@morethanorganic

Working pruning olive trees brings a sense of heritage: a heritage of extraordinary value.  Many of these trees are well over 100 years old, some possibly several hundreds.  Each knarled trunk and crooked branch come together to give each tree a character of it´s own.  So many seasons have gone into creating these characters, yet they are still only young adults and with care could well still be around in the next millenium.

The noble generations that planted these trees must have nurtured an intimate connection with the land.  These trees were not a get rich quick scheme for the people who planted them.  Sure, these people will have seen some crop during the first 50 years of tree growth, but the olives produced would have been greater for the second and third generations of people tending the trees.  So they were planted with a long term view that included sucessive generations.

The older Catalan people continue to nurture a great respect for their olive trees and will spend time pruning and picking their crop each year.  But the younger people here are loosing interest as the labour to profit ratio makes it increasingly difficult to support or even substantially contribute to a modern lifestyle: mortgages have to be paid and cars serviced even during poor crop years.  

This move away from the land is more developed in the UK, where many smaller farms struggle to survive in a food system that rewards the quantity and profit driven producers.

In the UK, we seldom hear of new apple orchards being planted, because they are viewed as economically unviable.  Instead, the UK, imports most of it´s apples including "organic" from USA, and even as far away as New Zealand.  One wonders how it can be profitable to import organic apples from New Zealand and yet not be profitable to create new organic orchards in the UK: which happens to grow the best apples in the world!

Another example of our living heritage is the soil, as what we do with it will be inherited by our future farmers.  Quite often the reason farms have good living soil is because past generations of farmers have added copius amounts of manure to give the soil it´s fertility.

So with our modern day view driven only by short term gain, what are we nurturing or creating to pass onto future generations?  Leaving the soil full of chemicals and genetically modified DNA? What a legacy!  Fruit trees are not being re-planted at a sustainable rate, water sources are contaminated:  just what goodness are we passing onto our future generations?

Those farmers and people that see themselves as stewards of the land, working to preseve the heritage: tending and planting trees, enriching living soils and preserving natural resources: these people can rest assured they will be passing on something incredibly valuable.  This living heritage is beyond financial value and knowing this can help us through what may be difficult times in our own lives, by helping to set our motivation and keep us working for what can sometimes seem like little financial reward.

But our living heritage is even more than tangible living resources: it encompasses the living experience of the people of each successive generation.  At home here in Spain, on Saturday, my neighbour, his father and myself rebuilt an area of dry stone  retaining wall on my neighbour´s land.  The Catalan tradition is to use is to use limestone rocks from the land to construct a rough wall, then infill behind with smaller stones between the outer layer of rocks and the earth that is being contained.  This type of wall can be seen across Catalunya, with some of them dating back hundreds of years.  Using the stone from the land itself served to create the wall and also clear the land for cultivation.

Now, generally the Spaniards have a reputation for being a little lazy when it comes to labour: this is certainly not the case for the Catalans, who will often be found working seven days per week and are known to be tight with their money.  My dry stome walling experience was to help Josep, my neighbour´s father, who was managing this little project.  With Josep directing and doing the lion´s share of the physical work, the wall quickly began to regain it´s form.  I love this type of work, but on Saturday, I was more struck with Josep´s focus and physical determination to get the job done: extraordinary considering this man is in his 7th decade!  Working with that stone, dragging out places for new rocks, Josep was completely connected, completely enguaged, almost a part of the land itself!

In the Catalan tradition, the older generations are still greatly respected, and Josep is a prime example of why this respect is justified.  Tradition and experience count for a great deal, especially with Josep being of a generation that has lived their entire lives close to the land.  I´ve great respect for the man and feel inspired to turn my fleeting experiences with being really into working my own land into something more stable.  It seems that with that deep connection and focus we can accomplish our goals more easily, as much of the thought processes are not needed: we slot into place almost becoming a part of the land and a seamless part of the work itself.

In coming back to the land, this connection with physical work as part of the land itself is something most of us have to re-learn.  I´m sure we can all do it, but it develops with experience.  This connectedness cannot be obtained from books, we definitely need the real experience.  We can develop it on our own, but working with someone like Josep, we get te benefit of hundreds of years of tradition, that has forged a given technique for given conditions.  This tradition and experience is invaluable, just like the older people themselves.

Our modern societies are accelerating away from being connected to the land at lightening speed.  There are many people who can see the problems this is creating and are seeking to regain connection and preserve that connection for future generations.  Whether we achieve this is entirely down to ourselves.