The Indigenous Food Game

Today I set a playful challenge for myself.  Really an exercise in gratitude and immersion in the gifts rolling from Hawk's Hill.  Today, I pledge to only eat food grown on my property.  I've just finished breakfast, and looking at my plate as I took the last few bites, I realized that it had all been home-grown:  2 fresh fried hens eggs with leftover sauteed pak choi greens and onions from last night's dinner.  And a pot of black tea.

Of course the black tea was grown in India (though the water came from my well).  But, I have a caffeine addiction and a love of a good pot of hot tea that I don't plan on laying down any time soon. So, I will give myself the caveat of tea, and seasonings like the soy sauce, olive oil, and salt and pepper in my breakfast that came from the store.  Also, of course, the Bob White brand layer crumbles  that supplement our flock's diet of pasture grasses and bugs came from the feed and seed.  A local company, Bob White Feed probably gets its corn and soybeans from farmers within about 50 miles, so at least the hens' feed is local.  Fine for the hens.  But for myself, today, my experience will be of only Hawk's Hill grown foods. Just for the fall harvest thrill of it.

With the first day of fall just a little over a week away, now is the best time of year to play with homegrown food.  Ancient people called the Fall Equinox by the name Mabon, and celebrated it as the second harvest of the year-- the first being the Summer Solstice, and the time of year when carrots, beets, turnips, broccoli, peas, and spring greens began to come in from the fields.  On Hawk's Hill, I celebrate this time of year as the season of what I call accidental food:  I go out for a walk around the farm, just to walk, and discover fresh red raspberries to munch on, the first ripe fall apples dropped on the ground, a zucchini that we missed in the rush of picking for market, or when at work in the garden, a potato gleaned while pulling weeds from around young kale (sowed after the Red Gold potato crop), more sweet corn that needs to be eaten before it goes too starchy and dry, and the first butternut squashes (they seem early this year).

Waltham butternut squash and Blacktail Mountain watermelons from our garden

So let the celebration of the harvest begin this overcast, cool autumnal day.  Instead of crackers, it will be cucumbers when I want a crunchy snack.  Instead of a cheese and tomato sandwich, it will be leftover sauteed zucchini.  Perhaps I'll defrost a chicken for tonight's dinner.  Or make tomato-vegetable soup with all the leftovers in the fridge.

Poona Kheera Cukes fresh from the garden

I promise to report back with pictures of the day's experience.

May you feel the earth's bounty keenly today, whether at a farmer's market, driving past agricultural fields, visiting an orchard, receiving a baseball bat sized zucchini from your neighbor, or in your own back yard garden.

Happy Autumn!
Betsy