HappyDay: ‘To Farm is to Exist in a State of Hope’

Casey O’Neill is a cannabis and food farmer in Mendocino County who has been writing newsletters about his efforts to provide sustainable produce and marijuana. We feature his column once a week.

To farm is to exist in a state of hope, casting love into the future through the alchemy of seeds. Sometimes it feels like hope against all odds, for the knowledge of uncertainty lurks at the edges of the mind. Weather, calamity, crisis are all inevitable, just over the horizon of a sunny dawn, yet hope springs eternal.

Repeating the act of hope in the sowing of seeds becomes a mantra, a life choice that reinforces a belief in the goodness of the world. The sun rises with her nourishing light, plants sprout from fecund soil and grow with abandon. Nurturing becomes a way of life, tending and caring for the softness of new growth, new life.

The eye learns the small details of health, noticing at a glance when something is amiss. Vibrant growth is easy to spot and becomes the hallmark, the litmus against which all is measured. When plants or animals are sick it is easy to tell, not always so easy to fix, yet hope drives us forward.

July; the time of grass seeds stuck in socks, cool refreshing water reminding us of joy on hot days. Hydration for humans, for plants, for animals; water is life. I read somewhere a suggestion that water is god, the substance within all living beings that draws us together, defines us, gives us life. In July, I am servant to the flow of water, tending it with grateful caution that there be enough for all the uses on the farm.

Water is the hinge of life in these dry hills, a continuum on which things either thrive, struggle, wilt or perish. The background stress of making sure water arrives where it needs to be is a summer constant, part of what makes the season difficult. We automate and manage as best we can, yet we serve the flow nonetheless. If water is god, then I am her grateful servant.

Our irrigation system is driven by the sun; solar panels push submersible pumps floating in the rainwater catchment pond. The angle of the sun has a huge impact on how much water we can pump; at the solstice she is so high in the sky that the angle is off and we pump less water. This has always meant crisis at peak planting time, but this year we had the big storage tanks to draw from.

As we edge towards the middle of July the sun begins to lower on the horizon again, marching incrementally back towards the shorter days to come. The flow of water increases just in time for the burgeoning plant growth and the hot days to come, allowing us to offer more life-giving moisture to our crops. Despite the extra storage, we still must be cautious, but the difference this year is that there is a reserve to draw from.

Not having to make the desperate choice of which plants to let die this summer is a deep relief, a blessing that lightens my steps and brightens my days. My service to water is offered in deeper reverence for the knowledge that so many forces have combined to help our farm secure this precious resource. Gratitude to Mainspring Consulting, Leach Water Systems, the Mendocino Resource Conservation District and the Department of Fish and Wildlife for their roles in facilitating the grant for the tanks; it is no exaggeration to say that they have changed our lives.

The farm has never looked so good, crops well tended and abundant as summer planting continues this week with salad mixes, Asian greens, cooking greens, turnips, scallions, daikon and red radish. We’ll sow seeds of the same once again, along with a second succession of cabbage and broccoli while the first succession is up potted from 72 cell trays to 3” pots to size up for planting in beds sometime in early August.

We’ve deployed shade cloth over the tender crops and most of the young cannabis clones. Some strains are hardy and vigorous enough that they don’t need it. Seed plants are in rapid growth, expanding quickly and reaching shining leaves towards the sky. Another feeding with chicken blood at slaughter day closes a fertility loop, making use of a precious resource for which we offer prayers of thanks.

This coming week we’ll focus on cages and netting, giving the plants the support they need to produce their heavy, abundant flowers without breakage or loss. The light dep tunnels are flowering beautifully, offering scents of fruitroleumskunkwallop to the air and our delight. The days grow shorter by a minute or two each evening, noticeably shifting as summer moves along. It is good to be alive. As always, much love and great success to you on your journey!