Farm Fresh News - September 2019
Ancient Corn from the Grandmother
In this issue:
  • The Path of Nonviolence
  • Grandmother Corn
  • Electric Tofu and The Gravy Podcast by the Southern Foodways Alliance
  • Book Review: If Darkness Takes Us
  • The Farm and Food: an Exhibit at the TN State Museum
  • The Farm Market Day September 21, October 19
  • Farm Experience Weekend October 18-20
  • My Life is My Prayer Dance Weekend November 1-3
  • Awakening Journey March 27-29, 2020
Dear Friends,
From the very beginning, the foundation of The Farm Community has been a commitment to peace and non-violence. We understood that to survive, we had to make peace with our neighbors. It's one of the only places in the world where no guns are allowed. Working it out, settling our differences by talking to one another, is where we start.
 
"My Life is my Prayer" is something that can be expressed and made real through direct action. The Hippocratic oath of Do No Harm is much like the Buddhist teaching of Right Livelihood, in that your daily work stays true to your ideals, to make the world a bit better each day, a teaching we embraced as a clear step along the path. Peace is present though the simplest of tasks. 
A few of the ways that is expressed in our community:
Midwifery:  Childbirth as a Peaceful Passage
The Farm School:  Peace in education
Swan Conservation Trust: Honoring Nature as an unfiltered expression of Peace
Plenty International: Building Peace through Service to Humanity
PeaceRoots Alliance: Direct participation in the Peace and Justice Movement
...and the list goes on.
 
Living in community allows us to leverage and magnify our energy, with each person able to express themselves using their personal gifts and skills to make a personal contribution. 
 
Here is one example from our dance circle or sangha. When we host a weekend here at The Farm, $10 of each person’s registration fee goes toward a Saturday night dinner that is a benefit for a nonprofit, such as Karen’s Soy Nutrition Project, started by Tomas, a member of our dance circle to honor the memory of his late wife Karen.
 
KSNP serves soy milk and soy fortified cookies twice a week to over 300 children, whose families scratch out a living, salvaging materials from the dump of Guatemala City. During the dinner, there is a short presentation while everyone is assembled, which ends with us singing Love, Serve, Remember. After dinner, we have an evening of dance and are often able to draw in a number of new folks, introducing them to our shared communion, peace as a vibration we co-create.
 
Roberta, also of our sangha, is an experienced cook for large events, and she dedicates her time to organize the meal. Other members of our dance group prepare and serve the food, and take care of clean up. The dinner draws in approximately 100 people outside of our dance circle, many of whom make contributions beyond the cost of their plate. One dinner can raise nearly $2000, enough to fund an entire month’s budget for the project and more.
 
I could fill a book with stories like this. I am grateful for this path of community and all that it has given me. I am grateful to the Dances of Universal Peace for further opening my heart. Next month, stories and images from my journey to Turkey and the Dance Peace Caravan. My life is my prayer.
 
Namaste y'all,
Douglas
 
PS: Last spring a friend gave me some seeds of corn from a Native American grandmother who asked to spread them around in order to keep the line alive. Deborah and I planted them and I think every seed germinated! Although the cobs were small, as is often true of Native corn, the kernals were plentiful. So many colors! Some ears were almost all white, others blue and many were purple. To pay it forward, if you would like to plant some next year, send a self-addressed stamped envelope to:
Douglas Stevenson
PO Box 259
Summertown, TN 38483
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November 1-3 Fall Dances of Universal Peace with guest Dance leader Grace Marie! 
Uplift your spirit and open your heart. Learn more and REGISTER here.
 

October 18-20 Farm Experience Weekend
Discover for yourself what Life in Community is all about! Click here to register, or to learn more.
 
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Electric Tofu: Click here to listen to The Gravy Podcast by the Southern Foodways Alliance
 
In the early 1970s, two hundred hippies from San Francisco’s Haight Ashbury neighborhood resettled in rural Tennessee. They founded a vegetarian commune and agricultural operation called The Farm. With help from their neighbors and a psychedelic soundtrack from their house band, the back-to-landers got their social experiment off the ground and produced some of the first vegan cookbooks and commercial soy products in the United States.
 
The Farm outlived the Flower Power era to become a model of environmental sustainability and community farming that is still thriving nearly 50 years later. Producer Betsy Shepherd tells how tempeh, experimental rock, midwifery, and the anti-nuclear movement grew from a seed of West Coast counterculture planted in Southern soil.
***
Betsy Shepherd is a freelance writer, and radio producer.
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If Darkness Takes Us
 
Brenda Smith was a Farm member from 1975 through 1983, living in Tennessee as well as the Florida, Baton Rouge, San Diego, and Austin Farm centers, and was instrumental in the founding of The Plenty Age and Youth Center in Miami. We share a fond memory of our two families managing the Visitors Tent together for a couple weeks back in the mid-70s, an impromptu 40 person commune!
 
