*Sound warning* there are times in our recording where the wind or passing background noise interfere a bit with our sound. Think of it as the wind adding its voice to the conversation.

Where does collective growth begin, if not with fertile, living soil? My guest today is writer, facilitator, teacher, and farmer Jonathan McRay, of Silver Run Forest Farm here at the foot of Massanutten along Cub Run, a tributary of the Shenandoah River. Silver Run Forest Farm is a riparian nursery and folk school rooted in love and living soil. These roots sprout out as agroforestry, watershed health, and restorative justice. They tend the silver waters of the Shenandoah - Cub Run, Blacks Run, and downstream - by farming in the image of the forest and remediating the toxins that pollute our souls, society, and soil, from chemical leaching to white supremacy.

This conversation gets to the heartwood of what it means to cultivate the wealth of growing, sharing, and valuing our gifts in a web of unique contributions, through the practice of agroforestry. As a trio, the caretakers of Silver Run Forest Farm propogate beautiful and useful plants that are food and medicine for people and land. Trees are multifunctional creators; they give a multitude of life-sustaining gifts, just by being who they are and meeting their own needs. How can I learn from this way of being, and give myself full permission to be who I am, and in that process share a wealth of gifts that nurture life? How can I feed more life by living my most authentic life? "We see this as an expression of restorative justice, a way of transforming harm and injustice by respecting needs, holding ourselves accountable for healing, and making relationships and conditions as right as possible so that all creatures can be fully themselves!"

Conversation Outline:

Silver run forest farm: a way of being in the world (00:00)

Learning from the underground economy of connection that the root systems of forests teach us; Photosynthesis as mutual aid: trees give __% of the energy they produce away as oxygen (that we breathe) (5:30)

the gift of being oneself: how the trees show us (10:00) "breathing the world for us"

Woodland collectives of the future: dreams of growing and tending trees, harvesting nuts and crafting them into flour and oil, fertile grounds for future livelihoods and economies of earth crafts.

Jon's origin story: (17:00)

Care work, farming, and parenthood (31:20)

The Cambium Collective: (33:40)

Land as a sacred text: (35:30)

"Photosynthesis Fund": redistributing revenue (44:30)

Moving at the speed of trust (50:00)

Community Solidarity Agroforestry model (mycellial mutual aid) (54:12)

Folk School: seed bank and nursery for propogating our skills and gifts-a place where we learn to be who we need to be for the time in the world that we're in; rooted in education as waking up our conscious (paolo freire), education as knowing and being known (parker palmer), and education as the practice of freedom (bell hooks RIP) (58:15)

Learn more about SRFF: https://silverrunforestfarm.org/

Read from SRFF's Library: https://silverrunforestfarm.org/library

Contribute to their CSA to move more mycellial mutual aid through their agroforestry networks! https://silverrunforestfarm.org/nursery/community-solidarity-agroforestry