From Hollywood to Green Acres

In an effort to continue to challenge and inform, today TommyMom brings you an interview with yet another paradox…

Symbria Patterson. I first met Symbria and her husband, Lynn at a seminar in Cedar City, Utah at George Wythe.  She was memorable from the start!

The Pattersons are wonderful people that possess more talent under one roof than should be allowed!  There is pretty much nothing in the spectrum of needs or wants that these two can’t cover!

Tune in now, as we continue to consider different individuals that understand the paradox that exists in our society today.

I called their home yesterday afternoon…

within 3 minutes of when I had said that I would.

My, my, aren’t YOU Miss Punctual!

Hey, Symbria.  You need to relax…

this is going to be fun.

Yeah, well, let’s hope that I don’t regret this!

You are kidding me, right?  You are the perfect person to be interviewed and profiled!

Okay, okay…you talked me into it, so let’s get started …

Were you born and raised in Southern California?

I certainly was.  I lived there my entire life, until we moved here to Cedar City.

Any difficult adjustments?

Well, it can be a bummer to not have a Trader Joe’s around the corner; and the drastic downsizing of population was a bit of a shock!  We moved from an area with 6,000,000 people living in it to a town of 27,000!

I really wanted you to explain your upbringing, so that people can experience yet another individual that understands both urban and rural living.

I appreciate that.  Seriously.  There is such a void in society today and it’s so important for people wanting statesmanship in their lives to understand.  Farming communities being ignorant of city dwellers and vice-versa is a real concern.  As recently as 50 years ago, people dwelling in cities knew that they needed farmers, and farmers knew that they needed the people in cities. They lobbied for one another and considered one another’s needs.  Now, there can be so much ignorance on both sides.  I know that people in cities are actually poisoning themselves with toxic foods because they are so far removed from their food sources.

But you’ve admitted that you didn’t always live like this.

Heaven’s no!

My father was raised by a wealthy family in upstate New York and decided after WWII that he would settle in California.

My mother was a free spirit that served as a nanny for very wealthy individuals, traveled around a lot and decided that she wanted nothing to do with farm life ever again.

My father seemed to agree with this and they moved to Hollywood.

After a time, they wanted out, moved to the valley and bought an acre!

Which in Southern California, is practically a farm, thank you very much!

Exactly.

My parents have always been great, amazing people, but because of  their life experiences and whatnot, we honestly grew up with very mixed messages.

For example, we were raised on a street with chickens, but went to military/prep schools growing up!

We visited family every summer.  My mom’s family lived on a dairy farm, where they have farmed for five generations.  We were immersed in farm practices the entire time we were there, and then would get in the car, go to a hotel, and clean up for two days.  After this time, we would go to visit my dad’s family, where there was all of this wealth and children were to be seen and not heard.  They mingled with household help.

I used to tell people that I lived in an estate that was a horse ranch near where we lived.  I had the address memorized and everything.  Really and truly I think that I was always confused growing up.  My folks never talked about the “what” and the “why” of who we were and what we were doing as a family.

We were surrounded by the industry of Hollywood and my folks submerged us in it.  I was rubbing shoulders with very famous kids who were equally confused.

I went through a time of being very peer dependent, and it wasn’t a pretty picture.  I was really floundering.

My mom finally found a very tiny, private school on Laurel and Hardy’s estate.  My family ended up begging for me to be able to attend there; and when I was accepted I made the decision to turn my life around.

So really, your experience in life and all of those schools have contributed greatly to your ability to throw the events that you and Lynn are now famous for.

Laughs….Well, yes, I guess that you could definitely say that.

You do incredible things, Symbria.  And you and Lynn both do a great job of mentoring others along the way.

How many years did you do the Gala for George Wythe?

I did that event for six years.

It was definitely over the top and very successful.

Well, thank you.

So go on, please…

Well, I continued to work in the industry, and was actually in an office for talent agents, covering for someone that was out, due to a car accident.

Believe it or not, as hokey as this will sound, I realized when the television show FISH came out, that I would really like to work with youth.

Can you believe that that’s where I drew my inspiration?!

I went to a foster placement treatment facility and saw the conditions that those kids were living in.  I went home to Lynn and asked if  we could bring two kids home.  They never left!  Pretty soon, we added one child’s sister as well.  Then we had our biological daughter, Sara.

