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Think Local Middleburg’s Communit Community Newspaper Middleburg’s y Newspaper
Volume 18 Issue 8
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Page 3
November 29 ~ December 16, 2021
Piedmont Hunt Opening Meet
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Reclaiming the Roots of Thanksgiving
T
Lynne Kaye
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Huntsman Johnny Dean Photo By Tiffany Dillon Keen
onya Taylor, Director of Production for the Bainum Foundation Farm, recently gave my husband and me a tour of the farm. The farm is located off St. Louis Road a bit north of Middleburg. On the farm, we watched the bees and butterflies collect the season’s last harvests of nectar. We admired the fall vegetables and greens growing in the fertile soil. We learned how the farm used crimson clover and other cover crops to provide a fertilizing blanket for the vegetable plots that were already put to bed for the winter. Seeing the farm and listening to Tonya’s enthusiasm for growing healthy food reminded me how much affinity agricultural societies had for the soil. It also reminded me how deeply rooted Thanksgiving is in the traditions of ancient harvest festivals. Harvest festivals date back at least 10,000 years to the earliest agricultural societies. As agriculture spread, so did agriculturebased cultures’ dependence on their local soils to produce successful harvests of fruit, vegeta-
bles and meat. Harvest festivals were celebrated in virtually every agricultural society from Africa and the Middle East to Europe, Asia and the Americas. The festivals expressed thanks for and celebrated the harvest in good years. In poor years the festivals entreated whatever force the culture associated with the harvest to provide them with a better future. Harvest festival traditions were born from feasting on the best of the region’s local food and drink. While food production and consumption are often now divorced from one another by entire continents and oceans, harvest festivals are still celebrated around the globe. National Geographic’s list of the top 10 harvest festivals includes festivals in places as diverse as Plimoth Plantation in Massachusetts, Bali in Indonesia and Eswatini (Swaziland) in Southern Africa. Tonya and the other farmers at Bainum use traditional, regenerative farming techniques. While looking at the rich soil and beautiful produce from the Bainum Foundation Farm, it is easy to understand why our ancestors and we would want