Praise and Gratitude for the Harvest

Soil. Sun. Water. Love. From spring to summer through autumn, the Hippo School children have learned all that our Plant Relatives need to grow. They have come to understand that plants offer gifts to us as humans, and to insects and other animals along the way. They’ve observed bees gathering pollen and butterflies nectaring in the Butterfly and Berry Garden. And they’ve found evidence of other animals harvesting, just as they do.

Tuesday mornings in October have been all about what Noojimo’iwewin Gitigaan has to give, gifts only received after an offering of Tobacco. The huge seedheads of Oaxaca amaranth came first, grown from seed scattered by the children in June. Next came the containers of potatoes: red, yellow, and blue, 43 in total, large and small. This last week has been about becoming reacquainted with the Three Sisters, looking at ants pollinating the corn through magnifying glasses, harvesting 2 of the cobs that are ready, harvesting beans that have dried on the vine, and a not-quite-ripe squash.

So much wonder! How tiny seeds can grow something so big, multiplying from the handfuls sown by small hands to flower heads of up to 50,000 seeds. Potatoes hiding under the soil, beneath leaves and stems that are spent. The look, feel, and smell of the Three Sisters, noticing all the colours in plants that nourish one another as they will nourish us.

As the days shorten and become colder, our time with the Hippo School is coming to an end. Noojimo’iwewin Gitigaan will rest, with only the birds and the squirrels to seek their harvest. The sparrows harvested the wheat in the “We’re Growing Cookies” bed long since, but there are still the seedheads on the coneflowers and cosmos to offer nourishment. Where the children dug out the potatoes, the squirrels are now digging. We’ll likely find a forgotten acorn or two next spring, as we did this autumn.

On the corner of Rushton Road and St. Clair West, we are celebrating all our relations, and our mutual flourishing.

The Noojimo'iwewin Gitigaan National Healing Forest Project Children's Program is funded by TD Friends of the Environment and private donations