What good can we do?
The trickiest part of the project we’re building here at Field Store House is that we are in the practice of building an ecosystem.
It’s a model that is weaving the full-loop of the hospitality and agricultural crafts together: the land from which is the source of all, the agriculture that provides the raw product, the animals that provide protein and participate in the grazing and fertility of the land, the café that is the conduit to the community being able to connect to the space, the culinary program that is building a North Shore micro-regional cuisine, the inn that provides a seamless hosting experience for those visiting us from other regions, and the composting/manure programs that take the leftovers of our kitchen and all of the bodies on the property and build fertility for the land.
This is really hard. The joyful side of hard, for sure, and as Kacey reminded me last week, “seth, we do hard things.” The DNA of the people who are drawn to working and developing this project is for sure the type of person who only likes Type II & III fun. We’ve been so humbled to work in amazing restaurants and hotels and land projects but the thing that kept us pushing towards this moment of developing this project is that we were looking for that ‘more-ness’ with a potential 20-year learning curve and a constant call to answer questions that are difficult, nuanced, and at the heart of some of the most vital questions the agricultural and hospitality industries must answer if they are to be leaders in building the new models we all need in order for these industries to survive without causing more harm to the land, animals, and people at the center of them. Diving into the unanswered questions is at the heart of the issue though. The answers to our current challenges for both industries are not only about going back to old models, nor are they about completely new innovation. The answers lie somewhere in the intersection of those two wisdoms.
The question we are centering in the ecosystem-building work of this project is, “What good can we do?” If there is a sphere of influence that we find ourselves in, if there is a person or animal we carry an impact on, if there is a decision to be made about our practices and policies, then we strive to find the answer in the measure of good we can bring to the situation and decision. This sometimes (often) means choosing a harder way and choosing a way that we didn’t initially plan on, but we also find so much inspiration in the creative effect it has on us. And true to any practice, it is messy and uncoordinated and provides material for many laughs - mostly at ourselves.
We are heading into the season of reflection on the death of this last agricultural season and the conception of the next season and will be living with this question at the center of many decisions to be made. Our deepest hope is that the good we are striving to do is encouraging and inspiring to the community of people who have begun to gather around this project with us. We send you our love and all of the deep fall goodness dreaming and scheming that is possible. If ever there was a time in the world to be conspiring for goodness, it is now.
photo credit & hand model: Peyton Stasiak
