b'THE ORME OASIS UPDATEISSUE #8G reetings from the Garden,Did anybody else watch the Commencement Ceremony and Senior Bios video like it was our version of the Oscars? It felt like an appro-priate final moment now that virtual presences are becoming the norm, and at least this year I was able to cry in the comfort of my own home (anybody else? Mr. Goodspeed, you really got me!). Our Class of 2020 is an impressive bunch and though I wish they could stay forever, I know that their gifts need to be spread around the world. I think of our recent graduates as the seeds of the dandelion (an incredible plant) that recently granted a wish, gently drifting on a current until it finds the perfect place to land and grow. Seeds have been on the forefront of my mind this week as many summer loving annuals prefer to be direct seeded. This means that you cant cheat nature by starting a plant in a greenhouse to get a jump on growth before temperatures in the soil are cooperative. Instead, you plop the seed right in the soil about twice as deep as the seed is big. Once it goes through imbibition, basically drinking water through the hilum/bellybutton of the seed, it germinates, shoots its radicle toward the center of the earth no matter its orientation and begins to seek the sunlight. Each one is a miracle. And now I have to admit something to you: Im a bad plant mom. I have favorites.Beans are the most fun. There, I said it. When they pop up they look more like a creature than a plant. After their plump cotelydon pair breach the surface their first true leaves flip up like one of those cheesy hair flip slow-mo videos. Theyre just so dang cute. Anyway, even within the beans, I have a favorite and youve probably never heard of them. The tepary bean is native to the Tohono Oodham people of the Sonoran Desert that lies southeast of Tucson and stretches over the Mexican border. Their agricultural practices date back 4,000 years, making them one of the most successful peoples of the Americas. Thriving off seasonal water flows of the Santa Cruz River, their regionally adapted practices were a complicated interaction with their environment. Wild tepary beans were domesticated from the desert and became a major food source. They are larger than a lentil but smaller than a pea and come in a variety of colors from black to blue to white. Toothsome and nutritious, they are a member of the family Fabaceae who all have the ability to transform atmospheric nitrogen into their roots through complicated relationships with organisms in the soil. This then feeds the plants around the tepary such as cushaw squash and corn, two other native staple crops. For 4,000 years, this system was stable.In the 1950s, the flow of the Santa Cruz was diverted from the people who depended on it for their crops and thus their livelihood. They were unable to grow food, had no access to industry to grow their wealth in other ways, and were thus forced to depend on cheap mass-produced foods. Diabetes and heart disease ran rampant and the community shrank from the multifaceted suffer-ing. The water was their life. Tepary beans were similarly nearing extinction. Sovereignty of the nation faltered. Mercifully, the beans were shown to reduce blood sugars and were re-introduced to the Tohono Oodham as an experiment. Gloriously successful, incidences of diabetes sharply declined and the history and tradition of the people were retained in the genetics of a seed.This story is inspiring to me, but it is also a tale of heartbreak. Without intending to, our ceaseless need for expansion nearly wiped out yet another deeply important resource: the knowledge of a people that can survive in desert lands in a world where desertification is happening at record pace. By saving the tepary and the people who tend it, we help save the world. With each tiny bean I plant in our garden, I give thanks to the hands that brought it to us. The beans were a gift to me a few years ago from a fellow seed saver, and they were a gift to her from yet another. Here at the Orme Oasis, we are growing a new tradition with these teparies, one of honoring or challenging the real roots of our food and the slow growth of true resiliency. I encourage you all to find a connection with your plate, to think beyond your grocery store, and to seek understanding about your place within this food system. There are so many ways we can have a positive impact in this world, and as we all know: you are what you eat.M any thanks,J . Wolfe'