I loved Wonga’s quote from last week’s story: "Indoda ifa ifunda" A man dies learning.

I sometimes seek comfort rather than curiosity— the settled rhythm of planting, cultivating, harvesting, eating. I want to be settled in my own knowledge, you know? I’ve been doing this for over ten years, surely that’s enough to become a pro, right? Nope.

Sometimes it’s obvious a system is not working the way I hoped, but I have so much invested in the system that it’s very painful to shift.

For example, our watering systems need consistent curiosity in this time of climate change. Do we water a lot in the driving wind, or do we save water, knowing that later in the season the water table will drop? When do we let go, and when do we keep pushing for a longer season of food? Do we invest more money or time on a specific task? Do we focus on training the next generation? If perceived busy-ness prevents us from eating the veg that we grow, for how long do I pretend all is well before I take a closer look?

Growing demands that I always learn, that I never get too comfortable. It’s the most obvious place where I can see we are not creatures with innate characteristics, we are never “green-fingered” or “black-fingered”. We grow in direct proportion to where we are most attentive.

If we get too comfortable, we stop seeing that we are all part of a living, breathing, larger organism. I mean that metaphorically, but also in the most practical, physical sense. For example, if someone brings us seeds that grow well in our climate, that seed might shape our growing for years! If we suddenly have a few customers requesting rhubarb, we become rhubarb growers (and eaters). If celery is trending on social media because of some influencer far away, maybe we grow more of it and nobody buys it, and so we have to eat tons of celery and the physical cells of our body start to comprise the atoms from those celery plants. Isn’t that crazy?

So, back to the theme of systems. We look and see and hope and consider new systems. I look at our neighbours and learn from them. I hear from you all and absorb your wisdom, even when you don’t realise you are wise.

The farm becomes a type of semi-permeable membrane that takes in some things, leaves others out, and keeps growing.

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