Heirloom Harvest CSA members joined the community at Crystal Spring Ecological Education Center in Plainville on Saturday, March 19th, to celebrate the Spring Equinox, which occurs March 20. (In the definition of the spring, or vernal, equinox from the wikipedia, linked to above, it is described as "the moment when the sun appears to cross the celestial equator, heading northward." More at the link.) Children and community members participated in a play that highlighted the wonders of soil and all the organisms that live in the soil.
The play facetiously featured three planets that visit Earth to appreciate the diversity of life on this planet. (Planets on the right.) 
Other characters in the play included the farmhand (Josh Fecteau), the farmer (Heirloom Harvest farmer John Mitchell), and Crystal Spring, represented by Carole Rossi. The roots were played by the young children that were present, who wore stickers with drawing of worms and soil grubs and microbes to represent the life in the soil around the roots (at left).
The play, written and directed by Barbara Harrington, included the following passage:
ROOTS#1: Life down here (in the soil) is a community. We’ve got lots of creatures to feed, as you’ve heard. Each of these billions of creatures has a community job that draws their gifts from deep within themselves and their relationship with everything else. These days it takes millions of critters to heal and protect us from disease. Many more creatures give themselves to strengthen our great, diverse soil community so that we don’t get washed away.
CRYSTAL SPRING: Amazing, isn’t it! Soil is a cosmic event. It took 3 billion years for Earth to develop 6” of topsoil. Topsoil is an extremely advanced form of Earth life. It now takes a thousand years for Earth to create just one inch of topsoil. Imagine that! The next time you put your hands into the soil, cherish it. Earth is the only planet in our solar system with topsoil. There may have been water on Mars, but there’s never been topsoil there. In fact, there’s no topsoil within a trillion miles of our home planet. We humans know this because we’ve gone looking for it.
FARMER JOHN: When you use chemicals and inorganic fertilizers, you go to war against this precious soil, killing off all the diversity that Earth thrives on.
CRYSTAL SPRING: Worse and worse land and water and atmospheric conditions spread globally, infecting the way we take in the world: what we eat, what we love, how we think, how we act; all life is one.
Crystal Spring also presented a demonstration on how to make compost tea.
***
Afterward, all present went outside for cake, juice and tea. As pictured below, these snacks were thematically appropriate, bringing in worm candy to perpetuate the theme of earth-friendly gardening and farming.
Karen Masterson and her daughter visited Heirloom Harvest recently to pick up cases of collards for her Framingham restaurant, Big Fresh Cafe. We provide her collards all season long, as well as surplus salad greens and other vegetables--when we have a surplus.
