Listen in as Fellow MANIACs Harry Webne-Behrman and Erin Schneider spread Generosity and Abundance during the inaugural TEDxMadtown talk. Videos from the talk are on the TEDxyoutube channel
And of course the event would never have happened without the amazing TEDxMadtown organizing committee led by, you guessed it another UW MANIAC, Deb Gurke. I wanted to take the time and share with you my experiences from the event and hope we'll have a chance to share more innovative stories during UW MANIAC's summer soirees and future Innovation and Collaboration Learning Cafes.
This past March, I had the privilege and honor to share Rob and mine's dream of growing fruit and building community during the TEDxMadtown event. The TEDxMadtown venue brings people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TED talks video and live speakers combine to spark discussion, connection and innovative thinking around ideas worth spreading.
I wanted to share with you our story of growing fruit and building community. In 2009 we started the process of diversifying our CSA to include more perennial fruits--transitioning an acre of land-preparing the soil, planting cover crops, and managing for weeds. Specifically, we set out to grow unusual yet marketable fruit crops such as Aronia, quince, Currants, Saskatoons, Seaberry, and Elderberr. Saskatoon what? Aronia who? What are all these fruits and what do you do with them? These fruits are high-yielding, environmentally friendly and exceptionally nutritious. They blow blueberries off the antioxidant charts. We also already know and have a community of apples, pears, and rapsberries on our farm, and we though we'd meet some new fruit neighbors.
O.k. so we're into unusual fruit? What does that have to do with "Ideas Worth Spreading" and emerging stories from my TEDxMadtown talk? The shift is in not just thinking about fruit, but thinking about function and how to grow food/fruits in relation to each other. A key innovation in our projects was the use of forest garden guilds as an orchard design tool. Forest garden guilds are perennial polycultures of multipurpose plants that partition resources and create networks of mutual support. We can consciously apply the principles of plant community function to the design of gardens, our farms that mimic structure and function and also grow our food, fuel, fiber, fodder, fertilizer, 'farm-aceuticals' and fun. (Edible Forest Gardens Vol. 2 Jacke and Toenmeister, 2007). We can extend these concepts as a metaphor for how we relate to each other and live both as free and interdependent beings in a funcational way in our communities.
This is where the TEDx event helped bring my farm experiences to the community and here's what's happening as a result. Telling my story of using Forest garden guilds as a guide to grow fruit and build community have helped us transform our agriculture system ot one of sustainable abundance, community, and the ability to concentrate wealth in the form of happiness, health, and expanded ecosystem services. It's also led us to new businesses opportunities as I work to develop Just Fruit Cooperative. I was also able to get valuable feedback and support with focusing my research and development efforts for Just Fruit Coop. During the talk, I passed around a 'tip jar', inviting participants to dig deep in the pockets of their minds and share ideas, stories, and thoughts ot the question of what creates the conditions and potential for a sustainable abundant food system. I discovered ideas, resources, and made connections with sources and people I never thought of before, or had no idea existed in Madison. For eample, I am helping with the co-deign of edible forest gardens and local venues such as Fractal, a new 'hacker-maker'space' venue on Madison's East side. I met with James Carlson (another great TEDx presenter, his video is worth checking out), who also directs a creative placemaking venue in Milwaukee WI and is a Prezi wiz. I invited Jame to share his talents and insights with using Prezi at an upcoming Unconference, the Midwest Regional Collaborative for Sustainability Education, that I am involved in designing. I was able to connect forest gardens to new internet gaming technologies and met with people at the University of Wisconsin Madison in exploring how to design a Forest Garden Game for you and adults ot play with online. I've been invited to speak at community events and received an invitation to participate in the upcoming Rural Wealth and Livelihoods Conference in Washington D.C. later this year, from Chris who was at TEDx and inspired by my talk.
I believe that growing fruits and growing cooperative connections can lead to increased ecological diversity, social interconnectedness, and economic viability for our farm, for our community, for the U.S. and the world. We need to look more broadly at creating networks and spaces like UW MANIAC and TEDx to cross-pollinate and share ideas, resources, and tools as well as getting inspired by stories shaping wealth and livelihood in other areas such as education, technology, and community organizing. TEDx instilled greater confidence in myself and authenticity in my work. In these uncertain economic times, finding creative solutions and launching ideas worth spreading is critical for not only creating sustainable jobs (jobs that pay well and increase the quality of life, quality of the land, and quality of our community relations), but also creating invaluable connections.
As a farmer, it is my hope that others will be inspired by TEDx talks and help share the importance of cross-pollinating ideas for not only growing fruit, but also growing long lasting relationships with people and place. As a facilitator, I hope you will be inspired by TEDx as it helps frame the questions, set hte intentions, and transform, for example, the current story of food insecurity and scarcity for many communities in Wisconsin, the U.S., the world, to a future re-imagined story of sustainable abundance, one story, one guild at a time.
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