Harvest Day 2022 | Celebrating Mabon & the the Year’s Abundance
Credit - @a_great_alternative
This past Saturday we gathered veg box members, volunteers, supporters and folks new to the project to the farm her for a Harvest Day, to celebrate Mabon, the Autumn Equinox, and the abundance of this year’s harvest. 20 folks joined us on the land, and after a grounding practice with Luisa we were able to hear from everybody about their connection to Glasbren, and what ‘abundance’ meant to them. Then Abel took everybody on a tour of the growing site, sharing the macro and micro details of how we grow food here, the permaculture approaches we have taken to the design of the space, the challenges and opportunities it presented, as well as very practical tips on how we grow each crop from seed to harvest.
Credit - @a_great_alternative
In the first mini-workshop session, some folks joined a restorative nature connection activity with Sophie, helping deepen contact with and a sense of the beauty of nature. Others helped to get started with the juice pressing while some helped to harvest and prepare the lunch. After a delicious feast, courtesy of Luisa and team, we moved into our afternoon workshop session. We turned and made new hot compost, pressed more juice and made bunting from the casings of Physalis berries with the wonderful Liz.
In Wales, we know Autumn Equinox as Mabon, named for the God of Welsh mythology, Mabon. He is the Child of Light and the son of the Earth Mother Goddess, Modron. Night and day are again of equal length and in perfect equilibrium - dark and light, in balance. But we are again on the cusp of transition and from now the year now begins to wane and from this moment darkness begins to defeat the light. As the light wanes, it’s a time of celebration, to celebrate what the Summer sun has provided with… the abundance of tomatoes, peppers, chillis, courgettes, cucumbers, leafy greens and of course all of the wild treats out there as we walk around the countryside.
Credit - @a_great_alternative
The apple is a strong symbol of this time of year, the Fruit Harvest, and figures significantly in many sacred traditions. It is a symbol for life and immortality, for healing, renewal, regeneration and wholeness. Fitting then, that some of the group spent the day making apple juice! We harvested all of the trees in our garden to add to the ones we’ve been scrumping from the tree kindly offered by folks in our local community. Cutting up and scratting the apples, and pressing the mush through the juice press was much easier with a big group of people, and spirits were high with plenty of smiles and laughter! We pressed over 50L throughout the day!
It feels so important to gather in this way around key moments of transition in the cycles of nature - T0 acknowledge the turning of the seasons the way people once did, in the spirit of gratitude for what the Summer harvest has provided, in reverence to the Earth that has provided it and to pause in mindful acknowledgement of the turning of the seasons, as we tip from light into dark. In a time of multiples crises, a doom cycle of troubling news and a cost-of living crisis, it can be easy to believe that we live in scarcity, that these are bleak times. But days like the Harvest Day are not only a welcome retreat from all of this, a chance to spend a day with friends on the land engaged in nourishing activities, but they are also a vital opportunity to celebrate what is abundant, to celebrate what our local soils, our hedgerows and forests can provide us with, the riches in our community and in the spirit of coming together around a shared purpose. These are tough times, and many of us are facing unimaginable struggles and pressures, and so it’s so important to ground ourselves in something solid, pause in thanks for where our food comes from, and build resilience in community and connections with others.
Credit - @a_great_alternative
