I long to see the great army of producers in our country, turn their eyes up from their work; stir up those brains, now mere machines. . .set them to thinking, let them feel they are honorable, and farming the highest calling on earth. --OHK

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

FROM GRANGE MEMBER ELISSA

Every day that I spend on the Oliver H. Kelley Farm begins the same way. I shed the trappings of my modern life and slip into the 1860s. I leave my cell phone, car keys, modern clothing, and reliance on electricity to transform into a 19th century farmer, petticoats, bonnet, and all. A short walk down a dirt path is all it takes to escape any signs of modernity. The 1876 farmhouse shields us from the sun, rising in the east, as my fellow farmers and I begin our morning routines.
    As I clean the ashes from the cast iron cookstove, I begin to think through the day’s never ending to-do list. After the fire is lit, the water is warming, and the windows are opened, I often take a moment to sit on the front porch and watch our resident flock of wild turkeys strut through the hay field, feasting on grass and grasshoppers. I wonder if Oliver and Temperance Kelley ever sat on that same front porch and looked out over the same stretch of Mississippi River while a previous generation of turkeys strolled through the same field.
    The land has changed a lot since the first day Kelley and his family set foot upon it. What was once a vast landscape of oak savannah, bordered by tall grass prairie and deciduous woods, is now a patchwork of farmland, businesses, and homes, crisscrossed with roads and power lines. The Kelley Farm is a small pocket of the past in that swiftly changing landscape. When I leave it each day and put my pants (pants on a woman, simply scandalous) and modern life back on, I am struck by some of the similarities between my life and Oliver Kelley’s. We both spend a lot of time thinking about the land and how to use it to feed our community. We think about how to better the lives of those around us, whether its through lobbying for fair prices to transport and process farmer’s crops, in Oliver’s case, or educating the next generation about respect for land, life, and history, which is one of my personal goals. I want help with that goal, just as Oliver Kelley did 150 years ago. He helped to establish the National Grange in order to unite people in the mission of bettering the lives of family, community, and nation.
    The Grange is still working towards those goals today. I am excited to be a part of a new Grange where we can set our own agenda, keeping with the mission of bettering our human community through cooperation, education, and service and emphasizing natural stewardship for the land that provides for us. The National Grange’s motto says it best: “In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, charity.”


Elissa Mallory is an historic interpreter at the Oliver Kelley Farm, and a leader in Minnesota's New Grange.

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

MINNESOTA'S NEW GRANGE HAS PARTIES!

Minnesota’s New Grange is a social organization which seeks to encompass the involvement of our diverse membership.  Our group has a number of parties (committees) which you can be part of, helping provide leadership, direction, and decision planning, or just be a member and partake in the fun and enjoyment of our many events and activities!

Our parties consist of:

LEADERSHIP TEAM; the executive body of the traditional thirteen leadership position, the leadership team sets the agenda, offers leadership and guidance, and participates in outreach, communication and public relations for our Grange.

SCHOLARSHIP & FUNDRAISING PARTY; provided guidance and leadership in raising funds for our Grange Scholarship, and to support our activities, events, and other costs associated with our Grange.

CHILDREN, YOUTH & FAMILY PARTY; supports and provides leadership, activity planning, and mentorship for children, youth, and family within our Grange and statewide communities.

COMMUNITY SERVICE PARTY; supports and leads our strong commitment to community service and support of the Oliver Kelley Farm.

ATHLETICS & ACTIVITIES PARTY; organizes our 1860s town ball players, volleyball team, and other sports related and outdoor events and activities such as our Grange’s annual camping trip.

SOCIAL EVENTS PARTY; the party and events planning group who plan our Grange and community events and activities such as our annual Harvest Dance and Spring Frolic Fundraiser.

GREEN LIVING PARTY; the leadership group that focuses on contemporary issues of agriculture, urban farming, sustainable living, and legislative agendas for our Grange.

WHICH PARTY WILL YOU JOIN!?!

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

A FARMER IS A SORT OF "JACK OF ALL TRADES. . . "

. . .and needs to be well posted in all live languages, the dead languages are not so important.  He must be able to control his temper also, for he will be provoked frequently at the behavior of his livestock.  Cows will sometimes kick over the milk pail--pigs wont always go the way you want them and oxen are always at the furthest part of the pasture when you are in a hurry to yoke them.  He must never get discouraged at losses for the armyworm will destroy his grain.  Horses sometimes fall dead in their stalls at night, (we had a costly experience on this) and crops usually turn out about two-thirds the quantity most men calculate upon.  He generally has a good appetite, however, and has the best he raises to eat if he will, and the man that won't eat the best he can is a fool and no farmer.  --OHK, 1856

Our Grange is a "jack of all trades," too.  Making it the success we have the capability of involves innovation, leadership, partnership, team-work, and charity.  We're making it the best.

