You may sow your crops and reap them, but in the seventh year, let it rest and lie untilled. In that year the land will provide food for the poor, and what they don't take will go to the wild animals. Do the same with your vineyards and olive groves. (Exodus 23:10–11, The Inclusive Bible)
The Fallow
by Anna Wickham
Now, Tiller, hold your
grain,
Leave her to sun and rain
And the kind air
Then
trench her with a well-judged measure
Of feeding pleasure,
And
give her peace
To dream of her increase
And your good
care.
Well might you reap miraculous yield
From such a happy,
nourished field!
We planted and tended through spring, summer, fall, and a month of winter at the Parktown garden. We also spent weeks digging up tenacious landscape fabric and layering cardboard, hub-grown compost, and chipped tree mulch. The areas we didn't plant lay fallow. Our hope was in the theology of the compost, hope that rich compost made from things decaying and discarded would resurrect some unnaturally compacted and lifeless soil that had lived a previous life as a preschool playground.
Fallowing soil, or leaving it unplanted for a period of time, is a recognized land or garden management technique. It's good for the soil. It's regenerative. Depleted soil nutrients and beneficial microorganisms are regenerated in a season of rest. This sounds such a positive thing that I was surprised to pick up a distinctively negative vibe when I looked up the word “fallow” online. Just take a look at some of the synonyms below.
Fallow (from Google's dictionary, accessed 2/18/2021, http://tinyurl.com/2dnskglv)
adjective
1. (of farmland) plowed and harrowed but left unsown for a period in order to restore its fertility as part of a crop rotation or to avoid surplus production. "incentives for farmers to let the land lie fallow in order to reduce grain surpluses"
Similar: unused, undeveloped, dormant, resting, empty, bare, neglected, untended, unmanaged
Opposite: cultivated
2. inactive. "long fallow periods when nothing seems to happen"
Similar: dormant, quiet, slack, slow, flat, idle, inert, static, stagnant, depressed, unproductive, unfruitful
Opposite:
productive.
Bare. Neglected. Unmanaged. Slack. Stagnant. Depressed. Unproductive. All the things we don't want to be. All the things the world tells us we shouldn't be. And not at all what we imagined when we pulled away the impermeable fabric and layered the compost with dreams of what we could plant in future.
Digging a little deeper into concepts of crop rotation and soil health, we stumbled upon Shmita. Shmita is the Jewish sabbatical year in a seven-year agricultural cycle. Although commonly translated as “sabbatical year,” Shmita literally means “release.” Unlike many Jewish practices that call the individual to participate, Shmita requires the participation of the individual AND the community. Shmita is a time to put down some of our personal pursuits in support of communal good.
It is a year of reset, not just for the land but for all of us. A year of reflection. A year of respite to learn more about agricultural practices, but not to actively cultivate and plant. A year in which anything that reseeds or grows as perennial may be eaten by the deer and rabbits or harvested by anyone passing by for their personal consumption. Perhaps a year of community harvest? A year to forgive debts. Perhaps a year to let go of the grievances we so often carry as a burden? A year to listen to each other and the land. A year of release.
Shmita has a biblical basis in Torah. The seventh agricultural sabbatical year echos the seventh day of creation, the day on which God rested. Although the biblical explanation predates modern agricultural practices, there seems to be a modern Shmita renaissance. Shmita is discussed as a part of sustainable agriculture, as an approach to climate change, and as a call to environmental awareness and stewardship. During this 2020-2021 pandemic season, Shmita points some people toward rent forgiveness for people who are struggling to make ends meet during the pandemic.
In fact, so great is the Shmita renaissance that the Jewish nonprofit Hazon has started the Shmita Project. The goal of the Shmita Project is to “... animate conversation and change in the world, based on the values and teachings of Shmita and focus on environmental sustainability, rest and overwork, debt and debt relief, relationship to land, food and time....”
The Shmita Project put out a Shmita PSA, a commercial that is just cheesy enough to draw me in. Never did I imagine I could watch an online commercial for a Jewish spiritual agricultural practice that speaks to my pandemic heart so powerfully in Hebrew with English subtitles. You can watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ah3Z_ZoFLcw&feature=youtu.be.
The next Shmita year officially starts for the Jewish community on Rosh Hashana 2021 (September 6, 2021). From September 2021 to September 2022 thousands of Jews will make commitments to be a stronger community of compassion. At Parktown we're still learning about Shmita, a release and reset to learn about gardening and to build community and the soil the soil. Fallowing together. To leave her to sun and rain and the kind air and give her peace.
