Our seasonal table with our corn harvest below
Choosing the best cobs to pick
"Twist, twist, twist, PULL!"
The display near the end of our driveway...corn stalks and a variety of picked flowers/grasses
stand proudly up against our rose bush, greeting visitors.
Even though we won't officially start our grade 3 Farming block until spring, as anyone who farms knows: farming is a year-round affair.
This is the first time our kids have ever picked their own corn before. Once shucked, the kids got to watch as I cut the corn off of the cobs, rinsed the corn carefully, and then blanched the corn for freezing. DD9's comment was "Oh, so THAT'S how we get corn that we eat?". "Yes, Sweetie. A farmer had to grow that corn and then pick it, just like we did, and then shuck the husks off, just like we did, and then process the corn, just like we did." "Oh, wow."
She sat quietly for a while on the couch, seemingly absorbing this new paradigm of thought. It has seemingly only now occurred to her that our food doesn't just come from a bag/box/shelf at the store, but that at some point someone had to grow and/or process the ingredients.
They say that the child of nine is slowly becoming more grounded within their bodies. They are starting to realize the differences between the fantasy world they have always created around themselves vs. the "reality" of the world around them.
These corn husk dollies will be a fun reminder that not only is corn delicious, but can be decorative as well. We had a talk about the corn stalks, and reasoned that farmers would want to have something beautiful each autumn from something that was so much work to gather. We reasoned that folks who are in the throes of harvesting their food would want to lift their spirits after such hard work to provide food for their families for the coming year.
There are so many layers of the onion with these kinds of lessons. For children who are just being introduced to the idea of farming, they can gain a whole new appreciation for the circle of the year of food as well as the circle of the year of celebrations. They begin to slowly understand that life cannot simply be about play and fun, nor can it be solely about work.
The balance is what sustains us spiritually, physically, emotionally and socially as we come together to celebrate these cycles together as a community. We'll be attending a few harvest festivals this month and into October, and we will be sure to remind ourselves of all of these wonderful ideas as we do.
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