Engaging the Ripple Effect

Can one person’s choice make a difference?
I remember having that conversation back in grade school with a group of Montessori friends. One precocious girl announced that she didn’t want to be responsible for killing animals anymore and had decided to go vegetarian…only to give up the initiative a week later. She had convinced herself that her one decision wasn’t actually going to stop animals from being killed that week to stock the shelves at her local supermarket. She was disheartened, and the experience may still color her choices as an adult today.
But my own endeavors took a different path. I wasn’t discouraged by my friend’s experience. Instead, I saw that she had set up a lofty objective she hoped would magically happen. She hadn’t made a plan to create a ripple effect. In this article, we’ll follow my family’s story to illustrate a different way that a personal choice can create impact. On this journey, our work has reached out into the Northwoods communities in ways I couldn’t have imagined back in those grade school days.
When my family made the transition from Montessori education to unschool homeschooling using Montessori Erdkinder methods by moving up to the old homestead farm outside Hayward, WI, our goals were to regenerate the land, raise our own food, become healthier, and engage in a lifestyle of stewardship and renewal. But that didn’t stay in a nuclear phase for very long.
Within two years, we were growing and raising more food than we could eat and began first by joining the Cable Area Farmer’s Market (still a fledgling project in its second year) and then start the Hayward Area Farmer’s Market. We were sharing our story with others as well as our crops and meats, learning business and service skills, and engaging entrepreneurship.
Then we added a commercial kitchen to preserve fruits from the farm into jams and bake whole-grain breads and other goodies. This taught us food processing and preservation skills and the ropes regarding licensing, packaging, and retail. From the market phase we expanded to offering CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) shares. The brought in the element of having families pre-ordering weekly bags of produce from our farm. The ripples were spreading.
Then came further maturations and expansions. Farmstead Creamery was built to create a hub where people could come not only to access our foods but a network of goods from farms and producers across the Northland we had vetted. Into this environment grew connections into the creative community as well, drawing in and supporting painters, fiber artists, photographers, musicians, poets, storytellers, jewelers, and more. We built an aquaponics greenhouse right next to Farmstead so we could grow fresh, wholesome, and clean foods all year round, which in turn fed the CSA and farmer market initiatives.
The ripples continued, bridging connections with the healthcare community. First through having a twice-monthly farmer market right in the waiting room at NorthLakes Community Clinic in Hayward to then partnering with the Prescription for Wellness Program, we are now in our third season of facilitating groundbreaking work to include local foods into a whole-patient health vision with CSA shares supplied to both the Hayward and Minong campuses.
The ripples moved out again, to partnering with Northland College’s buy local program, bringing fresh greens through the winter months, eggs from happy hens, and lamb from our pasture-raised sheep to the cafeteria. New initiatives also include foodservice connections with the Washburn School District, Hayward Area Memorial Hospital, The Old Rittenhouse, and Cook County Co-op.
A diverse array of people across the Northland are finding on their plate the impact of one family’s choice to live simply, grow ethically, and raise with stewardship. True regeneration and sustainability doesn’t happen as an island. It happens through the interconnections we create.
My grade school friend couldn’t create the vision she wanted just by doing her own thing. Yes, it might have changed her personal experience, but the hollowness and hopelessness that ensued forced her to relinquish the vision behind the decision. But if the vision goes beyond self—to a place where one person’s impact creates a ripple—that is where the sustaining sense of impact appears.
My hope for you as a reader is that you will take some time this week to think about your vision, your goals, and find ways in which they may manifest beyond yourself—that you may become the conduit for a rippling out into the community in ways you may not even be able to see from this point in time. If you have a passion for our precious environment, for health, for education, for caregiving, for creative expression—whatever it is that brings you joy and purpose in a wholesome way—think on how that might move out into your family, your neighborhood, your community, your region. Start finding ways to reach out and share this with others. You might begin a journey of transformation you didn’t know was even possible.
Great Foods for Vitality Tip of the Week: Flax Seed
This high-fiber but low-carb little seed is packed with omega-3 fatty acids, which helps to lower harmful cholesterol and increase your intake of good fats. The other great thing about flax is that it’s easy to add to almost anything! Grinding flax seeds helps to release more of the nutrients (and is easy to do in a small nut grinder or food processor) and makes the seed easier for your body to digest. We add ground flax to many of our ancient grain breads now, and they’re also great in smoothies, mixed in your oatmeal, or added into your pancake batter. Get creative! We often found that by adding ground flax seed to a baked good, we could lower the amount of oil required by the recipe—yay! Here’s some more highlights: lignin, found in higher quantities in flax seed than almost any other plant, have also been shown to help prevent cancer. Pairing this with its heart healthiness, blood-pressure lowering properties, and soluble fiber richness, flax seed is a win-win addition to your plate.
Here’s to the power of the ripple effect! See you down on the farm sometime.