Agriculture As a Celebration

Rapid ecological and cultural degradation is taking place in our world today. Chemical industrial agriculture is doing a great job in continuing that degradation.
What’s lost when we plant the same crop in the same way with the same management in different places? That question is too big to answer here, but one thing is seeing agriculture as a celebration of life.
Our ancestors would gather often to celebrate what Earth provided them with for millennia. One way they did this was in the form of a Wassail, where people gathered to drink and sing in orchards in hopes that the trees would bear fruit. Some people still do it today, and I attended one at High Falls Farm where I am apprenticing in High Falls, NY. (Learn more about the farm http://www.highfallsfarm.com/ and the owner Ethan Roland Soloviev)
“Old Apple Tree, we Wassail thee, in hopes that thou might bear…”
It was the middle of January when friends and family came to the farm where they were greeted by a backyard fire. Some people brought instruments which later altogether formed a discordant mixture of sounds. Others brought food, drinks, candles, beads, or other gifts. One person showed up in a bear suit. Some one else gathered cattails on site for torches.
As the sun set behind the tree line, we lit the candles and torches and one by one followed each other out to the trees with our goofy dances and cheerful spirits playing our random sound makers until we circled around one meeting tree.
There, the last remaining winds and pings of our instruments eventually faded away and our little penguin shuffles of dance came to a stop as the first words were spoken about why we were there. We remembered that the trees love our coming together, our gentle touches, our naked voices, our gifts.
Together we shouted thanks! Together we asked the trees to do what they have always done for us: To bud, to flower, to fruit. And then we sang (one of) the ancient Wassail song(s)…
”…for to bloom well, and to bear well, merry let us be… may everyone take off their hats and shout out to the old apple tree!…”
We placed our lights and many gifts on the tree.
Let the bad spirits be gone!…
Legend has it people would circle around every tree in the orchard and do that same thing for each one.
We gathered our things and stayed warm by a bonfire for the rest of the night.
…
Some people sang polyphonic eastern european songs by the fire. After that night, a Hudson Valley Balkan Polyphonic Choir was born, which I later joined. The group has been circling up around meals every week since that night, learning songs from various polyphonic traditions across Central and Eastern Europe. I think there was something about the Wassail — something about people celebrating the inherent wisdom of nature that creates food for us to eat — that created the conditions for a singing group to be born.
…
What would the world look like if every one saw agriculture as more than just the growing of crops and care of animals to provide sustenance? What if every one actually found it worth celebrating?
“…Three cheers for the apple tree:
Hip hip, hooray!
Hip hip, hooray!
Hip hip, hooray!”
