06 02 12 First Fruits



In Alaska the three-day Memorial Day weekend is traditionally planting time.  By the end of May the soil has thawed and those plants that thrive in the ground can be planted.  We have been right on time this year, I suppose.  Last weekend was Memorial Day weekend, and we got most of our planting done, and I am thrilled.  It feels almost like the first harvest, though we have only just planted.  It’s just that it took a lot to get this year’s planting in, and we did it!

In fact, we have been working hard for a long time to prepare for this month’s planting.  Last June a number of our friends and acquaintances helped organize the Alaska Food Challenge.  The idea was to participate as little as possible in the inefficiencies that go along with getting most food in Alaska.  Participants in the Alaska Food Challenge pledged either to avoid all food that is not produced in Alaska (only a few were quite that hard core), or to take specific measures to drastically reduce their consumption of food that is not Alaska grown.  In our case, part of our pledge was to begin creating the capability to grow enough produce, and harvest enough fish and game, to be at least 67% food self-reliant beginning by September 2012. 


Red Microgreens in an Earth Box

Actually, this would mean we would have much to share, because we easily can grow more of some things, like potatoes, than we need.  Also, we are trying to turn our bioshelter home into an experiment on how Alaskans can live well while causing minimal environmental impact.  If we can gather ideas for this from our growing cadre of acquaintances, and put some of those ideas into practice, we hope that the fruits of our experiment will also be worth sharing.

Which brings me back to the realization that already we have fruits—first fruits only, to be sure—but fruits to share.

According to the traditional Jewish calendar the festival of Shavuot was the season for beginning to bring the First Fruits offerings to the Temple.  Shavuot began 50 days after Passover, which means that we are fully into Shavuot now.  Alaskans, of course, have a different growing season than Palestine, so we have little to offer in this season as a First Fruits harvest.  However, if part of our offering is to share what we are learning, and to show the simple satisfaction that goes with planning a way of life and then seeing the plan begin to work, then this blog is a part of sharing the first fruits.

In fact, sharing is a tradition with a long history in Alaska.  Native American traditions in Alaska lift up sharing as one of the key values for living properly in relationships.  I do not  claim to fully understand the “sharing” teaching from Native Americans, but I feel blessed even to meditate on the bits I have learned.  For now, let me suggest that the value of sharing is at least related to the same virtues that go into the offering of First Fruits. 

Strawberry Plant in the Solarium
God's commandment through the Hebrew scriptures to offer First Fruits recognizes that it is God who makes any harvest possible, and that cooperating with the ways and rhythms of God is the essence of virtuous human life.  In the First Fruits offering, God is honored as we give away part of the first harvest, trusting that God will continue to provide for us throughout the year if we continue to live in the ways and rhythms of life that are embodied in God’s creation.  In the traditional sharing of Alaska Natives, the first harvests of young hunters are completely given away to support the elders of the community.  Similarly, hunters and gatherers regularly share a portion of what they find, knowing that it is God who provides the harvest, and that sharing is essential if the whole community is to thrive.  In a community of sharing, all thrive together because when some are particularly successful, everyone is blessed.

This has been true for Cindee and me, too.  We are employing any number of techniques to make things work in our experiment-in-life we chose by living in a bioshelter.  However, all of those ideas and techniques were given to us through the generous sharing of ideas of friends and acquaintances.  We have benefited from others offering the fruits of their experience, and we can do no less.
 

So, today the sun is shining.  I will take a few pictures to share some of what we are doing and put them in another post shortly (count the two in this blog as just tantalizers).  We can at least share some of the ideas we are employing.  Whether or not these ideas and techniques will truly result in food to share, however, is a question that will have to wait until the Alaska harvest season.

I will also spend the day contemplating sharing of fruits. When sharing becomes a way of life, is it more a duty or a joy?  









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