#reaping week

like that specific kind of debate bro whose videos are all "liberal DESTROYED raging feminist OWNED by calm facts and logic haha i'm so smart and cool" who thinks anyone not in a perfect stoic state must immediately be wrong (and by proxy their ability to "argue" about things that don't affect them divisive topics calmly means they must be right)

seeing people finding their ways to scream into the void for reaping week or vent the anger and indignity at how screwed up our world is... why is it so taboo? why is it so bad to be upset at, yknow, things that should upset any rational, compassionate person?

because yeah, anger isn't rational and tends to find targets rather than solutions, but for fluff's sake it doesn't just go away! you can't turn off your passion! and you shouldn't! you should be upset! you should be upset about climate change and billionaires and rising fascism! you should be upset that the world is unjust!

but we've created, or accepted, or failed to question, this framework where being calm makes you more correct and being visibly passionate or upset is a bad thing, where being riled up by someone who thinks you don't deserve rights is a sign of weakness, where caring loudly and vibrantly is somehow bad optics because being angry looks bad.

angry people are dangerous. angry people can't be trusted. angry people shouldn't be listened to. angry people can't control their emotions. angry people should just calm down. angry people should be subdued.

just shut up and take it already, won't you?

like. look. the doomerism and despair is strong outside of communities like this. so often i find myself asking where is your rage!? where is your hope?! your joy, your passion, your conviction that a better world will be made!

i spent a long time drowning in some pretty rough crap. when i managed to crawl out of it, the first thing i felt was relief. the second was burning, white-hot rage that i had lived like this, that i had been allowed to live like this. anxiety makes you want to shrink down, be as small as possible, as unintrusive, as unnoticeable. anger told me to be loud, be bright, be visible, shout from the rooftops that i deserved better, turn passion into action instead of wallowing.

yes, i am angry at the world and i should be. i am upset that people who have more money than i can even conceive of can run the planet into the ground and blame me for using too much plastic. i am upset that my existence is someone else's political fodder they can fearmonger about for engagement. i am upset that people are dying over numbers on a graph and lines on a map. i am upset that billions of dollars for guns and tanks gets written off without question, but the single mother of two on food stamps is what's draining the budget. i am upset and i'm not going to apologize for it, because that isn't "letting my emotions control me," it's having basic fluffing compassion for other people.

It's frustrating to not have a way to get involved with your local community. We don't typically have things like public libraries, community centers, farmer's markets, etc.

Something that's worked for me is getting involved with my local church. There is a church in every town here in the South, that is the one thing you can rely on aside from a post office. I'm not a Christian and never will be, but in my community the church is the center of getting involved and holds all sorts of events like soup kitchens, community yard sales, etc.

I go to a United Methodist Church, which is lgbtq affirming. I've heard episcopalians are too. I never feel pressured to do communion or convert. I go there to sing and help out people in my community, and people are respectful of that.

Imagine- instead of being forced to go to a grocery store to shop, transport it home yourself via transit and then unpack and organize it at home, instead you can opt into home delivery a certain day of the week. That like in an old time envisioned America you fill out a list a week in advance about the food you'd like, and it's delivered to your door at a scheduled time a different day so you actually have the energy to prep/sort/organize/plan for meals!!!

Let me tell you bout Imperfect Foods - this grocery delivery service is great, they take the mislabeled, discolored, or otherwise imperfect foods and offer them in a delivery service.

The really cool thing to me as someone who wants to decentralized our food systems is how they go about it.

Instead of your order coming in the second you order it, they combine all the orders for your neighborhood/section of your city to a certain day of the week. Allowing for us all to soft schedule when it's picked up but also it becomes a community food day?? The reason they do it is to lower emissions which is cool.

But when we are envisioning a new system, less instant and more environmentally friendly I think this is an AWESOME solution!!

I ran across this service a little over a year ago on My Brother My Brother and Me and thought it was so cool but then lost the episode. I was garbage binging some fave episodes and ran across it just in time for reaping week!!

This isn't even to mention their actual sustainability goals! Since they are attempting to become a B-Corp service they also have the following systems as apart of the service.

Hey there sprout! 🌱

Downloading and saving everything ever!

