An old shovel sits unused, broken six inches from where the metal meets the wood. Another disposable piece of farming equipment gone to waste. But not to Bob Cannard; this rusted piece of forged metal, forgotten in the cobwebbed corner of an old shed can live again. With a straight new handle, cut from coppiced stand of elm trees, this blade will soon be put back to work, cutting and turning the soil it was made for. Just as equipment is abused and broken over time, so is much of the farm land in our country: overgrazed, compacted, demineralized and sick. Bob has taken the same approach with land as he does with tools: repairing, rebuilding, improving. The business of turning degraded soil into beautiful growing medium isn't as cut and dry as fixing a shovel, but it starts the same way - deciding to repair rather than to replace. 

Ben Grangereau Summer 2015