Beyond the Tractor: Intimacy with Nature and True Stewardship

While we utilise modern machinery to make farming efficient, we constantly question its cost: Have we lost touch with how good it feels to sweat, to be dusty, and to feel capable?    

We believe that mechanisation creates a distance between the farmer and the land. As the writer Wendell Berry suggests, by watching the world from high up in a tractor, looking through glass, we risk losing a kind of intimacy with nature and a moral awareness of our impact. We spend more time sitting still than moving, a lack of mobility known to affect our energy and outlook.   

Our commitment to true stewardship requires us to get close to the ground. This intimacy is a great gift of farming. It allows us to observe the small, essential details, a bevy of quail chicks scurrying by, a butterfly fluttering in the saltbush. This connection is profoundly nurturing. Hard work is not a burden; it is the mechanism through which we move, feel, breathe fresh air, and truly belong to the land in a physical, grounded way.