It's been another great fall in the garden. We are still harvesting lettuce,
greens and broccoli in the middle of November! We had fantastic harvests of
red norland and fingerling potatoes that I planted after we pulled up the garlic
in mid-July. We've just started eating delicious Brussels sprouts, made even
sweeter by the recent hard frosts. And, we still have Eastham turnips, carrots,
and parsnips to harvest for storage in the root cellar. The beds of garlic are
just about all planted and mulched, and the winter rye cover crop already brings
a bright green to the fields.
Next week on Thanksgiving, we'll celebrate the harvest in a tradition that began
in 1621, the second year that the Europeans lived in the New England region.
The winter before, their first here, was deadly for many of the newcomers. They
just didn't have enough food. Historian William Cronon writes that many of the
colonists arrived on this shore believing this was a land of plenty where very
little work was required in order to live. They had heard stories from early
visitors (in the spring and summer) of the abundance of animals, delicious
plants and wondrous large trees. First reports spoke of natives who seemed to
lead a rather relaxed life -hunting, fishing, gathering and tending their
gardens.
Indeed, in his fascinating book, Changes in the Land: Indians, Colonists and the
Ecology of New England, Cronon concludes that pre-invasion New England really
was a land of plenty, an abundant and rich ecosystem. Much of the area was
covered with a magnificent old-growth forest filled with wildlife. There were
incredible numbers of turkeys, elk, bear, deer, salmon, shad and trout. The
waters off the coast were brimming with clams, oysters, cod, flounder, and many
other fish. Chestnut, hickory and oak trees dropped delicious nuts; maples
provided sweet syrup. Clearings were filled with strawberries, raspberries,
cranberries, shadberries, or blueberries, depending on the region and the
season.
Cronon makes it clear that the paradise the Europeans found was the result of
the deliberate way the natives had lived here for thousands of years. They made
use of fire and selective clearing to encourage the plants which were useful to
wildlife and humans. They respected the large trees. However, the natives were
also aware that to "every thing there is a season." Their nomadic communities
of fewer than two hundred people moved around to take advantage of the running
of shad or the ripening of berries. They preserved the surplus (when it was
available) to get them through lean times, all within the carrying capacity of
this ecosystem. With the exception of those who lived in the northern areas of
Maine, the natives grew gardens which included corn, beans and squash, the three
sisters. These foods could be dried and were then easily stored in order to
provide concentrated energy and nourishment throughout the winter. Living
within this bounty, it's not surprising that the natives were helpful and
generous to the invaders.
The first Thanksgiving meal was probably a hybrid of American and European
foods, as the pilgrims began to establish European agriculture in the new world.
Certainly the turkey, cornbread, cranberries and squash came from the natives.
Just 51 years after the first Thanksgiving, the wild turkey, formerly in great
abundance, was described as rare in Massachusetts. Eventually, the European
system prevailed and in just over 200 years, 80 percent of the trees had been
cut down and much of the farmed land had been exhausted. Erosion, silted streams
and changed weather were common.
As farmers and loggers abandoned this region for unplowed fields and uncut
forests further west and around the world, the woods and its inhabitants began
to return. New England is more thickly forested now than it has been in over a
century. We frequently hear and see wild turkeys on our farm and in New Haven.
As the continuing thrust of European-style domination and exploitation of
forests and farmland plays itself out with devastating results around the world,
it makes more and more sense to respect and celebrate the bounty this region can
provide.
Happy Thanksgiving!
This is Bill Duesing, Living on the Earth
C 1996, Bill Duesing, Solar Farm Education, Box 135, Stevenson, CT 06491
Bill and Suzanne Duesing operate the Old Solar Farm (raising NOFA/CT certified
organic vegetables) and Solar Farm Education (working on urban agriculture
projects in New Haven, Bridgeport, Hartford and Norwalk, CT). Their collection
of essays Living on the Earth: Eclectic Essays for a Sustainable and Joyful
Future is available from Bill Duesing, Box 135, Stevenson, CT 06491 for $14
postpaid. This essay first appeared on WSHU, public radio from Fairfield, CT.
New essays are posted weekly at http://www.wshu.org/duesing