Many thanks to Salesian priest and author, Fr Hugh O’Donnell, for kindly giving permission to reproduce his reflection, ‘Slow Lane Ted Farrell’:
We are talking about soil (or more correctly, soils). Ted has a real feel for it having spent a lifetime examining the relationship between soil and trees. If soil is badly damaged, he says, it’s almost impossible for it to recover.
After our forest walk, we return to a meal which Noreen has prepared. I am reminded of John Everett Millais’s engraving, ‘The Leaven’, inspired by the parable of the woman mixing yeast with flour until it is leavened. He presents us with a poor barefoot woman, her back to us, leaning over a large table; her hands placed on the dough could be kneading or blessing. From around her waist a piece of cloth billows, reminiscent of the loincloth modestly arranged around the figure of Jesus in depictions of the crucifixion. To her right, a pale-faced girl holds a loaf of bread for us to see.
The Slow Food movement began in Italy in 1986 as a response to our way of treating food as a commodity – something bought in a shop or takeaway with no obvious connection to its source or original appearance. To eat ethically, it says, is to be able to follow the journey of our food from soil to seed, from fruit to table.
In the background I can hear Ethna insisting that to prepare food in a kitchen is to preside at a liturgy. With the work table her altar, she, too, reminds us what the kingdom of heaven is like.
Fr Hugh explains the background to writing this reflection: “I have been drawn to writing short reflective pieces in recent years; one obvious virtue of this format is that they appear less daunting than longer texts! I also chose to pick up on aspects of what might be called a ‘creation spirituality’ and present them via poetry or story. A line of poetry can move the heart more surely than strong argument (no matter how correct it appears).
So when I went on a forest walk with Ted Farrell, a soils expert, and came back to his house for Noreen’s lovely dinner, I was inspired to write these words. I just like the way it is possible to connect our concern and appreciation of the earth (and its soils) with what arrives at our table from the kitchen. Sr Ethna in An Tairseach (Dominican Ecology Centre) never wanted us to be late as she took it to be an insult to the food!! She also stressed that she ‘presided’ over the food in the kitchen, a critical connection for anyone interested in understanding what eucharistic celebration is all about.