Quote on indigenous food systems by Lyla June Johnston + commentary

We were never hunter gatherers because hunter gatherers are people who are victims of
circumstance, looking for a berry to eat or a deer to hunt.
We were gardening the whole earth in systematic ways, cultivating entire ecosystems, designing ecosystems such that they would reproduce reliable, predictable food for us season… after season after season.
And we honed the science after trial and error and even our own collapse of our own civilizations to learn how to be gentle with the earth and how to be
responsible to her.

I thought this was an interesting quote that highlights the natural connection between people and their land—as something that we call permaculture, but it has had a lot of different names for different people. The vaguest way to describe it is “what works”, which describes what I saw at a plant swap I went to in the most permie town in my region. People brought sunchokes, walking onions, feral garlic from under fruit trees, rhubarb, horseradish, enormous mint and bee balm roots,  hostas, semi-wild dyer’s chamomile and woad, sochan, some blackberry canes—most of these were forked from the ground shortly beforehand—even some hops (that I was forced by circumstance to take home even though there is far more than enough already growing wild.)

Very few of the usual tomato and pepper starts you see at the stores, that are hard to grow here. Nothing against tomatoes or peppers—I was actually looking out for some tomatoes but didn’t see any that looked hardy, so will be seeing if my own direct-ish seeding works at all.

I’d have brought ramps too but I’m afraid few would have needed them. No one took my motherwort, black raspberries, or vervain, surprise! But I hope for a future day I’ll have a surplus of peaches or grapes or groundcherries or other fruiting plants to give away.

PS: perennial groundcherries are native here, and delicious. They are truly perennial, not just self-seeding, and hardier than most. I’ve left them in an unprotected pot in winters that reach near -20F, along with garlic chives, before transferring them to the garden.

I’d like to make a thread on them. Abenaki people grew them in their gardens for probably over a thousand years, and they are featured in their “Seven sisters” polyculture along with sunchokes, sunflowers, corn, tobacco, squash, and beans. They are still all over here, just as sweet and delicious as ever, especially when we care for them well! My patch is slowly expanding through self-seeded volunteers as well as creeping roots. I’d like to help them along as much as possible!