Netflix, I couldn't tell ya. I've heard some ppl have managed it but personally I go through either my typical movie sites - which often have a download option

As seen here ^^

On wcostream Firefox and safari both allow you to right click and straight up save the video. Firefox also has some extentions that help you save videos in general.

Alternatively, either New Pipe or y2mate are places where you can download anything you find in YouTube, videos or music.

Once downloaded, while I'd suggest your own physical drive, a Google Drive will do if you don't have access. Once organized and secured, I'd also personally get it into a physical media. If you can swing it, a few places do sell USB connected DVD burners (I'm waiting for Yule for mine!) And then blank DVDs are super cheap I bought over 50 blank ones for 2.99 where I am.

Community gardens-

Community gardens are a piece of land gardened or cultivated by a group of people, which you can do individually or collectively. So they can be done on private or public land. 

Community gardens are not only a testament to community care and mutual aid, it's also almost a radical act of protest and activism. You're combining and sharing resources, which is inherently anti-capitalist, and you're actively protesting climate change by cultivating the land and bringing back native plants. They exist in various forms, it can be located in the proximity of neighborhoods or on balconies and rooftops. They are far from a one size fits all, they are built to meet the needs of the people cultivating them.

History-

this is gunna be a long one yall--

1890s-- Rapid urbanization in Europe and North America lead to community ran gardens to supplement food stocks that the city couldn't maintain causing an obscene cost of food. Thus lead to cities across the world attempting in their own ways to handle the problem-

1893 - Detroit Mayor Hazen S. Pingree took office with citizens even calling for “bread or blood”. In the mist of this crisis the city establishes a program that required vacant lots to be used as gardens and farms for the unemployed citizens have access to food. The deal the city basically makes is 'we will provide the land for you to farm, you feed yourself by farming it!' Later called "Potato Patches" would convert thousands of acres of vacant and idle land in the city for subsistence gardens, then cultivated by the unemployed in order to ensure citizens access to food regardless of the employment or economic status. At its peak, 1563 families participating over 430 acres of donated or City land. This would become so successful that later other cities like Boston and Buffalo would later adopt similar programs.

In England, “allotment” gardens were created to improve working-class people’s food provision, living conditions, and overall health of people living in suddenly crowded city centers.

Marseille in 1896, “les jardins d’ouvriers”, or ‘the workers’ gardens’, were created by a clergyman, with the purpose of reducing the misery of the working class and improving living condition.

1917- The War Gardens Commission was established to call on citizens to become, "Soldiers of the soil," planting gardens to meet some of their own domestic need for food as well as solider rations. (talk about abandoning your citizens for the sake of war >.>) Providing booklets, cartoons, and plenty of propaganda to teach everyone able to grow and preserve their own food supplies. War and Victory Gardens running well through the 1920s into the 50s. Often communties would have a vacant lot or shared spaces to also fullfill any need that wouldnt fit on private land. By 1944, between 18 to 20 million families with victory gardens were providing up to 40% of the vegetables in America.

1970s - In major cities that were fighting both economic crisis and urban decay as a result of white flight to the suburbs. Bringing rise to community groups like The Green Guerillas-  built of horticulturalists, gardeners, botanists, and planners who work to turn abandoned or empty spaces in New York City into gardens. The group threw "seed grenades" into derelict lots and developed community gardens, often without going through official channels. It became especially popular after the concerted redevelopment of a dangerous, trash-filled space at the corner of Houston Street and Bowery in Manhattan.  That first and now oldest recognized community garden in New York City on a street corner, grew to be over an acre and remains active as of 2023 now named the Liz Christy Garden after its founder who wanted a safe space and good food for children in her community.

2010-Current

Millions of community gardens spanning across the entire world have been reestablished. Particularly over the course of 2012 on wards in order to get back to connecting with the soil and feeding low income housing. Many of the gardens today also hold other community functions like yoga and woodworking classes, socializing centers, holding events, and act as a 3rd space where there are so few these days. Becoming more like a community hub over just a simple source of food.

How do I join or create a community garden?

Join an existing garden- look up one in your area here

To create your own, you will need to do your own research on your city or towns bylaws but generally you'll need a few things-

Gather friends/group to garden with

Secure a place to garden, as well as access to water

Gardening Equipment

Happy Gardening!!