Farm Fresh September 2021: Amazing Archive Video, Moving Day!

Farm Fresh News - September 2021

In this issue:

The Farm Origin Story
Amazing Archive Video
"The Farm is..."
A new home for Plenty International!

Farm Full Moon - photo by Gabe Koberstein

Dear Friends,

I recently came across these amazing videos recorded by a young hippie couple visiting The Farm back in 1975. They offer a unique and rare opportunity to travel back in time, capturing the enthusiasm, energy, and determination at this peak time in The Farm's evolution. Four years in, we were settled into our Tennessee surroundings, feeding ourselves and ready to feed the world.

It is around this time we started Plenty International. Pete Schweitzer, who tells The Farm's founding story, has been working with Plenty since those early days. So it is apropos that you see a new office for Plenty being driven down Farm Road to its new location adjacent to Pete's home in the photo below.

I hope you find these blasts from the past interesting and inspiring!
Peace,
Douglas

The Stephen Gaskin Family Farm - 1975
https://youtu.be/5vm8QCIBLSU

This video about The Farm is from 1975, and uses interviews of Pete Schweitzer, about to become the director of Plenty International, Michael O'Gorman, head of our Farming Crew, plus Cara O'Gorman and Mary Louise Perkins representing The Farm Midwives. The edited piece has images of farming, the construction crew, and more.
There are two other videos.

Click here to watch The Farm - Origin Story of the Stephen Gaskin Family Farm - 1975
This one is the full interview with Pete Schweitzer. Pete is the long-time director of Plenty International.

Pete tells the origin story of Monday Night Class and Caravan, and along with the purchase of the Black Swan Ranch, home of The Farm Community now for 50 years. It is one of the best and most complete documentations of the founding of the community that exists. I teased Pete because there is also a part that shines a little light on our "cultish" side about how a new member must become Stephen's student. 😉 It turns out two of The Farm midwives were also present but couldn't get much of a word in edgewise. (LOL sorry Pete).

Overall I think this video coveys our serious sincerity and intensity. It is also an interesting point in time, as the Farming crew is about to start planting in Homestead, Florida, and we now know of the big freeze that happens later that year (or maybe the next) that a rare killer frost wiped out our crops and put The Farm deep in debt.

Fortunately, the team conducted another interview with Farm Midwives Cara and Mary Louise.
The Farm - Midwives from the Stephen Gaskin Family Farm share their Wisdom - 1975

The camera team of Dean and Dudley Evenson are interesting, aged hippies and they continue to stay active in video and audio production. Here is their website. https://soundings.com/

When I came across these videos, it made me think about who we are now, and what defines our collective vision and purpose.

To find that out, I believe we have to look at the gestalt Farm, a whole created from the sum of its parts.

Who is This Seasons Farm? How do they/we see this place, present, or in the future?

There’s an exercise or a game that involves the use of powerful magic words, “The Farm is…” 😉

How can we use those words to find out our highest vision of what the community is?

I put this out to the community on an internal discussion list, suggesting we start broad and open, something like,

The Farm is a peaceful place.

The Farm is a place where people are stewards of the land.

The Farm is the place of my heart family.

Here is what a few people had to say:

From a Founding member (Monday Night Class and The Caravan):
The Farm is a valuable experiment in living together which I am committed to heart and soul.

From a new resident:
I simply can't describe the degree of reverence and humility I feel, as well as sheer excitement, to have been accepted and welcomed here on The Farm. Although my daughter and I are familiar to (known by - ed) a rather small part of the community thus far, we look forward to opportunities to explore relationships with all willing.

My first introduction to TF was in 1984. I was 16. I fell in love with the land first and foremost. What struck me and what stayed with me and grew every time a visited over the years was the way the people here regarded this space.

That it was holy. That it was healing. That it was giving in abundance and brought so much joy.

I understood that taking care of The Farm and each other spread like wildfire in the hearts of all of you and I wanted to be part of such a love...and later to share with my child.

Surely, The Farm broadcasts such a high vibration as to reach the pain and suffering in the world.

This is part of what I've felt and feel now and part of the hope in maintaining and improving on what was/is.

From a Founding member (Monday Night Class and The Caravan) who left in the 80s and returned a few years ago:
The Farm for me is a sanctuary. It's about the close relationships I have with many people here. That feeds my soul.

From a long time member:
Sanctuary on The Farm these days, is more like a community that has enough sovereignty that it can isolate itself from the greater world outside. That is attractive for any age person who would consider living here.

From a Founding member:
I love living on The Farm because of the deep love and care we have for each other and for the land and for the world, all the ways we try to help the world.

and another:
I love living on The Farm because I see how people care for each other and take care of each other.

This fellow moved here a few years ago and is going through the Membership process:
The Farm is home. For me, a place to exercise and strengthen the sense of intentional community, heart family, immersed in a wild and peaceful environment. A place to ride my daughter to school in a cart or a nice walk through the woods.

Home, with the epic history/herstory and creative potential to again have many people of all ages living in a way that is clearly different than the mainstream model of separation and desperation at the loss of intimate village life. A home to deepen friendships and help each other experience and grow in all ways, all the ways that we are reasonably able to.

The Farm is a special place that still needs cultivation to reach its fullest expression as a spiritual community, whether that is in my lifetime or the next season's people's. It needs to continue, and it is a place for me to be the best pillar I can be for the realization of a 100 year anniversary and beyond. Expressing love, life, land stewardship, laughter, tears, communication, and commitment to improving relations and experience for the people that inhabit and carry the flag.

For me a place to strive for balance and enjoy being good to myself and those around me. And it has been, and I know will be a place where we have fun together and co-create fantastic dreams. Grateful in our garden, our Farm.

The new office for Plenty International, a humble abode for doing the work of helping people around the world.

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Peace,

Douglas

Douglas@thefarmcommunity.com