Sterling Terrain V02 - Flipbook - Page 15
Sterling College | 13
the C-rated area. John Hornek, lovingly
known as Popo, had emigrated from the
modern-day Czech Republic to Butchertown in 1905, where he grew up and
later owned his own grocery store in the
1920s and into the 1950s, selling produce
from the popular Haymarket farmers
market. He moved to the southern side
of the Watterson in his later years, and
loved working in his garden and giving
blackberries to his grandchildren. But in
1985, his land was expropriated for the
expansion of the highway, along with his
neighbors, by right of eminent domain.
His grocery store had gone under the
same way during the construction of
I-65. When this happens, residents are
not given the option to keep their land.
and stocked with Southdown sheep and
choice cattle’’ (176). Today, there are just
a few old trees and wide patches in the
canopy; the true nature that remains is
largely inaccessible, consisting of a thin
woody barrier along the highway wall
and a small cross section of Beargrass
Creek with no access to the bank. The
spring that is mentioned is right beside
our home, underneath a condominium
building. The relationship between modern city residents and food cultivation is
essentially nonexistent, but not for lack
of want. There are some, but not many,
backyard gardens (including one started
by a few brave neighbors), but nothing
compared to the scale of food production this land has previously seen.
This struggle against entities who decide what happens to the land continued with his granddaughter, my mother.
Before moving into her home on Gardiner Lane in 2015, she hadn’t experienced
the conveniences of a Homeowner Association - conveniences which soon
turned out to be quite the opposite. By
removing the responsibility of land upkeep from the residents and outsourcing
the work to landscape companies, land
practices are outsourced as well: pruning, pesticide and fertilizer use, what varieties are planted, etc. It makes it dangerous to grow attached to land features,
as they could disappear at any moment,
such as a giving mulberry tree, the birds
leaving with it. Land cultivation is sacrificed in favor of sterile beauty. Still, my
mother defiantly plants native varieties
in the backyard to attract pollinators,
battling pesticides and lawnmowers one
homemade sign at a time.
This stage in the evolution of land-people relationships in the U.S. seems counterintuitive to the private property land
ethic of the colonists, who favored enclosure as a way of securing land access over the indigenous virtue of land
belonging to no one (and therefore everyone) (Patrick, Bluegrass Capital, 70).
Today, while it may belong to people on
paper, the land is somehow even less
accessible than when it belonged to no
one. Segregation may have ended, but
Louisville is still divided, with historically
black neighborhoods bearing the brunt
of industrial operations. Louisville’s once
heavily-zoned West End in particular is a
food desert with a high ratio of residents
to land. When the rules meant to protect and organize us infringe on human
rights, conditions which linger long after
those rules were dismantled, it’s time
to reevaluate. As we’ve seen, there are
many factors that can influence landscapes, but instead of a highway built
for growing industry and suburbanization, imagine community gardens and
lush canopies for the people who are
already here.
The standard of good land use, and even
beauty, has changed dramatically since
Short’s time. In his obituary, Hayfield
Farm was described as “such as might
have charmed Calypso and her nymphs.
It was surrounded by stately elm trees;
close by was an immense spring of
the coldest and most limpid water; the
rear was skirted by a beautiful piece of
woodland … the farm, comprising several hundred acres, was highly cultivated,
Sally Rother ‘23
Sally Rother is a writer and aspiring environmentalist from Louisville, Kentucky,
who is anticipated to graduate in May
2023 with a degree in Sustainable Agriculture & Food Systems from the Wendell Berry Farming Program (WBFP) of
Sterling College, based in Henry County,
Kentucky. She is excited to be working
on her senior year research project on
story as a tool for connecting people to
nature, a culmination of her background
in creative writing and relevant experiences in the WBFP and beyond.