About Our Work Emerging Thought

Land is our muse

One crisp, sunny March day in 2007 I looked across a field out of my new kitchen window.  I saw Dan sitting on a tree stump: I did not know him. It was only the day before that I had come to this land, by serendipitous  chance. He  finished his lunch and began his work. There were no people, cubicles, bonuses, or supervisors — just Dan and the Land. Curiously, the simplicity and direct experience touched me. Today, Dan’s son, Tobi, ably manages the property, with Dan’s assistance.  They listen to the land - this work is done with an intelligence that is not of this world. 

It was all new to me — the unfolding of land magic —  when I met Robin Zitter whose life’s work seemed to be land listening.  On our first walk, she asked what I wanted to do with the land:  I found myself saying that I wanted to do what the land wanted to do. We’ve been listening together ever since. 

Pom's Cabin Farm consisted of open spaces, logged woodlands choked with invasive species, an above-ground swimming pool and a field of young blueberry plants. The few visitors who did happen along were sleek black wasps and clever teams of raucous black crows. 

That spring, The New York Times reviewed Douglas Tallamy's book, Bringing Nature Home, a native landscape primer whose understory describes  the foundations of belonging. 

Inspired by Mukara Meredith’s brilliant work “Matrixworks” which rests on the foundation of the interconnectedness of life, I began hosting open-mic coffees; There were no agendas. 

Otto Scharmer’s “Theory U” which describes the process of abandoning what we think we know — in favor of the discomfort of ‘not knowing’ — in order to see what wants to rise, inspired the heart of Plantin’ Seeds.  

Lifting the veil, we discovered David Bohm’s “On Dialogue”, which is an examination of “culture - a collective meaning”. 

The confluence of these events prepared the soil for what would become Plantin’ Seeds. 

Local coffees grew to salon suppers: We were planting seeds of ideas — abandoning knowing in favor of not knowing — and then we plunked down a commercial kitchen space in a local town, seeking a more public engagement.

All the while, the Land sat quietly outside my window, winking.

Plantin’ Seeds Farm Kitchen

The kitchen offered a community platform for the exploration of ideas. Plantin' Seeds Farm Kitchen served its first farm plate in June of 2015. 

Inviting partnership, we delighted in offering our menu in exchange for donations: This fundamental act of inquiry introduced equal parts curiosity and mirth. We relished not-knowing. All the while, the Land sat outside my window, winking quietly.  

Pom’s Cabin Farm

We opened the farm to nature walks, fire pit dinners, birding and solstice/equinox walks, as we continued Listening. 

The native landscape is one whole, made up of parts, washing our senses with the overwhelm of belonging. We built it; they came. 

All along we continue to wonder 

Plantin' Seeds is rooted in the exploration of the world we share. 'Direct experience' is the threshold of our work. It is an unwieldy term. I often circle my arms in the air, crossing over, in an effort to describe the intersecting area of two circles, the Venn Diagram of our shared experience. That we could create a space, open to ideas and their emergent manifestation, is a dream I had not dared to dream: It is our experience.

— Dale McDonald | Founder + CEO | Plantin’ Seeds