What an ungracious thought I had today. About, of all things, coming upon a giant pumpkin on the sidewalk!
The thought came to me when I arrived at my neighbors’ house to drop off some plant cuttings. Sugarcane recently harvested. Plumeria which was “harvested” by the hurricane. And chaya — Mexican miracle spinach tree — hurricane-harvested also. I had so many cuttings that I was really glad that several neighbors were eager to get some.
The young couple’s house had been the scene, this past week, of major neighborhood Halloween fun. They are generous hosts and really got into the spirit with the decorations and costumes. And they got a bunch of us motivated as well.
Their yard had been festooned with giant skeletons, inflatable haunted houses and gnarled trees and such, and way too much more to list. When I arrived with the plant cuttings, I noticed that the decorations had been partially disassembled. And on the sidewalk outside their fence was a whole giant pumpkin. Not a jack-o’-lantern carved, but a whole intact pumpkin.
And what do you suppose my first thought was? Gratitude to see a whole huge perfect pumpkin that I could cut up and toast the seeds, and use the flesh if I chose?
No, it was more like a feeling of obligation or responsibility. Like, well I can’t let this pumpkin go to waste so I’m going to have to take the time to cut it up. And spread the seeds out on trays and put them in the solar oven or toaster oven. And so on. Basically focused on the amount of physical labor for cutting and cleanup etc.
Granted, I have always had a lazy streak in general. But sometimes there’s something about gifts from nature that really bring it out. I think maybe it’s the fact that a very big gift from nature is not something you can keep and postpone. You have to deal with it right then, or as soon as possible, because it’s perishable. Even if you feel busy or preoccupied with something else, as I did in that moment, you simply have to make time for the gift.
Another challenge is that such gifts tend to be large (bulky or numerous or both), so not amenable to just being tucked into a corner of a fridge or cabinet. They have to be processed and compacted; sorted; containerized if appropriate.
And, maybe your situation is different but in my situation, the task of utilizing a gift from nature is something I tend to have to do by myself. As opposed to having multiple people near me who want to enjoy the fruits and divide the labor. (I do seem to be meeting more people near me who are similarly minded though, so that may be changing.)
What a negative attitude though! Not the attitude that I want to have.
Fortunately, the more I focus on the thought of delicious pumpkin seeds seasoned with chili powder and so on, toasted in the oven — and yummy soups and maybe breads made with the pumpkin meat — the more the spoiled-brat attitude starts to fade.
But there is definitely something about a hectic, time-is-money, money-driven society where gifts from nature are just seen as taking up time and labor. Money is like this artificially concentrated form of nature’s bounty. Something that doesn’t need processing and chopping; something you can just spend on anything.
People who are a lot better than I am at growing food, sometimes grow tons of food but then they don’t want to deal with cleaning and preparing it so they end up giving most or all of it away. Maybe next time I’ll suggest working together and dividing the harvest.
All in all, today was a success. Several neighbors wanted my various plant cuttings. And I definitely do want the beautiful sidewalk-foundling pumpkin, even though I’m going to have to use some elbow grease to chop it and scoop the seeds out and toast them batch by batch.
Some years back, at the Kerrville Folk Music festival, one of the regulars was lamenting the fact that people kept passing up pounds and pounds of beautiful pecans that had fallen from the many nearby trees. They were bags of pecans on the picnic tables but people kept passing them by.
When I look back, I think maybe some people just didn’t know how to crack a pecan shell, and maybe it would’ve been good if some of us had tried to show some people. And then again, a lot of us are just spoiled by the ready availability of nuts that have already been removed from the shell for us. So maybe the thing to do would have been to give out little cups of nuts that we had shelled.
I do sometimes find it easier to tackle a gift from nature if I have in mind not only my enjoyment of it, but also the idea that it’ll be enjoyed by one or more other people.
Anyway. Food for thought, literally. This blog post itself, too, was sort of a bounty of nature that I had the option to ignore, or embrace.
My general take on the interplay between money-driven society and gifts from nature:
— A person who earns a lot of money is less likely to have much time or motivation to make use of gifts from nature.
— And, a person who earns less money (either voluntarily or otherwise) is more likely to have time and motivation to make use of gifts from nature. And the gifts will be worth relatively more to that person.
— For some, a viable path to transitioning out of the purely-money-driven economy is to reduce one’s need to earn, and reduce one’s money job hours accordingly. Thus allowing time to harvest nature’s gifts. (Including time to learn how to do that.)
Pictures of the giant magnificent pumpkin being prepared for culinary enjoyment.
PS. My favorite tip for harvesting very large gifts from nature is, do it outdoors if possible! It drastically simplifies the cleanup.