Sunday, August 12, 2012

OHK QUOTATION OF THE DAY:

After the 1866 Minnesota State Fair showcased buggy plows and other riding field equipment , Oliver Hudson Kelley writes: "Won't it be fun to be a farmer, when we can ride while doing all our farm work?  Now we can ride while plowing, drilling in the seed, reaping and mowing, ride while raking our hay, and if fortune favors us, we can ride to prosperity."  Yes, Grange Members, let us ride to prosperity and do something good.

Saturday, August 11, 2012

IT STARTED IN MINNESOTA

This summer, a diverse community of engaged Minnesotans is breathing new life into The Order of the Patrons of Husbandry, or The Grange.  By developing new and innovative ways to draw on both the rural backbone of home-town values and the growing movements of urban farming and sustainability, Minnesota’s New Grange is a community leader in progressive ideas. Thousands of local Granges are active on the East and West Coasts, but in Minnesota, only six local granges remain with a membership of around 130 persons.  At the disbandment of one of these Granges, Minnesota will lose its voting rights within the National Grange. 

The Grange wont have a quiet death in the state that fostered the organization’s ideas of progressive action for farmers and rural Americans.  Nearly a century and a half ago, Oliver Kelley--perhaps the most famous agriculturalist of the 19th century--wrote: “What I design is this. . .a social fraternity of farmers all over the country.  Encourag[ing] them to read and think; to plant fruits and flowers, beautify their homes; elevat[ing] them; mak[ing] them progressive.”  The exciting and affirming concept of this local, grassroots organization is that the members of each Grange chapter democratically set the agenda for their initiatives.  This is happening once again in Minnesota; as a positive source of community involvement and interaction.

Minnesota’s New Grange makes use of Oliver Kelley’s Minnesota farm,--a Minnesota Historical Society Site, and National Historic Landmark--holding monthly meetings; addressing issues that are pertinent to our members and our communities at local and state levels; providing fraternal and community social events such as seasonal parties, harvest dances, musical events, sporting events, classes, outings, and arts shows; supporting education through resources, mentoring, and scholarships; assisting the Oliver Kelley Farm Historic Site through work parties, outreach, and endorsement; sponsoring and partaking in community service projects; and actively partaking in the National Grange.

As excitement grows and momentum continues, now is the time to become part of this amazing group of statewide citizens dedicated to bettering the places we live and call home.

MANIFESTO: THE MAD FARMER LIBERATION FRONT

Love the quick profit, the annual raise,
vacation with pay. Want more
of everything ready-made. Be afraid
to know your neighbors and to die.

And you will have a window in your head.
Not even your future will be a mystery
any more. Your mind will be punched in a card
and shut away in a little drawer.

When they want you to buy something
they will call you. When they want you
to die for profit they will let you know.
So, friends, every day do something
that won't compute. Love the Lord.
Love the world. Work for nothing.
Take all that you have and be poor.
Love someone who does not deserve it.

Denounce the government and embrace
the flag. Hope to live in that free
republic for which it stands.
Give your approval to all you cannot
understand. Praise ignorance, for what man
has not encountered he has not destroyed.

Ask the questions that have no answers.
Invest in the millenium. Plant sequoias.
Say that your main crop is the forest
that you did not plant,
that you will not live to harvest.

Say that the leaves are harvested
when they have rotted into the mold.
Call that profit. Prophesy such returns.
Put your faith in the two inches of humus
that will build under the trees
every thousand years.

Listen to carrion -- put your ear
close, and hear the faint chattering
of the songs that are to come.
Expect the end of the world. Laugh.
Laughter is immeasurable. Be joyful
though you have considered all the facts.
So long as women do not go cheap
for power, please women more than men.

Ask yourself: Will this satisfy
a woman satisfied to bear a child?
Will this disturb the sleep
of a woman near to giving birth?

Go with your love to the fields.
Lie down in the shade. Rest your head
in her lap. Swear allegiance
to what is nighest your thoughts.

As soon as the generals and the politicos
can predict the motions of your mind,
lose it. Leave it as a sign
to mark the false trail, the way
you didn't go.

Be like the fox
who makes more tracks than necessary,
some in the wrong direction.
Practice resurrection.


--Wendell Berry