Celebrating the Harvest

I absolutely love thanks giving diner now, as it is truly a time where I celebrate and shine 😉

For me thanksgiving means celebrating the harvest. It is a fabulous way to go back to our roots. For me personally too when I started with permaculture I quickly connected with food; growing or sourcing good food that supports us, our health and the health of the ecosystems. So this is also a great time to check in and notice how much I have changed and how much I have accomplished, and to top it off I get to do it in good company. This is also a time where everything slows down a little and I get to enjoy a simple meal with friends. Most of us reconnect after a busy summer and start making plans for the ski season. Yes we always watch ski videos as diner cooks, ha.

Okay but this is where the exciting part is, I get to supply all the ingredients for our diner! I do so for a few reasons, because it’s easy for me, typically very affordable and my friends truly see the value of a locally sourced organic meal. Insert here leading by example and demonstrating the ease, ha the role I play, I make this culture piece, taking responsibility for our human needs a very accessible one simply by gathering for a delicious, glorious and celebratory meal.

I use to work at a market garden farm so I personally grew everything we needed for our meal and my roommate would purchase a turkey. Now over the last few years as my work with food systems has evolved so has our harvest diner. I still grew part of it myself but I have received the rest through network, partners, friends and connections. The more I do this work the more I realize you don’t need to do it all yourself or know everything. It is not about the elements right but about the connections, ha CW is another fabulous demo of that.

So the upgrade this year was ham for diner as I purchased a pig from a local pig farmer a few months back. The squash was from the community garden where i grew a corn trial for the beauty company Lush this summer, I planted the three sisters guild, so the squash was a bonus crop. The carrots were given to me by my amazing old timer neighbour, I just moved to a new place this summer, he saw me working in the garden and came over to offer some tools, we now catch up regularly over the fence or in the raspberry patch. The potatoes were from my garden patch. The apples and the garlic came from the local farm where I used to work and now trade a few hours for food when they need an extra hand. I purchased the oats for the crumble from our local health food store to support the local economy. And voila! a fabulous meal, a true celebration of what it means to be human.

Having friends see, recognize and honestly appreciate the value of the ingredients I provided is what brings me true joy and validation for what I do, what I believe in and who I am really.

Bonus: I get to do this in my life and appreciate it than I also get to share it with youS and look at it all over again.