As this holiday week begins, I'm moving slowly. It feels like a good way to begin a week that will end in a large family dinner with people I haven't seen in quite some time.
A part of me loves the tradition of Thanksgiving and gathering with loved ones. This year I also find myself thinking about the meaning and traditions that I was taught around Thanksgiving as a child. These don't quite resonate with me any more.
Last month I went to a local museum. As the curator told me beautiful stories about the Pomo people who have lived on this land and in parts of Sonoma County for 11,800+ years (that's a LONG time!), I found myself thinking about the long history that has come before me in this place.
I'm thankful for being here, and I also feel inspired to deepen into how I can relate to land more kindly, caring for it in sustainable ways. American culture has treated the land like a prize and commodity, with no respect for the fact that it is alive and needs the same respect, love, attention, and work we'd give to a great grandmother or elder.
Gratitude for the abundance of the land is a huge part of Thanksgiving that feels more resonant to me where I am, as opposed to the old story of the Mayflower and the first dinner.
I also grew up aware that my family was part Blackfeet.
I don't know much about this part of my family, as those stories died with my grandfather and his mother. But that's another tribe that has a 10,000 year old land history (that we know of). I can only wonder what stories live in my DNA, what relationships with the land, of which I have no conscious knowledge.
While this holiday is absolutely an economy based one that feeds our society, I've also thought a lot about how many turkeys are raised and slaughtered for this holiday alone. It's a far cry from the Mayflower Pilgrims who were just trying to survive on foreign land. According to the US Egg and Poultry Association (from Business Insider), 46 million turkeys are eaten around Thanksgiving.
Yes, 46 MILLION TURKEYS.
To put that into perspective, that means more than half of the turkeys eaten in a year are consumed just for this holiday. Turkeys are raised just for this Thanksgiving slaughter.
I think that, back in the days when people had turkeys clucking on their farm and were doing a slaughter before winter, maybe loading up the harvest table made a lot of sense.
I even remember as a child having leftovers from Thanksgiving for weeks. Some were eaten right away and more was stored in the freezer for later.
Today, with grocery stores and food available throughout winter, I believe there's a more sustainable way to support our economy, and to support the last few local butcheries we have left. We don't have to feeding over a billion dollars at the holiday into one of three major turkey corporations.
❤️ What does the table look like if it has only locally sourced meats, vegetables, or breads from within a 10 mile radius?
❤️ What does the table feel like if I remove Butterball, C&H sugar, and all corporatized food?
I'm not saying the corporate model is wrong, I just recognize that Sonoma County is the land of small businesses and entrepreneurship. I think we'll all do better if the money flows just as equally into these resources.
This year was my first exposure to Pink Friday, an idea very similar to Small Business Saturday. Pink Friday is an invitation to spend money with local (and I mean truly local) businesses on the Friday before Thanksgiving, pre-empting the corporate holiday blitz.
In Sonoma County, we also have the GO LOCAL movement which promotes local shopping with rewards all year round, and the Made Local organization for local crafters to be seen and found by shoppers.
Quick plug--the Made Local store in Montgomery Village has an incredible selection of art, ceramics, hand crafted cheese boards, preserved foods, local cheeses (in the back), garden crafts, handmade soaps, salts, metaphysical products, knitwear, and even hand crafted pens all by local artisans. It's a great place to shop for gifts and home wares. Okay, now back to Thanksgiving...
Personally, I'm feeling a shift towards the idea of an elegant, simple Thanksgiving feast with seasonal local food, and more focus on local volunteering, gratitude, exercise (Turkey trot maybe?), and relaxation.
Some of my old family recipes can be redone. Others will die with the times.
--But not this year! Likely next year. This year the plans are already made, my infamous candied yams have been requested. As we gather in Santa Rosa, a part of me feels it may be the last year of this kind, an ode to the old traditions as I prepare to shift my mindset for newer, healthier ones.
I'd like to see my family tradition of gathering around the table become more grounded in gratitude for the place that we live in, for veggies grown in our own gardens or local farms, and to get away from the quiet addictions within the food that have come through over processing and commercialization.
One step at a time, and I suppose that begins with me.
xoxo
Dailey
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