Intentional Illusions

I have hilled a lot of potatoes this year. Wielded the wonderful hoe (not the heavy common kind but one angled just right, and sharpened) at the weeds in the corn while also hilling it. I’ve planted squash seeds in the older corn and marveled at the bean plants sprouting therein to climb the heavy stalks in a race to the sky. All this is winter food.

I’m thinking, for many reasons, that this winter will be a good winter to have food laid by.

We have plenty of spring snap peas too. But what I’m remembering are the years we planted for sale and for the larder. Those years we planted a lot of snap peas because they bring $4 a pound, minimum. Good lettuce mix can bring $8 a pound but you have to wash that, try to get the baby slugs off, and get it delivered in a real short amount of time. Potatoes only bring $1 a pound, and that’s high for them. Nobody even knows what to do with hard corn -- corn bread is just about a lost art. And making hominy or masa? What? Mortals can do that? Without a factory?

When we planted with thoughts of sale, we lavished time on what we might get the most cash for and the staple crops got only leftover time. That’s how intention changes action. It isn’t that you mean for it too. You know having food is more important than having a few dollar bills. But the cash economy is seductive. It is the reason more people don’t chuck it. If they aren’t afraid of the hard work, they are afraid of not being able to pay the taxes. The grocery store with its three days (maybe) of food seems more secure than a field with a whole winter of food that might get decimated by chewing worms and high winds and coons.

Intention. Deepak Chopra calls it the Law of Intention and Desire. And be sure, your desires will find you out.