Karen Clark, Apprentice 2021

I came to the CSG as a recovering academic, having spent the last 3.5 years researching neurobiology at the University of Pittsburgh. When the pandemic hit and we were shut out of lab, I found myself with the time and space to learn about the converging environmental crises of our time and the sociopolitical factors that concocted and perpetuate them.

When seeking a livable future on this earth, one question rises to the fore: How do we feed ourselves? This question encompasses our most basic and unavoidable requirement for life, our relationship to our symbiotic partners on this planet, and the building blocks of our social lives. Delving into the much repeated, rarely questioned cultural myths surrounding food revealed a system completely divorced from a sustainable reality. Luckily, wherever there is inappropriate industrialization and globalization, there also exists local regenerative rebellion.

I sought to learn how to grow food in concert with and contribution to natural abundance. At the CSG I found unmatched mentorship in the arts of growing. I have learned more in the past six months—about agriculture, cooking, and leading a good life—than I had in a lifetime of formal schooling. My relationship with my body and mind is forever changed. I am stronger than I ever thought possible; fortified by nutrients and consistent hard work. My gut bacteria are overjoyed to finally be treated with the respect they deserve. (Thank you for all the wonderful treats that have passed through the garden house! I have been nourished and inspired by your recipes and boundless kindness.) Through spending time with the CSG crew and meeting the sprawling web of love and wisdom in their friends, family, membership, I finally know community.

It’s difficult to overstate how transformative this experience has been for me. Staggeringly disillusioned for my age, I was resigned to a lifetime of participating in systems of artificial scarcity that I abhor. Here, I’ve learned there are options beyond complacency or battlelines. Alternative, sustainable systems can be built within, around, and outside of hackneyed social infrastructure. I am forever indebted to this crew, land, and community for demonstrating what careful loving labor can build. My soul feels like a prepped garden bed: composted, cultivated, and sowed. Ready to grow anew.