over my complementary breakfast i introduced myself to some of the residents who were then starting their days as well. one of the kitchen staff told me i would be welcome to join in a weekly gathering with paolo soleri called 'frugal soup', which they were just getting started cooking for. what luck! i had arrived at the right time somehow without even trying.
before frugal soup i had to pack up my stuff and check out of the room. i did my best to distribute some things i'd picked up on the side of the highway and thought might be useful. these items were: work gloves, a pair of boots, a large sponge, a large piece of leather (probably from a saddle), and what i thought was a coil of copper, and was told was some kind of fiber-optics cable...
i'd carried this extra weight because i like scavenging and reusing materials and i thought it could be a way i could contribute something of value to arcosanti outside of giving them money. for the most part these items were well received, and it got me to interact with some people i may not have otherwise, like david, head of the construction department, who accepted the boots.
after i turned in the key to the room i was informed, just in time, that frugal soup was about to begin! i went where i'd been directed and at first didn't know where to find it exactly... but when i noticed the sound of metal spoons against the ceramic bowls i followed it to the 'community room' on the edge of the amphitheater. the ritual is for all to take soup in silence and then for conversation to begin spontaneously. a calmness and reverence filled the small room. the main topic of this frugal soup became cars, which paolo had recently brought up in an interview on NPR. after listening intently for a while, i felt a strong urge to speak on the topic, and brought the idea that there may be some uses of cars and fossil fuels that reduce dependence on them in the long run. paolo understood i think, but in his response chose to emphasize the point that our use of cars is self indulgent and separates us from community. what i took from that is that we might honestly look at our use of such tools, and why not all tools, with the question in mind, "is it helping build community or working against community?" it is just an idea... still rolling this around in my mind.
the event was very powerful for me. part of it was that the soup was offered freely to any who chose to attend. the importance of tradition was part of it too. honoring elders. listening to and sharing council with neighbors.
part of arcosanti's goal is to produce it's own food in the area directly surrounding the town, both within intensive greenhouses designed primarily into the 'energy apron', and on the agricultural land nearby. there are also small gardens and fruit trees incorporated currently within the compound landscape.
while i was there i walked under the beautiful olive trees many times and noticed the very ripe olives, many already shriveled and some falling off the trees. i wondered why they were not being harvested. i overheard one resident explaining to tour group that perhaps 1400 lbs. of olives have been harvested from all the trees combined in one year. it is possible they were waiting intentionally to harvest them, but i suspected that they were just being neglected, and it confounded me.
also when i went to visit the '14 acres of garden and field production' mentioned on the website i found what felt like a ghost town near what they call 'camp', which is where folks lived way back in the beginning of arcosanti's construction. i was told by a previous resident, who had just returned after a couple years, that it had been productively managed for a while, but was currently dysfunctional. their worm pit had not been constructed in the best way and the chicken rotation system looked to be in need of renewal.
i asked the guy who guided the tour i was a part of where they would get all the soil, the growing medium, for the intensive greenhouse production, and he said with surprising confidence, "we make our own compost". from what i saw of the resources on site it would not be possible to produce enough compost to fill those deep, terraced greenhouse beds. soil would have to be imported.
so how is arcosanti going to produce the food, with onsite resources, that will feed it's residents and support the statement that it is "an innovative experiment in a more sustainable alternative."?
it is obvious to me that the situation could really use an infusion of effective action. the project could use many more hands. also a brilliant ag. coordinator is needed. the foundation does not necessarily need more money, as some people there seem to think, in order to produce more food. there are vacant places for people to live there. they could pay for their own food if the foundation could not afford to. people like me might agree to give a few hours a day in trade for staying a few nights in their otherwise vacant guest rooms! so much could be achieved!
the reason i choose to express this here is that i was told by the workshop coordinator that they have all the hands they need and could not accept work trade in exchange for my stay. i believed her and was happy to pay my $30 for the night until i saw that the situation was quite different and the place sure could have used my work trade, and probably more than the money. if places like this are to succeed there needs to be some kind of balance between managing finances and utilizing alternative economic resources like i was offering. i might have planned to spend a few nights, and devoted five hours of each day of my visit to farm work, if i had been given the option.
i was standing fifteen feet from these folks, eating a ricecake with peanut butter and raisins (ants on a cloud?) when this picture was taken of paolo with the new 'workshoppers'. i got to know a few of these wonderful folks on the ride down to phonix, where they were going for an event in this lecture series at the library.
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