The Adamah Blog

The new face of ADAMAH’s leadership curriculum

Hi friends. This is Jo Kent Katz, giving a little update about the progress of this year’s Leadership. Teaching Leadership has been a blessing for me thus far. Turns out, this was a great idea. I am in love with this ADAMAH chevre. Its such a pleasure to think about them as I design the curriculum. We have had six sessions so far… and we’ve covered a lot.

Envisioning the kind of community we want to be part of and then taking steps to enact that vision.
The practice of radical listening, of being present and giving someone your full attention.
Noticing when we have the opportunity to set our intentions about how we want to be in the moment and then working to match our actions with our intention.
Recognizing when we are triggered, when we have emotionally stepped out of the present moment.
Owning our own experience and emotions.
Tools for communication- including “I statements”- to help us express our experience, our values, and our desires, when we are triggered- tools for stepping towards relationships when we decide we want to stay connected.
Different forms of power and reclaiming our personal power in the moment.
And, what my mentor from Grad School, Barbara Love, calls Liberatory Consciousness.

We’ve gotten to talk about how this is all an experiment…..”this” meaning everything.
We’ve gotten to talk about dreaming and how much is actually possible.
We’ve gotten to think about the act of looking deeply at our own experiences and identities, and building our awareness of others, as a spiritual practice.
We’ve gotten to think about our humanness and our wholeness as something we get to work for.
We’ve gotten to use some theater and movement.
And we’ve gotten to laugh.

Coming up in the next few sessions is looking at how we are socialized, how we experience and perpetuate oppression, and finding sustainable and connected ways for us to interrupt oppression and work towards the world we want to be part of.

And then we’ll be moving into the final sessions- that all the Alumni remember well- with a bit of a twist. or more than a bit. But i don’t want to give it away- for the current chevre.

Thank you to the current Adamahniks for bringing so much love and hope and focus into our sessions. And thank you, again, to all the alumni who offered their ideas and thoughts. Thank you to Shamu, to Miriam and Biz, and to Meg….for being so supportive of this project and for believing in my ability to make this happen.

40 Farmers under 40

Our own Anna Stevenson is featured in the Mother Nature Network’s list of 40 farmers under 40! Check her out here at number 36 http://www.mnn.com/food/farms-gardens/stories/40-farmers-under-40 . The article’s sub title reads, “meet the new crop of American farmers — young and energetic idealists who are bringing local, sustainable food back to the table”. It’s a perfect way to describe our farm manager, who after ADAMAH will be moving to the Rochester, NY area to start a farm with her fiance Naf, who is not only an ADAMAH alum, but also served a term as the greenhouse manager. Congrats Anna!

Adamah Pickles in the News!

Check out this piece written by Leah Koenig published in the Jewish Daily Forward this week. The article, about the fascinating history of the pickle, includes a mention of lacto fermentation champions such as Sandor Katz and Adamah’s own Miriam Feiner, stating, “Together, these picklers, and others like them, are restoring the pickle’s reputation as an icon all its own.” Check it out here http://www.forward.com/articles/109574/.

P.S. Last week saw the first of this year’s pickles coming out of the barrel and into the jar. Horray for pickle season!