The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World

by Robin Wall Kimmerer

Calendar plants like Serviceberry are important for synchronizing the seasonal rounds of traditional Indigenous People, who move in an annual cycle through their homelands to where the foods are ready. Instead of changing the land to suit their convenience, they changed themselves. Eating with the seasons is a way of honoring abundance, by going to meet it when and where it arrives.

Recognizing “enoughness” is a radical act in an economy that is always urging us to consume more.