sad farm news

note:

this news is sad, but no one was physically hurt.

i've waited a few weeks to share this.

you need to know that our farm,

earthly delights, is an urban farm.

casey farms a few privately owned

backyards in northwest boise.

it's a beautiful thing to see regular backyards

transformed into hard-working organic gardens.

one of casey's backyard properties had recently

changed hands, and she had been having

a difficult season with the new owners.

on sunday, september 29th,

after the final week of the csa,

those difficulties came to a head

when the landowners,

without warning or notice,

hired a neighbor to bulldoze casey's garden.

there were 73 crops in all,

including over 20 unharvested seed crops.

most of those crops were still producing food.

this is the garden.

it is the one we worked in on labor day.

a neighbor saw what was happening

and called casey to notify her.

casey rushed to the property and had

an intense, heated exchange with the owners

while the tractor kept mowing down her crops.

in the end, casey was threatened with arrest

if she ever sets foot on their property

{i.e. her farm} again.

although she lost much of the food she

and her interns were counting on to

feed them through the fall & winter,

the income she would have earned

from the lost seed crops,

as well as some irreplaceable seeds,

casey is choosing to react with positivity

to this devastating experience.

she has faith that her loss

will be a blessing in disguise.

casey is not alone.

many farmers in our area farm land

they don't own with little or no formal contracts.

casey's tragedy
sheds light on this tenuous situation.

she is organizing an appeal to the city of boise

to designate pieces of city property to be leased

to farmers at reasonable rates and livable terms.

on sunday, october 6th, casey held

a peaceful demonstration at catalpa park

in support of earthly delights farm

and other landless farmers in the valley. 

the demonstration was followed by

a vigil for the plants that were lost.

this is the end of a sweet, uplifting circle song
that we sang after the vigil.


we love casey.
we love the food she grows.
we love her commitment to this important work.
by supporting her, we are casting our vote
for locally grown organic food.

♥