Thank you Winnie for your support, it means a lot to me, having you here. And everyone else, Welcome! I would like to have an adventure, lets walk down a trail and see what magic we can find, want to? There may be portals between the hedgerows and the corn fields so keep a good eye open. Whichever path we take let's keep nature close by our side and our hearts tuned to the divine, shall we? I have a feeling it's going to be grand. I'll meet you here by the blue door.
Sunday, June 27, 2004
Berries and Market Meetings
by Trendle Ellwood
My life seems to involve two things these days, berry picking and market going. Summer solstice passed and so they say that the length of day is shortening. But still I know that the hottest days are yet to come. As I search out the ripe black raspberry I see bumper crops of the wild blackberries turning plump and green alongside the fencerows. Soon they will glisten black and I will be plunking them into my pails. These wild berries get into your blood, or maybe they were already there, something that I inherited. I had to laugh out loud when Grandpa told me that he could never stop picking until his pail was full when I took him and Grandma some berries the other day. Hah! Does that sound like someone else you know? Oh how I wish that he were well enough to go picking with me now as we did when I was a child. Ah! But life can be bitter sweet.
Speaking of Bittersweet, the vines of them that we planted in our yard have little green buds all over them and I am thrilled that I will have the delightful orange clusters of them to cheer me this fall. The Elder bushes are taking off their lacy white dresses and putting on green berries also. The Red Raspberries are ripening in our garden. I feel married to the seasons, being so intimate with them, each berry passing ripe through my fingers. There is something that gets downloaded into me as I pass through each of their unique colors and textures, something that I can feel but cannot quite put my finger on.
How fitting that the first ripe berry makes us kneel to the ground as if in worship. They have bred plants to do many unusual things, but they have not yet bred the strawberry to grow on a bush. And so it is in knelling that we start off the berry-picking season.
So then it is a relief to not kink our bodies up bent over but to get to stand when the strawberry has finished her blushing and the black raspberry is ready. And then also it is a relief to pick the domestic red raspberries from the garden without fighting the briar and the thorn of the wild.
When I am not dreaming of picking or actually picking these fruits, then we are off to market. Every once in a while we will join a small group of the market vendors to an outing at a nearby restaurant. I have to admit that we are the most boisterous group at the restaurant. I cannot help it, sometimes I look around to see if we are disturbing anybody. Is anyone getting up and moving because of us? We get fired up, talking about farming practices that go against nature, people who don’t understand our mission, and customers who complain about our prices. We decide that we just need to educate them!
Most of us live without health insurance, air conditioners, or two bathroom houses. We believe in living simply, our main mission is not about making money. Sure, we would like to have enough money, but we are not out to rob peoples pockets dry as some people try to think. There might be produce cheaper down at the nearby grocery store but where did it come from? What has it been sprayed with? Herbicides? Insecticides? Were sustainable agricultural methods used to produce it?
Unlike the big farmers we do not get subsidized for anything. I read in the newspaper today that they are paying farmers to plant grasses and trees alongside river and creek banks to help lower the amount of toxic chemicals that flow from the fields into our waterways. This surely is a good thing, but we do not have to get paid by the government to do the right thing, keeping in harmony with nature is what we are all about. It is what we believe in! We humans have pushed this good earth to her limit; it is time to look at what we are doing and how we are bringing food from her.
As we discuss these things at our gatherings on Wednesday evenings we sometimes get a little loud with our passionate feelings. But those who wait on us do not seem to mind; they even keep a big table open for us, just in case we show up after market. I am feeling a kinship with these fellow tenders of the earth that I have not felt with a group of people in a long time except for the group that gathers here at the WhiteFeather forum. June is almost over and I must go and once again put on my long pants because the ripe glistening berry beckons still.
My life seems to involve two things these days, berry picking and market going. Summer solstice passed and so they say that the length of day is shortening. But still I know that the hottest days are yet to come. As I search out the ripe black raspberry I see bumper crops of the wild blackberries turning plump and green alongside the fencerows. Soon they will glisten black and I will be plunking them into my pails. These wild berries get into your blood, or maybe they were already there, something that I inherited. I had to laugh out loud when Grandpa told me that he could never stop picking until his pail was full when I took him and Grandma some berries the other day. Hah! Does that sound like someone else you know? Oh how I wish that he were well enough to go picking with me now as we did when I was a child. Ah! But life can be bitter sweet.
Speaking of Bittersweet, the vines of them that we planted in our yard have little green buds all over them and I am thrilled that I will have the delightful orange clusters of them to cheer me this fall. The Elder bushes are taking off their lacy white dresses and putting on green berries also. The Red Raspberries are ripening in our garden. I feel married to the seasons, being so intimate with them, each berry passing ripe through my fingers. There is something that gets downloaded into me as I pass through each of their unique colors and textures, something that I can feel but cannot quite put my finger on.
How fitting that the first ripe berry makes us kneel to the ground as if in worship. They have bred plants to do many unusual things, but they have not yet bred the strawberry to grow on a bush. And so it is in knelling that we start off the berry-picking season.
So then it is a relief to not kink our bodies up bent over but to get to stand when the strawberry has finished her blushing and the black raspberry is ready. And then also it is a relief to pick the domestic red raspberries from the garden without fighting the briar and the thorn of the wild.
When I am not dreaming of picking or actually picking these fruits, then we are off to market. Every once in a while we will join a small group of the market vendors to an outing at a nearby restaurant. I have to admit that we are the most boisterous group at the restaurant. I cannot help it, sometimes I look around to see if we are disturbing anybody. Is anyone getting up and moving because of us? We get fired up, talking about farming practices that go against nature, people who don’t understand our mission, and customers who complain about our prices. We decide that we just need to educate them!
Most of us live without health insurance, air conditioners, or two bathroom houses. We believe in living simply, our main mission is not about making money. Sure, we would like to have enough money, but we are not out to rob peoples pockets dry as some people try to think. There might be produce cheaper down at the nearby grocery store but where did it come from? What has it been sprayed with? Herbicides? Insecticides? Were sustainable agricultural methods used to produce it?
Unlike the big farmers we do not get subsidized for anything. I read in the newspaper today that they are paying farmers to plant grasses and trees alongside river and creek banks to help lower the amount of toxic chemicals that flow from the fields into our waterways. This surely is a good thing, but we do not have to get paid by the government to do the right thing, keeping in harmony with nature is what we are all about. It is what we believe in! We humans have pushed this good earth to her limit; it is time to look at what we are doing and how we are bringing food from her.
As we discuss these things at our gatherings on Wednesday evenings we sometimes get a little loud with our passionate feelings. But those who wait on us do not seem to mind; they even keep a big table open for us, just in case we show up after market. I am feeling a kinship with these fellow tenders of the earth that I have not felt with a group of people in a long time except for the group that gathers here at the WhiteFeather forum. June is almost over and I must go and once again put on my long pants because the ripe glistening berry beckons still.
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