Wednesday was the Feast of St. Thomas Aquinas and our friends the Turners generously had the 8:30 Mass at St. Joseph’s said for us as a spiritual gift. What a blessing!
When I texted Beth Wednesday night if she had chosen that date because of the Gospel reading that day, she said that she had chosen it at the suggestion of Sarah Heil, our friend who also happens to be the parish secretary, because it was the feast of St. Thomas Aquinas.
The reason I asked about the Gospel reading is that it was the Parable of the Sower, which is where we get our farm name!
We have been thinking about writing a post about why we chose our farm name, and I thought this “coincidence” was a great prompting to do so this week!
So, why Good Soil Farm? First of all, I have to give credit where credit is due: Stephen’s sister Mary suggested this name when we were first looking for farmland. She thought the double meaning of it would be perfect, and Stephen and I loved the idea right away!
The first meaning comes from the soil itself. We know that good soil is key to growing healthy vegetables and raising healthy livestock. We seek to build up the soil that we steward by making it healthier than it was when we started–by helping it regenerate to make it good soil again.
We do not sell soil, though I have gotten many phone calls asking if we do! That misperception is something we did not foresee, though I understand if you are googling “soil” that our farm would come up!
The second meaning of our farm name comes from the Gospel passage that was proclaimed at Mass on Wednesday. The translation at Mass uses the word rich instead of good, but I’ll use the NRSV translation here, since that matches up with our farm name:
1Again he began to teach beside the sea. Such a very large crowd gathered around him that he got into a boat on the sea and sat there, while the whole crowd was beside the sea on the land. 2He began to teach them many things in parables, and in his teaching he said to them: 3“Listen! A sower went out to sow. 4And as he sowed, some seed fell on a path, and the birds came and ate it up. 5Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil, and it sprang up quickly, since it had no depth of soil. 6And when the sun rose, it was scorched, and since it had no root it withered away. 7Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain. 8Other seed fell into good soil and brought forth grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirty and sixty and a hundredfold.” 9And he said, “If you have ears to hear, then hear!”
10When he was alone, those who were around him along with the twelve asked him about the parables. 11And he said to them, “To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside everything comes in parables, 12in order that
‘they may indeed look but not perceive, and may indeed hear but not understand; so that they may not turn again and be forgiven.’ ”
13And he said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? Then how will you understand all the parables? 14The sower sows the word. 15These are the ones on the path where the word is sown: when they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word that is sown in them. 16And these are the ones sown on rocky ground: when they hear the word, they immediately receive it with joy. 17But they have no root and endure only for a while; then, when trouble or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately they fall away. 18And others are those sown among the thorns: these are the ones who hear the word, 19but the cares of the age and the lure of wealth and the desire for other things come in and choke the word, and it yields nothing. 20And these are the ones sown on the good soil: they hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirty and sixty and a hundredfold.”
Mark 4:1-20
We seek to be the good soil. We want to hear the Word of God and let it grow in us. We want to bear much fruit, a hundredfold. It is our hope that the Sower will use us and our farm to share the good news of the Gospel with “every creature”, as Christ commands in Mark’s Gospel (Mark 16:15).
How’s this matter for farming? Since every creature came to be through the Word, we listen to the word that creatures are (cf. Jn 1:3). We farm in accordance with nature, shaping our actions according to the nature (that which makes a thing what it is) of soil, of plants, of animals, and of humankind, because it is good. With, through, and in Him we see that all creation “is very good” (Gen. 1:31, see also Col. 1:15-17) and strive to act according to each kind of thing’s goodness. Doing so is good for the land, the plants, the animals, and us. Thus, we hope to proclaim the goodness of God’s Creation and therefore of God Himself. And that is why we are called Good Soil Farm!
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