Read the Rest of “Embeddedness, Part Two” (7 Minute Read, 1,448 Words)

Click Here to Listen to the Audio Version

The Warp — Ideas and Inspiration

|| 1 || I first met Pat at this year’s Winter Gathering, a “bioregional party for the ages” at Wagbo Farm and Education Center (East Jordan). If you haven’t made it out to Wagbo, here’s a tapping tour video from last year that serves as an intro. And a timely one, too, as the time to tap seems to be passing or nigh these days. (Does anyone truly know?) Wagbo is scaling their maple operations back this year, similar to many folks trying to minimize unnecessary stresses on the trees amongst seasonal abnormalities.

Jack Slaggert was also there, and offered a demonstration of a rocket stove prototype that he’s been working on with needs in Haiti in mind. The stoves provide fast, clean, hot burns for cooking with minimal fuel required (brush and twigs in most cases) and are relatively cheap and straightforward to build. It’s an easy gateway from interest in the stoves to rocket mass heaters, earthen ovens, and natural building methods like strawbale, cordwood, light straw-clay, and more. If you’re interested in those, you’re in luck. The ball is rolling for the reconvening of Crosshatch’s natural building guild. Respond to this email with your interests and/or experience, and I’ll ensure you’re included in the loop.

|| 2 || Seed catalogs have been marked up and recycled, bareroot orders are going out, and warming mats are being dusted off. Regardless of what the calendar says, it feels like we’re on the cusp of spring. You can sense the unfurling of leaves in the art world, too, with relevant exhibitions coming up at Commongrounds and Crooked Tree Arts Center-Traverse City. I won’t plug them here—there are details on both in the Weft below.

Considering art and plants, a relevant title comes to mind. I wish Beware of the Dandelions, a multi-sensory music and art experience borne of the Detroit artist collective Complex Movements, was making it up this way. I don’t know if the modular installation still travels or not, but there’s a nice behind-the-curtain look in this video. I love the line near the end from Waajeed:

”All you can do is be strong, and be powerful, and be impactful, and be consistent in your own circles, and sometimes that consistency affects other people.”

The Weft — News and Events

We’re heartened by a wide-range of expressions of resilient communities and gatherings. Here’s a smattering of regional events and happenings that reflect that diversity, collected for your consideration. Choose your own adventure!

|| 1 || Opening March 8th, 5-9pm, Alluvion Arts @ 414 presents Botanic, an exhibition that takes a collective look at our intimate relationship to the plant kingdom. Plants create and regulate the air we breathe, they provide us with food, medicine, textiles and building materials. Through thought provoking conceptual work, installations, botanical paintings and prints, sculptures, wood work and a freshly installed seed library, Botanic attempts to examine and honor the gifts of our botanical friends. Free and open to the public. Find more information here.

|| 2 || One Evening, Two Co-op Events, Wednesday, March 13th. Cooperatives 101: A Presentation on How Cooperatives Work & Development Basics, In-Person OR on Zoom, 5:30-6:30pm. Register and find information, including the in-person location here. Afterwards (optionally) head to the Boardman Review/MI Farm Co-op Video screening and Q&A, 6-8pm at Loco Boys Brewing, Traverse City.

|| 3 || Guilds! Grand Traverse Beekeeping Club. March 7th, 7pm, Oryana West Community Room, TC. From hive management to harvesting hacks--bring your favorite tools for a fun show-and-tell of beekeepers' ingenuity.

Little Traverse Bay Beekeepers Guild. March 5th, 6-8pm, Bear Creek Township Hall. This meeting beekeeper Jon Spalding will be sharing about some products from the hive (including cinnamon creamed honey and a hand balm) and discussing queen rearing!

RESCHEDULED: East Bay Small Farmers Guild. March 6th, 6-8pm, Short’s Brewing-Bellaire Pub. Come gather with your farming friends and gardening gurus to discuss this wacky weather, the sap flow, the seed starting, the spring farrowing, the hoophouse builds, the resource sharing, the market support, all the things … or just come to get out of the house and be among some welcoming faces in a community of growers. Any and all are welcome, so bring a friend (or three)!

|| 4 || The Crooked Tree Arts Center in Traverse City’s call for artists for the upcoming show “Agricultura” is now open. Find more details on submitting pieces for the agriculture-themed exhibition here. The deadline is March 21st.

|| 5 || The Grand Traverse Conservation District is now hiring an Agricultural Program Coordinator. Find details on the Great Lakes Incubator Farm position here. Applications due March 8th.

|| 6 ||Around the Table: Community Conversation about Farming in Northern Michigan. March 14th, 5-8pm at the Carnegie Building in Petoskey. Please join the Local Food Alliance and Crosshatch Center for our spring community conference and a locally sourced and prepared meal. Whether you’re a food producer, gardener, or an eater, please join us for initial findings from in-depth interviews with over twenty local farmers and to discuss the future of local food and farming in this region. Find more information and register here.

|| 7 || Registration for the 20th Annual Michigan Family Farms Conference (MFFC) is now open. Happening March 9, 2024 at KVCC in Kalamazoo, MI, the MFFC offers beginning, small-scale, and culturally diverse farmers a chance to network, learn, and build sustainable family farms. It is an energizing, hands-on event featuring multiple tracks of breakout sessions plus a youth track to engage the whole family. Learn more and register here.

|| 8 || Happenings at The Alluvion Between Now and the Next Whole Field include: Big Fun, Mindful + Musical with Miriam Pico, TC SOUP, The Jeff Haas Trio featuring Lisa Flahive with Nancy Stagnitta, Addison Agen and Ben & Jane, Rachael Kilgour, Funky Uncle, Michigan Made Songwriters Night featuring Spencer LaJoye, Sammie Hershock, Nicholas James Thomas, and Kyle Rasche, The Jeff Haas Trio (again) featuring Rob Smith, Christ Glassman, and the NMC Jazz Lab Band, the opening reception of Botanic, the Bob Mintzer Quartet, and Moss Manor with Eliza Thorp.

Find more information at www.thealluvion.org.

|| 9 || Combining Solar with Agriculture Series. Two sessions are left in this series focusing on agrivoltaics, or the combination of solar arrays and active agricultural sites, concluding on Saturday, June 15th. Presented by North Central Michigan College’s Lifelong Learning Club, Crosshatch Center for Art and Ecology, USDA-RMA and the Local Food Alliance of Northern Michigan. Find more information and register here.

|| 10 || National Writers Series: Workshops and Classes for Students in Northern Michigan and beyond. Find information and register here for offerings like Poetry with David Hornibrook (5th-8th grade, Elk Rapids and online), and Literary Short Story with Karin Killian (9th-12th grade, at Commongrounds and online.) Classes are free, while space is limited.

|| 11 || MI Ag Ideas to Grow With Virtual Conference. Feb 19th-March 1st. Session tracks include Animal Agriculture, Beginning Farmer, Field Crops, Preserving MI Harvest, and Vegetables. Find more information on specific offerings and register here.

|| 12 || MSU Extension’s Sustainability Speakers Series Spring 2024. Bicycle trailer food scrap collection, household food waste, effective recycling practices, and more. Find information on the upcoming virtual “lunch and learns” February through May here.

The Whole Field • Volume 3 • No. 4 • Full Moon • February 25, 2024

Embeddedness, Part Two—An Example.

The Warp — Ideas and Inspiration

The Weft — News and Events

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