Asad Chishti

Photo Essay: Cobden Woods on an Organic Farm

These words by Anaïs Nin keep returning to me. Full photo set here. 

My friend Loreena is currently taking a year off on an adventure. I decided to visit the organic farm that she grew up on before she set off for 214 days. She grew up near a town called Cobden which is about 250 km north of Kingston. 

I was planning on biking there and back.

This tweet changed things.

Twitter helped me get a ride there. Woo! 

Jana casually nudged me towards reconsidering biking back since they were going to be driving back so I ended up not taking my bike. I only had biking shorts + PJs for the time I was there. Bear this in mind as you read further and see these photos. 

The conversation and company was great.

I reached the Dobsons around 9ish pm on Thursday where we were beckoned towards the house by Dorothy with her flashlight.

Grant sleeps around sunset until sunrise so I didn’t see him till the next morning.

A black Labrador named Mussey who was rather affectionate.

I cannot put into words or images of the magic of this place.

Bonsai!

A flowering moment.

Butterflies move slower when refrigerated.

Pirate face!

Many many layers.

Cherry Tomatoes.

Through the grapevine.

Northbound.

“I’ll get their mail for them.”

Totes my goats.

5 days old and rather tiny!

Chicken run.

Winner winner!

How-to-make-dill-pickles.

Swing and Treehouse rungs.

Have you ever met a stranger or been to a strange place that instantly seemed familiar? You felt like it had been waiting for you to arrive?

It reminds me of the scene from Big Fish when Ewan McGregor arrives to the town of Spectre and they tell him that they’ve been waiting for him.

That is how the experience felt. 
You can spend your entire life looking for something like this. 

Cities are great. Paul Graham wrote a wonderful essay about them. 

But the real magic is happening in the fringes and on the farms, the countryside where you have noise but of a different kind that lets you hear your own thoughts. One of the most wonderful people I don’t know, Jonathan Harris, wrote about city ideas and natural ideas.

When I stop moving, I’m going to start growing my own food.

The key to ethical agriculture, I think (in my limited knowledge), is knowing your farmers.

Where does the food on your plate come from?

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Thanks Jana and Jay for the ride there and back! If Frodo had you both as friends, the LOTR trilogy would’ve been much much shorter.

The other conspirators like Richard, Ryan, the Kingston Derby Girls. Many many many thanks to the Kilby’s and many others who opened their homes and hearts. 

Grant, Dorothy and Loreena Dobson for their hospitality and tolerance of all my questions, my presence, my camera and for sharing wonderland.