Best days can seem too fleeting but there's comfort that they will come again, writes Annika Korsten.
"Stop falling down you beautiful leaves ...'' says that voice in my head that wishes summer would never end and autumn would lead into spring fluently.
"If the time of rich red, yellow, and orange colours could just be extended.''
It's the time of harvest when all the hard labour nourishing those soils finally pays off.
There is something amazing about the time when we reach the pinnacle of harvest time. It's when days and nights are not long enough to preserve the bountiful food, it's when we come together with friends and family to celebrate our efforts. It's when we prepare to slow down to recharge for yet another cycle.
April is the best month of my life. On one particular day the community comes together and magic happens. When conversation, laughter, connection, and love occur in a very simple way. And all because of an abundance of fruit that is processed more easily by the sum of many than by one. It's when the apple press is working hard turning apples and pears into juice.
I love the thought of the processes necessary to enable such magic. Many forces, cycles, hands, systems and critters needed to be busy. In fact, this day makes me realise how rarely we actually think about the long way a piece of food came and how rarely we celebrate this awe-inspiring process. When we march into a supermarket do we really connect with the soil, the farmer, and develop a relationship? Do we truly spend every bite of our meal tasting the fruits of labour, the warmth of sunshine, and the energy of an army of big and small organisms?
I like to think that on apple-pressing day we as a community work together to produce something special and that we become part of a cycle that repeats itself every year. We are not removed from its processes, but play a vital role ensuring we connect to the cycle and will look after it.
It makes me feel better about those colder, dark months because I am being assured that this is not the last time I will experience the best day of my life. In fact, if I feel restless for the next 12 months I can open my freezer and experience the sweet, delicious taste of golden juice, and it will fill yet another day of my soul in the spirit of community and Papatuanuku.
- Annika Korsten is FarmHand programme manager (Malcam Charitable Trust) and co-coordinates the Community Food Harvesting Project.
Your best day
Tell us about your best day. Send submissions to odt.features@odt.co.nz. We ask that you don't nominate the day you were married or when a child arrived. But any other day is fine.
