Guest Column: Welcome to the Age of Agrarians

— from Alex Wolf —

Alex Wolf

When a 92-year-old veteran of the Battle of the Bulge offers you a ham sandwich and a glass of wine for lunch at his table, you don’t reply that you are a vegetarian, or that you don’t drink before 5 p.m. You make an exception out of respect.

When he begins to bless the food, you don’t silently protest his sentiment; you close your eyes and accept the blessing with an open heart. When he offers you trees from his 4500-cultivar apple orchard, the largest in the world, to help fund your fledgling community permaculture program, you accept, even if it means digging them up by hand … in the cold rain of southern Oregon.

That “you” is me; that veteran is Mr. Nick Botner, who is, at the age of 92, still serving his community, and our community of Orcas Island.

Mr. Botner, who is a member of the Agrarian Sharing Network, invited me down to his home in southern Oregon so that he could donate some of his trees for the Seed to Seed Permaculture Program hosted by Orcas Christian School. I picked up a friend along the way, whose name is also Nick. (I’ll call him “young” Nick for clarity.) I had met young Nick the year before at the Bullock’s permaculture homestead on Orcas.

Young Nick is a charitable soul himself, and had shared his cache of fig tree cuttings with me the day we met. He moved to Oregon shortly thereafter, but we stayed in contact. When it came time to start fundraising for Seed to Seed, I sent a message to young Nick asking for any donations of service or materials. A day later, he replied he could get me 200 fruit trees through the Agrarian Sharing Network community.

I was shocked at first, then elated and happy. Soon I got nervous: what on earth I would do with 200 fruit trees! After a brief discussion with young Nick, I decided we would keep 50 for the Seed to Seed orchard and sell the remainder to fund the program.

And so, a couple weeks later, I planned my trip to bring the trees home. I needed things: sawdust, a trailer, a truck, and other materials. Again, I asked around for help. The response from the Orcas community was immediate and generous, with the trailer donated by Kirk Haley and five yards of Orcas Fir sawdust coming from Kaj Enderlein.

And so, a few days later young Nick and I were at Mr. Nick Botner’s orchard in Yoncalla ready to dig. It was seconds later that Mr. Botner greeted us in his front yard with a map of his trees and a shovel.

“He’s not gonna dig, is he?” I whispered to myself.

I showed him that I already had my own shovel. Oh, the shovel wasn’t for me, it was for him! He said something like “let’s get to work” in his happy voice that still had the energy of youth. As we worked together in the cold drizzle, Mr. Botner talked about every tree – told us their story, and had tasting notes for each.

I had never heard of most of these cultivars. They had strange and exotic names: Cort Pendu Plat, Cimitere de Blangy, and Pendragon to name a few. I was fascinated by it all, and by Mr. Botner, and could not help but reflect on the life in front of me, both mine and his. The inspiration I felt … no, let’s say received, was deep and hungry, not the kind that disappears in a couple of days to
leave you empty. Months later I can still feel its presence. It’s stronger even now.

And so, it was at lunch that day when I sat around his table and accepted his food and blessing, his homemade wine, his trees and his story. Most of all, I accepted with gratitude the sacrifice he made for all of us in 1944 in the ice-cold Ardennes: home of the largest and bloodiest battle fought by the United States in World War II.

The following day young Nick and I were in Eugene at Keegan Caughlin’s farm digging up more trees, younger ones of a more modern variety. I was in a hurry to catch the late ferry back to Orcas, so I did not have time to spend with our host in Eugene, and I am as grateful to him for the bounty of trees as I am to Mr. Botner.

Thank you, Nick Botner, young Nick, Keegan, the Agrarian Sharing Network, Orcas Island, and all veterans and their families. Kindness does happen. Sacrifice does happen. Ministry does happen.

We are happily accepting donations of any size through the Give Orcas campaign organized by the Orcas Island CommunityFoundation. Outside of this, we are always looking for materials and help.

Please get in touch with us through our website: www.orcaschristianschool.org/. Donate to Seed to Seed through Give Orcas: oicf.fcsuite.com/erp/donate/create?grant_id=5120.