ANTIQUE FARMING.
"The longer Levin mowed, the oftener he felt the moments of unconsciousness in which it seemed that the scythe was mowing by itself, a body full of life and consciousness of its own, and as though by magic, without thinking of it, the work turned out regular and precise by itself. These were the most blissful moments." - Tolstoy, Anna Karenina
Yesterday, with the garden saturated in another half-inch of rain, Hannah and I spent our day antique shopping. I had one particular item in mind, one I'd seen at antique malls before but always passed on buying: a scythe. We hadn't had much use for one until now, but as we slowly make our way across the garden we've been letting the grass grow up in one half so we could cut it and collect the hay. Instead of bringing in some insane piece of equipment for an eighth of an acre of grass, however, we decided we'd cut it by hand, and that's where our new scythe comes in.
Scything is indeed a magical act, if I may be permitted an understatement. Nothing connects me to the olden days quite like the motion of swinging a scythe crisply across the grass and laying it down in front at my feet, a quiet horizontal pendulum, physical and satisfying. I think of Levin from Tolstoy's Anna Karenina, watching the men scythe proficiently with awe and jealousy. I think of the value people once placed upon tools like this, now easily found under a pile of shovels and pitch forks in an antique mall and sold as novelty––$45. Our scythe is a handsome and well-crafted tool, I can only imagine what it cost brand new, and what it meant to its owner. I joke with friends that we buy our farming equipment at antique stores...but with the addition of the scythe, and another hand scythe we purchased recently, perhaps it's becoming more true than I realize. Since Hannah and I have no real desire to ever be organically certified, or biodynamically certified, or to be certified by anything other than ourselves and our customers, maybe we'll just describe ourselves as antique farmers from now on, breathing purpose back into novelties, and constantly working to reduce, reuse and recycle.- Jesse.
