Hands in the dirt, head in the sun, heart with nature.
To nurture a garden is to feed not just the body but the soul.
Share the botanical bliss of gardeners through the ages,
who have cultivated philosophies
to apply to their own and our own lives.
Show me your garden
and I shall tell you what you are.
Alfred Austin, 1835-1913
Spring is here and it's planting time again. As Nature awakens from her slumber, a poignant expectation mixes and releases the sweet incense of the new cycle reminding us how good it is to be alive.
It's interesting to note that some of our traditional early spring delights such as radishes, green onions and dandelion greens have spiciness, perhaps even sauciness that make our senses tingle in anticipation for what will unfold throughout this new growing season.
In the Colorado farm family I grew up in there was a sort of summer rite-of-passage where the spring radish and onion salad set the stage for freshly picked peas and green beans to follow which gave way to squash, tomatoes, cucumbers and sweet corn. Carrots and pumpkins signaled the transition into the restful phase of fall and winter and the completion of another cycle.
Now our grocery superstores are stocked year around with colorful fruit and vegetables shipped in from all over the country - yet perhaps there is something to be said for the nutrition, energy, and taste of food that is sustainably produced and picked locally and only available when Nature says the time is right.
I've been thinking alot about food lately. I've watched the prices in the grocery stores rise. Gas prices continue to rise. I read an article recently that stated that our grocery stores would empty out in about three to five days if the trucks stopped running to bring in the produce from all of those faraway places.
The La Boca Apprenticeship program is designed to help a new generation of gardeners and farmers to reconnect with the natural world and to reclaim understanding of how to grow and consume food in harmony with Nature in a sustainable and beautiful way.
We are reminded that Indigenous Peoples have many songs, prayers and ceremonies that respectfully celebrate the process of working with Nature to bring forth that which nourishes and sustains us. Perhaps a new generation of gardners and farmers will join with us to sing the song of life together once again - honoring the wisdom of the past while gracefully combining it with the best we have to offer, helping us take our place as responsible ancestors for our children and grandchildren and generations to come.
Grandfather's Planting Story
Tatanka Hunkesi - Planting Story (article by Sioux Grandfather - Small Buffalo)
Spring is the time of planting. It is the time we think of putting seeds into the ground and growing the food we will harvest in the fall and eat through the winter.
Why did we plant? We planted because it was our way of giving back to the Earth. We were grateful for all the Earth provided us, and we knew that by returning the seeds of our food to the soil, there would always be food growing in those places when we returned to them. We did not plant in the same way as far as technique, but the spirit of what we planted was the same.
Later, our people's travel became more restricted. There is no need to go into detail as to why, because all know why by now. The great herds of buffalo were gone and even the coyote had to search hard for a scrap of meat to eat. Our people were forced to leave their ways and take up the ways of planting and harvesting a small lot of ground for life.
Many stages of life can be seen in the planting cycle. Putting the seed into the ground is symbolic of the act of love that created new life in the womb of a woman, much in the same way the seed brings new life in the womb of the Mother Earth. The fresh sprout breaking the soil, is like birth. The growing and reaching for the sun, is like children growing. The blooming of the flower is like a young man becoming handsome and a young girl becoming beautiful to look at. The plant maturing and bringing forth fruit, is like reaching that age of awareness and blooming into another type of beauty; the beauty of wisdom.
Many summers ago, my granddaughter who was 6 years old came to visit for the day. At lunch time I decided to make her a soup of vegetables and broth. We walked out to my garden and I let her pick the types of vegetables she wanted in her soup. She decided on some things like carrots, tomatoes and chic peas. She reached down to pull a carrot top from the ground and I said, "No, you must not do that until we have given our prayer of thanks for the carrots for feeding us."
She didn't say anything. Like the obedient child she was, she stood quietly and waited while I prayed. We brought our bounty into the house and I began to cut up the vegetables. As I did, I sang a prayer to the Great Spirit for the good things he created and to the Mother Earth for the good things that grow in her soil. After the soup was cooked, my granddaughter and I sat at the table and I served it. When the soup was in front of each of us and before we ate, I gave a final prayer and I started to eat.
The child was quiet. She looked at me and asked, "Lala, why do you pray so much on food?"
I knew at that moment that she never learned about the energy in food. Perhaps you don't know about it either. So let me tell you what I told her.
There is an energy in food. When you plant seed, you must be aware of this energy. It is the energy of life. It is the breath of the Creator. When you pick food, you must also be aware of this energy. When a seed goes into the ground, it becomes one with the Mother Earth, just as a baby is one with its mother when it is in her womb. When that seed grows, and you pull it from the ground to eat it, you have to be aware of the fact that you are ripping it away from its warm womb. You are taking it away from the mother. You must acknowledge this. You must let the plant know that you are aware of what you are doing to it and that you are grateful that it is giving up its home in the Earth for you. This is why we pray when we plant and harvest our food. The same would go for meat. You must pray for the spirit of the animals you kill to eat. When you do, you aid their spirit's journey back to Creation. If you take their life lightly and without consideration, so will the Great Spirit look at your life.
We also pray when we prepare our food. We do this to be sure that the spirit food -- the energy that is INSIDE the things we eat -- is awake and ready for us to consume it. If you don't acknowledge the spirit food inside the things you eat, you will not get any benefit from that spirit food.
And of course, we give thanks to the Creator and the Mother for giving us such good things for our bodies and our souls.
The Creator is all wise. Great Spirit knew that we would need to eat food in order to keep our bodies alive. So the Creator put spirit food INSIDE the physical food. That way, each time we opened our mouth to take a bite for our stomachs, we opened our heart to take a bite of the goodness of the Great Spirits energy into ourselves.
When we ignore the spirit food inside what we eat, we do not feed our souls in one of the ways we were created to. If we do not feed that spirit hunger, our bodies will become confused. This is why some people will eat and eat and eat until their bodies are so full they can barely move, yet they do not feel full. They are not hungry for the calories and fats and proteins of food. Though they may believe they are hungry in their bellies, they are staving in their souls. Their bodies are crying for them to put the SPIRIT of the food into them. But since they ignore the spirit in what they eat, they never activate it and they will forever be hungry, sad and feeling empty.
Some will be so frustrated with the lack of fulfillment they get from their food, because they do not take in the spirit of the food, that they will not want food and will starve themselves, feeling empty, sad and needing more.
This is why when we plant a garden, harvest our crops or cure our meat, we MUST remember to pray. And this is why when we go to the super market and buy food, we have to be ever mindful that those foods were not grown, harvested or prepared with the spirit food inside them in mind. So, when we get our food at a market, we must remember to pray all the more as we prepare it and serve it to release the spirit food energy from inside of it.
My granddaughter looked up at her rambling old grandfather and said, "Lala, what does the spirit food inside my soup taste like?"
I laughed and said, "Very good. Very, very good."