What's in a Name?

"The Good Ground Natural Farm." What do we mean by that? What's in a name?

When I visualize it, "good ground" evokes a certain image. An image of purposefully tended, cultured land, on which grows an abundance of plants, and which harbours a variety of animals.

It is not a wilderness, untouched by human hands, untended and uninhabited, with its own rugged beauty and charm.

It is also not the opposite, a developed area, completely ordered and established, where everything is subjected to the command of human will. This too, has its own purposes and benefits.

“Good ground” sits somewhere in the middle, where the development is coaxed and guided, but not controlled. Perhaps rolling meadows dotted with fruit trees, where cows and sheep graze contentedly, and with a small and manicured vegetable garden off to one side. Honeybees buzz from flower to flower, a groundhog or rabbit scampers by trying to evade human eyes, and the croak of a bullfrog can be heard from the closest pond.

Things are orderly, but not completely un-wild. Beneficial relationships between different organisms are fostered and encouraged.

Growth is abundant.

"Natural Farm" focuses and clarifies "The Good Ground." We are a farm. Our mission is to produce food and other farm products.

But we don't do that through whatever way we see fit. We engage with nature, with creation, in a way that reflects the divine creative work of The Creator. And in a way that creates "Good Ground."

When we call ourselves “The Good Ground Natural Farm,” we are defining ourselves not by what we are currently, or the specific service we offer, but by the goal we want to achieve. We are aiming to work with and alongside the order recognizable in natural systems, to tend the land we have been given, in order to provide simple and wholesome food to our community.

We aim to develop a farm that is also an ecosystem, vibrant with a diversity of plants – annual vegetables, fruit bushes and trees, lush pastures – in which is integrated a variety of livestock, so the whole system grows, prospers, and provides an abundance of healthy food.

Jesus Christ told a parable when he walked on earth, using ground as a metaphor for people’s spiritual lives - their hearts. While poor ground failed to produce fruit, good ground produced fruit in abundance.

And so not only do we seek to develop good ground out of the ground we tend, we put the same care and diligence into our own lives.

As our ground becomes good and produces good fruit, we ask for God to work in our lives so that we also might produce good fruit.

As our ground bears good food, and we produce in our lives, our hope is that our families, communities, and societies also grow, develop, and produce good fruit.

- Mike

‍