I never wanted to raise my kids in the city.  I think that it’s very easy for kids that have grown up on a farm to adapt to life in a city.  In fact, I’m convinced that they “get it” in about 10 minutes.

However, it is much more difficult for people from a city to adapt to rural life.

We built a six foot block wall around our house, got chickens, took farm walks, etc.

In spite of these efforts, no matter how hard we tried, we couldn’t keep the influence of the big city away.

Don’t get me wrong.  I love the city.

I love its culture, the opportunities, the ambiance.  It’s great to travel and be exposed to the culture.

But you can always go into the city and the superficial side of things is quick to take hold.

Ideally, I wanted my kids to be immersed in a rural life with exposure to the city for advantageous things.

I think it’s a real shame that in many cases, both sides of the spectrum see one another as “wicked” or detrimental.

So when did you move to Cedar City?

When our son Michael was sixteen.

It is great to live in the elements, to grow food, to go through the hardship of harvesting something from the land.

It’s nice to be a part of growing something for the sake of community rather than a corporation.

Working the land teaches us something that we can’t get from anything else.

It’s a lot easier to show up for a play or to go to a cultural event, than it is to understand what it means to have a frost in June!

Having lived both sides of this coin, what types of reading material or resources do you suggest?

I really want to stress again, Teri, that I think that it’s a shame for our society to villify one lifestyle or another.  In many cases, circumstances prevent us from the ideal geographical setting.

What is important is exposure to both sides, so that our kids glean an understanding of how others live.

Here are some resources that I think are especially helpful on the way to achieving this goal.

Core and Love of Learning:

Millie and Tillie or Country Mouse, City Mouse

Tops and Bottoms

Anything by Tasha Tudor, as she depicts a simpler more organic lifestyle

Little Britches

Laddie

Farmer Boy from the Little House series.  This is actually my favorite of those books.

Scholar and above:

The Four Lost American Ideals by Oliver DeMille

Georgics by Virgil

Founders as Farmers by Thorton

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver

Farmer by Ludy

Letters of a Woman Homesteader  by Eleanor Pruitt

Cookbooks are for Core, Love of Learning, and Scholar.

Some of my favorites:

The Settlement Cookbook by Mrs. Simon Kander

The Complete American Housewife 1776 by Julianne Belote

The Pioneer Woman Cooks ( this is a recently  published work that coincides with the fabulous blog the pioneerwoman.com)

I think that the following videos or television series are very beneficial…

Green Acres

The Waltons

Little House series

The Patriot.  This movie is rough, but is a brilliant depiction of Georgics.

The Power of Community.  This is a true story of what occurred in Cuba.

Food, Inc.

So do you think that you’ve accomplished your goal?

Of total immersion in a rural life?  Yes, I honestly do.

Sara’s done it.

She grew her first garden in 2008 for saleable baskets.  Now, she has a CSA and last year she had four shareholders.

And for the city -sided folk, this means?….

Well, big companies and corporations grow one crop.  A community sustained agriculture project will grow, say, twenty varieties of crops.  You buy into it, so that if I go down, you go down with me!  But seriously, you are connected to your food source.

And I’m not certified by the government, I use no sprays or pesticides– nothing.  Every week, you get a share.  Sometimes you come out and plant, weed or harvest.  You need to work with us.  Your share can cost less, if you come and work more.

We’re moving to high tunnels next. ( That would be a greenhouse, folks.)

That’s our next step.  We don’t desire huge, but we do desire to be authentic and community minded.

And by the way…

You know that I love DeDe, having met her.  She’s another one that “gets it.”  She can move very easily in both worlds.

Yes, I know that, Symbria.  I can MOVE in both worlds, I just can’t DO things in both!  I think I have a black thumb.  Morticia Adams and I are friends!

But you’re going to try, right?

Yes, I’m going to try.  I’ve been inspired.

And I can’t wait to come back for a visit!

You’re welcome any time. And this interview wasn’t so painful after all.

I’m leaving this interview with some images of “Green Acres”, okay?  ( i.e.  The Patterson’s house)

Thanks!

You’re welcome.  We’ll see you next week!

It’s always a picnic with the Pattersons!…

You can learn more about Sara’s CSA by going to RedAcreCSA.org

What is one thing that you plan to implement to “bridge the gap” between urban and rural?

I’d love to know!