This fall harvest season, I feel super fortunate for being able to experience working on the tomato farm at Greg’s Organics in Grass Valley, California. Greg is a California Certified Organic Farmer who specializes in open pollinated heirlooms. His passion, enthusiasm, and Zen practices in the garden have led to his successful business in the Gold Country. Not only does he produce the areas most delicious and vibrant tomatoes, he continues to inspire and give back to the local community.
“The heart is like a garden. It can grow compassion or fear, resentment or love. What seeds will you plant there?” ~Buddha
Tending a garden is hard work. It requires effort, care, and patience. While helping in the fields picking 
tomatoes, I found the groove by tapping into a meditative state. Next time you find yourself working in the garden experiment with the practices of Zen:
“Zen” is the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese character “chan,” which is in turn the Chinese translation from the Indian Sanskrit term “dhyana,” which means meditation.
Zen, like Tao, cannot be totally explained in words. Much of your grasp of Zen must necessarily depend on your own intuition.
- Zen is more of an attitude than a belief.
- Zen is the peace that comes from being one with an entity other than yourself.
- Zen means being aware of your oneness with the world and everything in it.
- Zen means living in the present and experiencing reality fully.
- Zen means being free of the distractions and illusory conflicts of the material world.
- Zen means being in the flow of the universe.
- Zen means experiencing fully the present, and delighting in the basic miracle of life itself.
Thanks Greg!!! We LOVE your tomatoes!
TASTE THE LOVE!
Special thanks to the amazing photography by Akim Aginsky:
