Yesterday’s field talk was at Gaining Ground with Farmer Kayleigh Boyle.  Gaining Ground’s mission is to both grow food for hunger relief (300,000 pounds of food given to food pantries from South End to Concord) and through their volunteer program (filled with kids, locals, people with disabilities, anyone who wants to help) educate and engage people on issues of hunger, activism, farming, and ecology.  The farm is located at Thoreau Farm, right in the backyard of Thoreau’s birthplace, which Thoreau’s parents farmed until he was four.  They also planted a replica of Thoreau’s kitchen garden that he planted for the Hawthorne’s at the Manse in central Concord.  This is a fascinating mashup of Thoreau Scholars (the Thoreau Society has offices here) working, a replica of the room Henry was born in, and the farm.  Thoreau’s legacy of radically and urgently questioning the forms, modes, and problems of our economic system continue in Gaining Ground’s commitment to providing the highest quality, organically grown, often heirloom varieties of fruits and vegetables to those who need it, while also engaging so many in understanding what it means to grow food, to help those in need, and to create community around good food.  Keep an eye out in a few weeks for some excerpts and a broadside.