Burgerville – Fresh. Local. Sustainable

New Year’s Resolution: Think Like a Hazelnut Grower

December 31^st just might be my favorite day of the year. Waking up today is like waking up to find the world outside blanketed with freshly fallen snow, unmarred by my own missteps and tire spinning from the past 364 days. I love the white canvas of the new year, and the ritual of making resolutions that call me forth into the year ahead.

This morning, I was reminded of some wisdom an Oregon hazelnut grower shared with me on a visit this fall:

“Cared for sustainably, a hazelnut tree can be productive for as long as a hundred years, so hazelnut growers tend to make decisions from a hundred year perspective.”

Imagine the future that is possible when we all made decisions in our work and lives from a hundred year perspective, like the 650 hazelnut farming families in Oregon.

Hazelnut trees bloom in the middle of winter and the wind carries their pollen from yellow catkins to tiny red flowers. The nuts don’t begin forming until June but, like New Year’s resolutions, the promises that produce the harvest ahead are made today.

So here is my first New Year’s resolution for 2010: think like an Oregon hazelnut grower.

What’s your New Year’s resolution for a sustainable future? Share it here.

Wishing peace and happiness to us all in 2010, and for the next hundred years,

 Alison

About the author

Alison Dennis stewards Burgerville’s sustainable values from the farm to the table to the compost bin. She coordinates action toward a future in which the most profitable companies take the best care of people and the planet we share, and for Burgerville serving as a practical model of this future today.