The "Mighty Piddling Few"

"Hain't many folks know how to tend dirt.  A mighty piddling few."

I found a new favorite writer this year (I have a number of favorite writers). His name is James Still. If you already know who he is, I am sorry that it took me so long to find out. If you don't know who he is, I am sorry it took you so long to find out.

The quote is from the book Sporty Creek. It describes a Kentucky family's struggles trying to make a living from mining and farming and mining and farming (they go back and forth). Part of the struggle is deciding whether to mine or farm! The statement at the top of the post is from Uncle Jolly. Jolly is a bachelor, prankster, and farmer. He provides a lot of the comic relief in the stories in Sporty Creek, but he also represents the solid and settled commitment to the land that it is sometimes so difficult to maintain.

Uncle Jolly is right. Not many people know how to tend their dirt. At Greene Family Farm, we're still learning how to tend to our dirt, but we also believe that we are among the "mighty piddling few" who are doing a good job at it. A lot of things tell us that:

Can you see the earthworms?  Earthworms like well-tended dirt, and they help to make it even better.

We can see that our dirt is well-tended. It is a rich dark brown, almost black. It didn't look that way ten years ago.
We can hear that our dirt is well-tended. I used to have to hack away at some of our dirt with a grape hoe to break it up in the spring. It sounded like wood being chopped! Now there is a sort of whisper when the shovel or fork or trowel slides into it. If I'm not really quiet, I don't even hear it.
We can feel that our dirt is well-tended. I no longer find clods of clay that are so hard that I can't tell if they're rocks or not. I can turn over a shovelful of dirt anywhere in our garden and break up any clumps in my fingers.

We can smell that our dirt is well-tended. If I could adequately describe the smells of good dirt (there is not just one), you wouldn't be able to read it for free.

We can also taste that our dirt is well-tended. I don't mean by that that I eat the dirt. When I say that we can taste that our dirt is well-tended, I mean that the food that we grow tastes better than food grown in dirt that is not well-tended.

Some of the same good changes are happening in our pasture and woods, thanks to our chickens and our children, but that is another story for another post.