The Honorable Harvest

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Collectively, the indigenous canon of principles and practices that govern the exchange of life for life is known as the Honorable Harvest. They are rules of sorts that govern our taking, shape our relationships with the natural world, and rein in our tendency to consume–that the world might be as rich for the seventh generation as it is for our own. The details are highly specific to different cultures and ecosystems, but the fundamental principles are nearly universal among peoples who live close to the land.

I am a student of this way of thinking, not a scholar. As a human being who cannot photosynthesize, I must struggle to participate in the Honorable Harvest. So I lean in close to watch and listen to those who are far wiser than I am. What I share here, in the same way they were shared with me, are seeds gleaned from the fields of their collective wisdom, the barest surface, the moss on the mountain of their knowledge. I feel grateful for their teachings and responsible for passing them on as best I can.

– Robin Wall Kimmerer ¹

How do I know when it's okay to harvest?

I get this question a lot from students, asking when it's appropriate to harvest from a stand of at-risk plants, I typically respond by saying something along the lines of:

If it's your first time encountering this stand, it's not ethical to harvest any of it, no matter how abundant the stand may look. This is because you haven't developed a relationship with that particular stand. Relationships take time. So there is a temporal aspect to ethical harvesting.

You may encounter a good looking stand of Ramps one year. Ethically, it's best to take note and leave it alone, but remember the location of the stand. If you are able to, look around the stand to see if there are any invasive plants that may crowd out this stand like Lesser Celandine or Garlic Mustard. Do what you can to eradicate these species from the area to encourage the growth of the stand. See if there is a volunteer stewardship group already in place for this particular parcel of land, or talk to a landowner to see if you can steward this area.

Go back year after year. When you notice that the population is increasing year after year, then you may consider your first ethical harvest of the plant. By now, because you've developed a deeper relationship with this particular stand of Ramps (or other at-risk plant) you may have already heard the plant say offer an emphatic "Yes!" to harvesting.

[1]: Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants, First paperback edition (Minneapolis, Minn: Milkweed Editions, 2013), 180.