06/27/2022
With great care and respect for all persons and things involved, I decided on Imbolc, half way between Winter Solstice and Spring Equinox, to pursue selling my store as a means to fulfill my mission of increasing organic food availability and accessibly as primarily a food producer rather than a food retailer. That day, on top of Prayer circle peak, I pulled the card of completion from a Tarot deck and felt the confidence that I was ready to call it in. After a couple months of asking Spirit for guidance and chanting the Gayatri Mantra while driving in my car, calling for the best possible outcome for the most people, and for graceful transitions, it actually happened! Spirit is real!
I am both humbled and elated to share that we have accepted an offer for our family store business! She has been one of our best customers for many years. Her name is Zoie Verrall and she is a nutritionist and already in love with organic foods, healthy lifestyle, natural products, and best of all, cooking and making chocolates. Zoie is going to change the name of the store to Pine Portal Cafe and Market! We love it! My family and I are excited to have me back as the Diggin’ Livin’ farm manager and to be able to provide Pine Portal with all the Diggin’ Livin’ farm products.
When we first started the store, I was desperate for a solution for a local food market without having to spend a good portion of my week at farmers market. I knew that I was in love with the spirit of the Illinois Valley, but I missed the culture of a local foods hub and a place where people talked about growing and eating organic foods. What did we accomplish? Possibly nothing sort of a miracle. We grew culture, every one of us. It does look a lot like a store full of food, but what it really is, is a means to connect people with food and to build culture around local and organic food and farmers. Again it looks like a store full of food, but we mainly worked on learning how to be in service, to be our best selves, and have the opportunity through inspiration and kindness to open people’s worldview into another way to live and think called agrarianism. To quote Wendell Berry on the cafe wall, “it’s not just a philosophy, but a practice, an attitude, a loyalty, and a passion all based on close connection with the land."
This is no easy task. There were a few different offers we received for the purchase of the store. Of all the offers, I chose Zoie because she is charming, she is courageous, she is a visionary, and she carries integrity of what food means and why local and organic matters. And, that she is a mother of four, alas invested and ready to be part of a positive future.
What does it mean to have earned something? It comes from grit. On tough days, I put stickie notes all over my house and on my telephone that said 'Don’t Give Up' and 'A smooth sea never made a strong sailor'. The only way to get strong is by actually doing the push-ups. 'Fortune favors the bold' was on a bracelet I wore for at least a year. I listened to Brene Brown speak about being in the arena and about being brave. It was grass roots from the ground up. Many of you may remember the first few months did not have a lot on the shelves. The cafe took another year to open. We did it in baby steps and we did it together as a community of like-minded foodies committed to local organic food in the greater Illinois Valley.
Running a retail business during Covid has been really difficult. Most business throughout the world didn’t make it through. Some people are looking for the cheapest option no matter the long term cost. Well I tell you what, that is a penny saved and a dollar dumb. Small businesses are the key to a diverse landscape and a strong local economy.
What is it that small businesses mainly do? We support other small businesses! If Diggin’ Livin’ were to have closed, then yes, small female owned businesses like seamstresses, and may have lost possibly their best gigs while festivals were shut down. It also would have been one less account for , which may not be a big deal onto itself, but they don’t sell to Walmart. They depend on this system of small groceries and cafes as being their major customers. When lost on a bid to distributing to a bigger chain, it was the small groceries that carried them through. Together, we as farmers Mama Terra, ,Plaisance ranch, .duck.farm @ - are stronger when the small independently owned groceries are also strong. How can we sincerely encourage more young farmers to dedicate their efforts into farming if we don’t also have a places for them to sell their farm goods?
We will be transitioning from store owners to full time family farmers and producers of value added honeybee products around July 1st. I couldn’t be more please and humbled to pass the torch to Zoie. Please come visit us these next couple weeks to celebrate. My family and Zoie’s family will be there a lot!
I give deep respect and standing ovation to every one of you who fu***ng cares about a strong local economy based on small businesses and organic farmers. To every one of you small businesses owners, you get it, but I’m going to share a quote anyways, “Courage is like… it’s a habitus, a habit, a virtue: You get it by courageous acts. It’s like you learn to swim by swimming. You learn courage by couraging. - Brene Brown. And to everyone else, "Unless someone like you cares a whole whole lot, nothing is going to get better, it’s not. “-Dr. Suess. Keep going, keep doing push ups, and keep supporting small businesses, and if you do nothing else in life, eat local, as if your children’s livelihoods depend on it, because it does. I’m just guessing here that many of your kids may see the writing on the wall that capitalism and corporate ownership of our food system is a race to the bottom that likely will not end well. So what’s the answer to just about everything... buy local, get to know your local farmer, and practice kindness and living simply so that others may simply live. Participate. Know your food, your local grocer, food preservation, and your medicine. Without a doubt, YOU ARE NATURE.
Thank you to all my teachers, my guides, and my heroes who have lead me along this path. I have learned the most through my mistakes and from my critics. All of whom have made me the person I am and for that I am deeply grateful. I feel complete and very satisfied of all that we have accomplished at Diggin’ Livin’ Natural Foods, Farm, and Cafe. The next chapter is going to be really sweet too.
As for graceful transitions, we are all invited to receive the gift of faith. In this fast paced culture of the “one-night stand” where industrialism provides us innumerable commodities, distractions, and amusements. Where does that lead us? To strip malls and towns that all looks the same. It’s a terrifying thought and one that could lead to despair. The quality of grace holds inspiration and renewal. We absolutely do not have to go down the road of corporate takeover of our food system through the captive super mega stores and their bright flashing sales signs. We can choose beauty and small and then choose beauty and small, again and again. The best part is seeing that we have enough, we are always provided for, and that our connection to each other, to our food, and to beauty fills us up. Wishing each of you the very best in the most important ways!
Keep on diggin’ livin'!
Joy, Eric, Fern, Sage, and Tulsi
