Harvesting Peas
This morning was overcast and cool with a light breeze. To a
farmer or gardener it would be giving the universal message
that winter is coming. It seems to reach inside and tug at
some primitive feelings about storing food and surviving.
For hundreds of years people have felt this, scurried around
preparing, then celebrated. I learned all this in grade
school once. The teacher told about how many of our
celebrations are based on harvest festivals and then she used
the word "peasants". The "peasants" did this and today we
still have the celebration.
I would like to go back and give that teacher a different
viewpoint. First, it is impossible to understand a harvest
celebration if you are not part of the harvest. And i don't
think this has anything to do with "peasants" or other
groupings of individuals. It can be part of anyones
life. It is "us" not "them".
It has taken me many years to come to these conclusions and
i suspect they only make sense to someone who attempts to
grow their own food. If one has never experienced the
act of seriously growing food for winter and the relief
when it stored, then how could they understand a harvest
festival.
I was sitting next to a row of peas thinking these thoughts
and shelling. It is a slow job and it would be much easier
to go buy a package of frozen peas. These peas had taken me
months to grow and i would be here most of the morning with
only a small bucket of peas to eat. How does one explain
that this is part of a celebration.
The cool morning air is nice and the dog happily pounces
on a dropped pea. I can't think of a better way to spend
the morning.
----
jeff owens, [EMAIL PROTECTED], http://www.teleport.com/~kowens
underground house, solar power, self-reliance, edible landscape
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