Invitations

Yesterday Zach said to me, "I'm becoming convinced that the answer to most of the challenges and difficulties we face on the farm is to invite more life." With this conviction he identifies a fundamental way that the mindset and approach of Hawkins Farm is different than conventional farms. We center our effort on invitation; the industrial paradigm demands farms to work toward exclusion or extermination (e.g. getting rid of pests, weeds, pathogens, surface water...you name it). One of the ways we invite life is by letting milkweed grow in our pastures, which provides food for monarch butterflies. And yesterday, when I went to move cattle to new ground, I saw my first monarch of the season. Life abounds. -Jeff