Winter Gardening and Eating!

 As Fall becomes Winter, there comes a time when rather than leaving our potatoes in the Earth to be harvested as needed, we do a final digging and collect everything that is left rather than risk the potatoes freezing, or needing to mulch them heavily and dig them up in colder weather.  We leave this to the last minute, sometimes because we are so busy with other things, but also because the Earth is the best "refrigerator" for the potato.  In the bucket above is a potato called "Purple Sun" with a Purple skin and yellow inside,  below are fingerlings, which are a delicate potato that grows in amazing shapes with a distinctive flavor.  As of today (mid February) we are still eating and enjoying these potatoes.  Potatoes along with winter squash, and other root vegetables are excellent winter garden produce.  In fact we still have our carrots and beets growing in the garden since cold weather makes them sweeter and they are resistant to freezing.

We have been described in past with negative connotation as "Subsistence Farmers" scratching a living out of the soil.  Not only is this inaccurate, but it is also arrogant.  There is a prevailing concept among many people, including, sadly, urban and suburban Tainos, that working with the Earth to produce one's food is somehow a "lower class" activity or an activity that modern people have happily been able to move away from.  Most are aware that there was a time when the majority of the populations of the Earth were involved directly in gardening and farming activities on either part time or full time scales.  We know that our Taino Ancestors were master Gardeners along with our Relatives to the South, West, North and East.  We come from a continent of amazing botanical, agricultural innovation.  The permaculture movement that is very popular today among Europeans as well as many others, does come directly from our Indigenous Gardening Traditions.  Although our Ancestors are rarely credited, they are the genius behind this "new" movement that actually is our Cultural Legacy.

We do not come from a Cultural Legacy of Fast Food Restaurants and tasteless cooking that creates dis-ease and disease and shuts down our mental bodies.  Our Cultural Legacy involves eating fresh, local, sustainably produced foods.  Our Ancestors did not go from doing the Ceremonies to visiting fast food venues and sipping soda.  Our Ancestors did not shop at the supermarket for "offerings".  Our Ancestors cultivated the offerings with love, ingenuity, knowledge, wisdom, and sweat.  In this way our Ancestors knew the value of the offerings on a profound level and the Cemis, Spirits and Ancestors received those offerings on a profound level.  

While we have access to books, artifacts, papers, internet and so on today as sources of how our Ancestors lived, we cannot overlook who was the master Teacher of our Ancestors, and that master Teacher was (and still is) Mother Earth in the greatest concept of what Mother Earth really is with the Sun, Moon, and whole Universe embodying Mother Earth.  Mother Earth cannot teach through books, internet and so on, although humans can exchange ideas, concepts and discoveries in this way.  Mother Earth teaches through direct contact, direct communication, and it is up to us to learn her language.  Maybe we may start by only knowing a couple "words" but as we explore further we do realize that her language is profound and embodies wisdom beyond what can be captured by our human words.  

Many speak of the "Taino Resurgence" movement as a time when so many of us woke up to being "Taino" and came together to form communities.  For sure today many more of our people are including "Taino" as an aspect or central core of our identity.  Many of us began our awakening with false romantic notions on what it is to be Indigenous, what is an Indigenous Identity, and many took it upon themselves to define that for the rest of us with varying degrees of accuracy or integrity.  However, to truly embrace our Traditional Essence there is a profound and lengthy process, which is largely mental, of detoxifying from the colonial, western, materialistic mentality that has oppressed us for centuries. We must not underestimate the damage that has been done to us, and the distance we need to travel in truly returning to our Indigenous Identity in reality rather than in fantasy.  We also do need to recognize that Life is constantly changing, Earth is constantly changing, and what we are seeking is our Indigenous Spirit, whose expression may be significantly different that we know of from 500 years ago.

 Our Ancestors knew of the true taste of foods, but today many of us have become reliant on false flavors rather than true flavors.  A simple example is the chicken, which is a very popular food among our people.  The chicken that is factory farmed (all chicken from the supermarket) is a chicken that is raised in conditions that are similar to those of a slave ship.   This abusive way of raising chickens produces chickens that are not only flavorless but who also embody all the desperate, greedy, abusive, Earth-hating energies of those factory farms, and it is those energies that we are consuming when we eat those chickens.  This is made even worse if we go to a fast food venue to eat chicken.  This can only have impacts on our bodies, minds and Spirits.  


We raise chickens, and although we typically avoid the "boiler" chickens who have been bred for rapid weight gain and low intelligence, in error we received some in a shipment of chicks that came to us.  Above, our daughter is holding one of these "boilers" that we needed to slaughter for the table.  As a side note, it is important for us that the children gain an appreciation for the origin of their food.  It is a hypocrisy for people to simultaneously shy away from the idea of slaughtering a chicken, yet consume huge quantities of chicken on a yearly basis.  The children need to understand the value of that chicken they are eating, and can only truly understand that when they see and are involved in the process of raising that chicken, slaughtering and gutting that chicken and cooking that chicken.  When we slaughter our chicken we make sure that no part of the chicken is thrown in the garbage, every part is used one way or another, either to make stock, or to compost, the guts go to the dog or sometimes to the wildlife who also appreciate them.

 The chicken above becomes roasted chicken (actually here are 4 of them roasted for a gathering).  Unlike factory chicken, these chickens have a full flavor, a stronger aroma and a different texture.  Even the raw meat smells different- cleaner.  Within hours they go from walking around to the table.  Those that have never tasted fresh chicken may find the flavor strong, others taste the chicken and reminisce about their grandmother's flock, or how they used to slaughter the chickens in their homelands.  Once tasted, it becomes obvious that the factory chicken and home chicken are two very different meals, one comes from a total disrespect for Life, the other comes from Respect for Life.  We can all agree that our Indigenous Ancestors held a deep respect for life.

In our cold frames we pick salad greens all winter long, in sun, rain or snow.  The greens reach their best flavors during the winter as the coolness brings out their full flavor, while the heat of late spring and summer brings out their bitterness.  We not only grow the typical lettuce (although not iceberg- the fast food favorite), but also various other greens such as arugula, mizuna, tat soi, asian cabbage, chard, radicio, parsley and more.  These greens give us a full flavored nutritious salad that could not be any fresher.  From these simple cold frames we grow enough greens to never have to buy any lettuce or greens from the market all winter.  Our first harvest began in October and will continue until the greens begin to become bitter due to the heat, or set seeds.  We harvest the seeds to plant the next season's crop. 


As we have evolved in our own understanding and expression of re-embracing our Indigenous Roots, we have learned that there is a natural cycle of eating that has a direct relationship to the foods that are naturally available during the cycle of the year.  Once the greens become bitter, we enjoy salads that are made from green beans, peas, tomatoes, cucumbers, corn, and greens that can handle the summer heat.  We have learned to avoid the tomatoes available in the winter from the supermarket as they are always a flavor disappointment and a sorry substitute for the fully flavored tomato from the summer garden.  Living as Indigenous People, re-Embracing or re-Discovering our Indigenous Essence is not at all "subsistence farming or scratching a living", it is a return to Sanity, a return to Thriving, and a return to Truth, including a return to the true Cycle and Flavor of the foods we eat and the foods we use as offerings to the Spirits.