With all of the insanity and the flurry of activity this Summer, we've had to stop ourselves and take the chance to just walk around these gorgeous acres that we have finally chosen, and that has been everything. For us, farming is a business, but it is more importantly a sacred calling. It's a great sacrifice. It's an extraordinary lifestyle, not unlike that of the Benedictines just south of us.

Stability. Stability is a Benedictine Hallmark. It’s also a blessing. It’s also a curse. We will always be here, the McKnights in Bush, because our work binds us to the land, and our relationship with the land is so much more than a signature on a legal document.

Instead of extended family vacations, going out to eat, or hanging out deep into the wee hours with friends (not that we won't get the odd night off), we will be here, sculpting our art from the earth, determined to make the best foie gras America has ever tasted.

I find serenity in this. There’s freedom in this, freedom that is not the libertinism of drifting from job to job, location to location, relationship to relationship, fascination to fascination, consumption to consumption. Freedom is a tying-down and a surrender (a surrender only of what Walker Percy called “the despair of infinite possibility”).

Possibility is plague. Particularity is purpose. Here, in Bush, Louisiana, we will accomplish what we’ve set out to accomplish. Here, with Louisiana corn grown in Louisiana, with ducks raised from a day-old on our land, with a system in place to enhance the fertility of this place. Here - to have built something. Here - to leave a legacy of culture and beauty and light in our community.

And it is necessary to commit to a place in order to grow. There is a great narrowness in the globalization of intercourse - wherein we choose those with whom we will associate. However, a man or woman who is made to endure his neighbors is refined in that crucible, is compelled to become a better man, a better woman - more empathetic, patient, kind, generous, loving. Perhaps a better artisan as well.

Farming is the most ancient of vocations, and so it should be that the integrity of any farm is reflected in the integrity of the community it supports. That integrity has been lost for too long in this country. And that is why we ask that you become a part of our community, that you hold us accountable, that you see us, and that we see you, that you eat with us, and that we truly, truly feed you, heart and soul.

But most of all, more vitally than being local, be here, and whatever it is that you do, do it so very well.

Avec amour,

Ross