Her new book,  If Darkness Takes Us, comes out from SFK Press on October 15, 2019, and is the 2018 SOUTHERN FRIED KARMA NOVEL CONTEST WINNER,
 
IN SUBURBAN AUSTIN, TEXAS, BEA CRENSHAW SECRETLY PREPARES FOR THE APOCALYPSE. But when a solar pulse destroys modern life, she’s left alone with four grandkids whose parents do not return home. She must teach these kids to survive without power, cars, phones, running water, or doctors in a world fraught with increasing danger.
 
If Darkness Takes Us is realistic post-apocalyptic fiction with a focus on a family in peril, led by a no-nonsense grandmother who is at once funny, controlling, and heroic in her struggle to hold her family together with civility and heart.
 
Brenda describes it this way, "If Darkness Takes Us is different than the kinds of apocalypses people are used to reading or watching. The characters band together to create an urban farming co-op to give them better odds of survival, and, not surprisingly for us Farm folks, this plan actually works! My experiences on the Farm were very instrumental in my ability to write with authenticity about living off the grid with little water and no cars or phones."
 
“Bea Crenshaw is one of the most unique characters in modern literature; a kick-ass Grandma who is at once tough and vulnerable, and well-prepared to shepherd her extended family through an EMP disaster, or so she thinks. If Darkness Takes Us is realistic post-apocalyptic fiction with tragedy, humor, and heart.”
— Laura Creedle, author of The Love Letters of Abelard & Lily. Winner of the 2017 Writers League of Texas Best Young Adult Novel
“If Darkness Takes Us is a riveting and powerful tale of perseverance in the aftermath of the unthinkable. I was immediately taken by the memorable characters and lyrical writing, and I fell in love with Bea’s wit and courage from the first page. I highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a gritty but heartfelt literary novel that subverts the usual tropes of the apocalypse.”
— Aden Polydoros, author of the Assassin Fall series
“Bea Crenshaw is the toughest grandma in Texas. But it's the soft, hidden parts of her that will leave readers smitten. Her fight to keep her grandchildren alive—and sane—is more riveting than the chaos exploding beyond their walls. Humanity might be crumbling, but Bea's struggle offers a glimpse into the most human parts of us all.”
— Cate Hogan, editor of Boss with Benefits and How to Capture a Duke 
 
“IF DARKNESS TAKES US gives an unflinching look at survival in a post-apocalyptic world, featuring the gritty, unforgettable protagonist -- 70-something-year-old Bea Crenshaw. Where William R. Forstchen's One Second After focuses on the survival of a city, Smith's fascinating tale focuses on a family's struggle to survive.”
— Peggy Rothschild, Author of Punishment Summer
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Origins and Evolutions of Food in Tennessee
In Nashville, the Tennessee State Museum has an exhibit about food in Tennessee, which includes the display below about The Farm. There was an event with Farm people giving out samples of tofu, tempeh and other foods. The exhibits runs through February 20, 2020.
 
 
A big thanks to everyone who has become a patron of Farm Fresh!
When you become a subscriber, your contribution helps spread the word about community based alternatives.
Take this one small step to be part of the solution!
Let me know your interests. Click here to take the survey.    I look forward to hearing from you.
 
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I hope you'll make the effort to take a firsthand look at The Farm during one of my GreenLife Retreat Weekends, and that it will inspire you to pursue your dreams and find your chosen path!
 
Speaking Engagements
At the same time, I recognize that I can reach a lot more people if I go outside the community. One of my goals is to speak at colleges and universities where I can talk to young people about Right Livelihood, Service, and Finding Sanity in an Insane World. This is a time when people need to hear an uplifting message of hope.
 
If you are part of an organization, event, or school (or you just want to learn more about my life's work), I invite you to visit my web site www.douglasstevenson.com, where you'll find information on my lecture topics and how to bring me to speak in your area.
 Thank you for your interest, and your support. I hope to see you down the road.
 
Peace,
Douglas
 
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out to change the world
new society
 
 
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My wife Deborah is one of the primary midwives practicing on The Farm right now. She is also a teacher with the midwifery workshops and our college of traditional midwifery. If you, a friend, or family member are considering a midwifery assisted birth, I encourage you to visit her web site and check out her podcast.
 
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www.awakeningbirth.org - the Web Site
www.awakening birth.net - The Podcast 
Her birth resource web sites for families seeking guidance on subjects such as
  • Choosing a Care Provider.
  • Health and Diet
  • Challenges and Complications
  • and much more!
  • The Awakening Birth podcast is now available on iTunes or at www.awakeningbirth.net
Please spread the word to anyone in your circle who is thinking of having a baby, expecting, to your favorite midwife, or care provider. Please like us and give us a good review on iTunes. It helps!
 
 
GreenLife Retreats
A division of Village Media Services
PO Box 259Summertown, TN 38483
931-964-2590 - office / cell
Douglas@villagemedia.com
www.villagemedia.com
www.greenliferetreats.com
www.douglasstevenson.com 
Douglas@thefarmcommunity.com
 
 
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