Dispatches
The Burdock Gathering
August 23, 2009
Today Amoris and I awoke groggily from our twin beds… for four year old, twin girls. Amoris claimed the princess tent the night before, but settled for the plastic covered mini bed. After grabbing coffees and breakie, we piled into the cars and lumbered towards Starks, Maine to our first project, the Burdock Gathering.
The Burdock Gathering is a weeklong happening where environmental, social, and political advocates enmesh themselves within a tent-communal living style and share their passionate voices about sustainability. For many attendees, Burdock is the sui generis of creative space where multiple generations can garner knowledge and skills that can be returned to their local community. To depict this scene accurately, I have to turn to a small anecdotal exchange. While I was observing a bicycle maintenance workshop, one lady exuberantly announced, “Sarah, look at me. I am putting a tire on my bike.” To this, Sarah flatly responded, “Look at me, I am washing urine out of diapers” and walked her child’s stained, cotton diapers towards the rushing Sandy River.
Burdock was originally organized in 2002 by Jonah Fertig, Local Sprouts Cooperative Owner, in an authentic attempt to offer gatherers an experience that is free of hierarchical structures and complete with alternatives to capitalism, assorted workshops for empowerment, conscientious food creation and consumption, and, most importantly, a darn tootin’ good time.
As an environmentalist/vegetarian, I was flabbergasted to hear that before we arrived, an informal workshop demonstrated how to slaughter a duck and a turkey. For most who run in any sort of green crowd, meat at events is the secondary dish “for the others.” But today, it was the main entree. Stepping back into the tarped kitchen area, I got my hands right into the meat of things and helped separate the the duck from the turkey for our lunch soup. (By the way, I haven’t formally touched meat in five years.)
While fluttering around the kitchen with other cooks, I learned the story of a farmer who is important to the Burdock Gathering, Tim Staples. Tim owns the Perfect Place farm and has farmed since he was a kid. After realizing that his father’s fertilized soil took on a tan coloration compared to his neighbors rich, deep brown organic soil, Tim began to farm organically and quickly surpassed his father’s yield. Today, Tim is a part of Main Organic Farm and Gardens Association (or MOFGA). He claims that farming under MOFGA and with a community supported agricultral model has changed his life. Tim warmly divulged to me later while cooking vegan pizza, “Adrienne, there is no greater feeling as a farmer than I have that I am growing the food that is the best and keeping these people happy, healthy, and vibrant.There is no other place I would want to be rather than right here, right now.”
From Tim’s story alone, I believe Jonah has accomplished his vision for Burdock Gathering and its aspiring community.
