How Will You Make The Most Of Your Harvest?
|This month, we are sharing a guest post by Courtney Anderson, our Subscription Recipe Curator at Pine View Farms and founder of Raised on Rainbows. We hope this nourishes your spirit and body.
The corn moon has passed and the harvest moon is fast approaching. Calling us to spend time reflecting, observing, celebrating and sharing our bounty. A signal to begin preparing for a season of rest and renewal.
What does this look like for you?
Maybe it's reflecting on habits, or celebrating who you have become in 2020, or witnessing all the challenges we have faced, or better yet maybe it's realizing some habits still need refining.
Wherever you are, be there. Your body and mind will thank you.
As the school season begins again, as we face new unknowns and as different obstacles begin to surface, think about who you want to be when 2020 comes to a close.
How can you nourish your body and soul?
As I sat with these questions myself, I realized what has changed the most for me since the beginning of the year has been the way I look and connect to food. Where it comes from and how it is treated. I spent time observing my surroundings and reconnecting to my roots. Asking my Grandmothers what they used to do during this time of year.
Their answers were the same: preparation, harvest, rest.
Our food begins to look different with each passing season. In the summer maybe your time was spent in the garden or at markets enjoying a fresh feast from local farmers. However as fall begins to set in and the ground begins to harden you might be thinking "what will my meals look like now?" "How can I still support local when the ground isn't as fertile and giving?"
The answer is preparation, preserving, fermenting and safely storing away the hard work of harvest.
It's large pots filled with hearty ingredients. It's soaked grains and freshly baked bread. It's celebrating the fatty foods, the meat raised on open pastures, the warm nourishing stews and spices helping to fuel and protect us.
The corn moon reminded me of a tale my teacher told. The story of Maize, how our lack of culture and care of this valuable life saving crop caused many to become ill with pellagra because of the lack of tradition. The Indigenous people knew the importance of soaking these grains with acid in order to unlock the nutrients within each kernel. Allowing them to become digestible and easily absorbed. Without the passing on of this wisdom many suffered with malnutrition because the kernels were indigestible. So as many feasted on what they were being told would save them, it was actually making them more sick.
So why take the time to food prep? To prepare? To reconnect to the wisdom of our ancestors? To reroot? To slow down?
Because it will save your life.
I believe in order to find hope in health again we must first find hope within ourselves. We must find faith in our surroundings and connect back to the knowing of our Grandmothers.
We must simplify what we know as food and become more aware of where our food is coming from.
In the words of Hippocrates,
“Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food”
As the year comes to a close, spend time discovering your own medicine for your family. Find routines that work and nourish yourself with connection and community. Feed what serves you and starve the rest. This will keep you strong. This will preserve your health for life times to come. Your immunity is in your hands and on your plate. Your immunity is your self care and connection to the seasons and food culture around you. Your immunity is your resilience and trust that you will be taken care of. Your immunity is your community and how we come together to feed and nourish one another. Our immunity is the traditions and culture that preserve our health and well-being.
So what will you harvest this year?
I am harvesting my hope in health, happily serving it up on heaping platters for all to feast on.
Courtney Anderson
@raised.on.rainbows
