A Note of Gratitude and Reverence

Dearest Readers,

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We here at NY Small Farma (NYSF) feel truly blessed to be writing to you on this day of gratitude and we wish you and yours much health, unity, abundance, love and peace. ?

As an advocacy group for sungrown regenerative farmed cannabis we spend a lot of time thinking about soil. As many of you know regenerative farming is a practice that seeks to improve the soil (from its current anthropogenically manipulated state to a healthy, natural state). Soil is what feeds the plants. It is what feeds us. It is what, together with the sun and water, nourishes all living entities on this planet. It itself is alive; a teaspoon of productive soil generally contains?between 100 million and 1 billion microbes.

Although the name regenerative farming is rather modern, its practices are not. They are of the ancient ways. The ways?the ancestors of this land cared for it. It is the way indigenous people all over the world cared for and continue to care for their native lands. The connection between indigenous?culture and the land?created a symbiotic relationship of practices that are adapted to specific, local environments and that work with as opposed to against natural processes. ?

This practice is at the very heart of the concept of regeneration: it is wanting to?renew and correct some of the missteps?that have taken us to the point of environmental damage and degradation. We want to create systems that are rebirthing a healthy environment ?

Where Western culture refers to the natural world as “it” Indigenous Peoples refer to the natural world and all in it as “thou,” as sacred. Where Western culture views man as having dominion over everything, indigenous people acknowledge the trees, land, water, and living systems were here long before us and understood?we are the youngest entity on the planet.?They understood our place in the universe within those time frames and this shaped their relationship with those systems. ?

They did not build fences to protect their crops from the critters. Instead, if the critters came to eat, they figured they were hungry and therefore there was a need to plant more. They adjusted to those environmental changes from the beings in that natural environment. We’re part of that system. We need to become embraced in that system in order to create not only a healthy food system, but also healthy people. ?

But it is very much the opposite of what agricultural systems are today, which tries to kill everything except the plant that you want to grow. The thrust is to kill off the pests, kill off the weeds, destroy and kill and create the monocrop. Natural systems, like us, don't thrive alone. They need community. ?

The three sisters?are three different types of vegetables, they are: corn, pole beans, and squash. Together, these three vegetable sisters form a plant guild.? In most basic terms, a plant guild is any collection of plants that collectively provide benefits for each other and the creatures that find nourishment from them. They each protect and provide for each other and by offering support,?nutrients, and protection for the others, they each support the whole. ?

Corn acts as a natural and?stable pole for beans to wrap their vines around the stalk as they climb. The beans in turn provide stability for the corn, making it less susceptible to heavy winds.? They also collect nitrogen from the atmosphere and transfer it to the soil to bring more health to both the corn and the squash, as well as the soil itself.? The squash acts as living mulch for the corn and beans, by crowding out unwelcome weeds and keeping the soil cool and moist even during dry seasons. The thick vines and thorny leaves of the squash also act as a deterrent to predators who would normally eat corn. ?

This creates a beautiful example of how?agriculture can be a help to the planet?instead of the hindrance that it currently is.? ?

The three sisters were in use for over three centuries before Europeans arrived in America by the?Haudenosaunee. Named as Iroquois by the French, the Haudenosaunee were an alliance of six Native American nations called: the Mohawk, the Oneida, the Onondaga, the Cayuga, the Seneca, and the Tuscarora, that not only practiced this type of cultivation, they emulated it in their own lives. These tribes dwelled around the New York State area in their united cause of survival and friendship. ?

Finally, one of the most important lessons in indigenous epistemology is that natural systems have unknowns, and that?man cannot know everything. We have to have reverence and respect for those unknowns. There are processes in the trees that grow, in the animals that migrate that we just will not know. We should respect in reverence and allow those unknowns to happen. We can observe it knowing that we can probably aid in the health of it, knowing that there is something just beyond our reach, and knowing that there is something greater out there that we must respect. ?

So we hope we all remember to see ourselves as one; that we all leave room in our lives for some of?the beauty that happens by happenstance; and we hope that on this day of gratitude you remember the?true story?of this land and the people who stewarded her?soil?with sacred reverence. Some of the greatest joys come from the understanding of reverence and the sacred. ?

We thank you for your support over the years as we grow. We are a small group doing big things and as such, we are not able to reach out as often as we would like but we appreciate each of you every day.

We have openings on our Board in 2024 and volunteers are always welcomed.

? All My Relations. ? Aho.