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.
