Listening to Those Who Hope For You

By Susan Secakuku

(Written on Septmber 9, 2014 - but published on blog, October 29, 2014)

One of my favorite outings is when I visit the field (above) of one of my mooyi (a clan nephew found only within the Hopi kinship system). This same person is also a mu’unang (male in-law to my husband) and therefore a pa’a (grandfather) to my son. In Hopi, one person can be related to one family in three different ways. But the point of this story, is he is a very good farmer and when I really want to be amazed, inspired and realize the potential of a person, I visit his field.

I find it best to visit now, in September, for many reasons. The evenings are still long, the weather is perfect and the corn is ripening and the beans, squash and melons are getting to their peak. It is a beautiful time.

We usually sit and visit. He expresses a detailed account of this season’s condition’s, both the good and the bad. This year he is happy we are visiting again, but he expresses his frustration at not probably getting much for all his work.  “I am ready to release the horses into my field and just let them have it,” he states. He planted several times, which impacts your seed stock, not to mention your level of frustration. It was very dry and the rains didn’t come early enough for the corn, so he won’t get much this year.  In the past, he has hauled out many truckloads of corn, squash and melons. But like every good Hopi farmer, he continues on nonetheless. It’s just what you are supposed to do.

Over the years I have learned much about Hopi farming from him. I also learned more of the spoken Hopi language from him, as he speaks more comfortably in Hopi and holds most of our conversations in Hopi.

He always encourages everyone around him to do their best. So when he encounters my son, he does the same, encouraging him and talking to him as if he is already the farmer he hopes him to be.  

When we were there recently, my four-year old son found an old wagon. Rusted, without wheels, but to my son it was perfect. My mooyi told him to take it home with him and to use it to carry all his harvest home from our field or garden. My son nodded okay and we loaded it into our truck.

Back home, over the next several days, he hauled the wagon back and forth from our garden, even though it had no wheels. We would pick our harvest and my son insisted that we load it onto the wagon, like his pa’a (grandfather) told him to. We realized that my son not only heard what he was told, but intended to follow through.  The following week, his dad purchased new wheels and put them on his wagon.

I smile, as every night since then, my son confidently pulls our harvest home in his wagon. As we walk, we loudly express our thanks for what we have gotten today, yelling, “Askwali, Kwakwa! (thank you).”  I am grateful that my son is surrounded by those who come before him, who believe in him and address him as if he is the farmer that we hope him to be.

Hopi Harvest
by Susan Secakuku

By this time of year, we are at the final stages of harvesting our Hopi crops. The last several months, our corn and beans have been maturing and slowly drying out in the fields. Within the last several weeks they are all being brought home. Hopi people believe that our crops are part of our families. From the time, our farmers the males of our community, put the seeds into the ground, they treat their plants like children, caring for and encouraging them to grow to maturity. By the end of the season, they bring them all home. The beautiful fully-grown crops are celebrated, just as much as those that only give us a few kernels or seeds and are not so pretty. It doesn’t matter! They are all worthy and all come home. The farmers bring them home to their wives, if they are married. Otherwise they bring them home to their mothers, grandmothers, daughters or sisters. The women all welcome their harvest home as extended family.

Then the next step begins. The women will clean them, organizing the cornhusks for storage for other food uses throughout the year and will clean the beans from their hulls. Families come together to all help out. This is an opportunity for you to help your family, neighbor, or a godparent with their harvest. Harvesting parties may be called for particular larger harvests that need to be completed.  One may see many small groups of Hopi women outside cleaning their harvest outside their homes. This can be a social time for them to visit, catch up, and eat together.

When they are done, the harvest will be laid out for continued drying. The women will then separate out the corn and bean varieties and store them accordingly. The ceremonial calendar dictates all Hopi families to get their harvest complete and put away by the the time the moon that comes during early to mid November. Because this marks the beginning of a stage in life, that allows the earth to rest.

When you are done, your harvest has now become part of your family. It will be used to feed our families, shared during various cultural feasts, will serve as our future seed stock and used in many Hopi ceremonies that promote goodness, especially in daily prayer.

There is an awesome feeling of gratitude of what the season has brought and that the cycle from beginning to end, is complete. The only final thought that can be expressed is Askwali, Kwah’kwa (thank you)!

You Reap What You Sow!
By Susan Secakuku

The wonderful thing about organic gardening is you really never know what you are going to get.  Believe me, it took me some time to feel this way.  As we grow, we develop within ourselves and from those around us, great expectations of the things we involve ourselves in.  I know this is meant well, but in the case of organic gardening or farming, this philosophy doesn’t apply too well. You learn that there are too many aspects that you cannot control. So what do you do?  Let go, pray, have faith, continue on and don’t expect this year to be anything like the last.

Our children help themselves
to tomatoes everyday after school

I used to encounter the spring, over eagerly and very excited about the coming of the new season.  Not only anticipating, but expecting my potential harvest.  Come September, my reality was dealt many times over, with many things, like failed plants, because of late rains, or because of new kinds of pests, and/or plain ole’ neglect because you found yourself too busy with other things. By now, in September you find out that you reap what you sow. You realize the reality of your season, whatever that may be.

Susan and Selwyn's first
cabbage ever!

This year, our Hopi Spring lasted a long time. It didn’t get warm up like we generally expect it to, by April or May. Our Spring winds were also prolonged which killed early plants, that had to then be replanted again.  It was also a drier winter and spring, making it difficult to prepare to plant. This also led all the bugs and animals to seek out our plants because their normal native menu wasn’t available. So I started my garden very late this year. I remember putting tomato plants in the ground in late June. LATE JUNE!! I hoped that our last frost would come late so we could reap tomatoes. As the season went on, we found that hungry rabbits and squirrels mowed down our beans, lettuce, cabbage, broccoli, and brussels sprouts after allowing us to see them come up beautifully. We lost half of our tomato plants to something that I still have not figured out what.  Our plants took a time to get strong.

But, every morning we would pray and give thanks for what we had. We dutifully hunted for squash bugs every morning and every night for about 1 month straight. We patched the hole in the fence where the critters were getting it. We would visit our garden daily to encourage the plants to keep on, keeping on! And slowly most plants came back and thrived!

Our daily harvest today!

So, today, you can imagine our happiness at the abundance of the food that we are harvesting. Every night we bring home green zucchini, yellow crookneck squash, small buckets of Hopi mawingwa (heirloom purple string bean) and Kentucky Wonder green beans, several handfuls of jalenpenos, Barker hot green chili, Hungarian wax peppers, and serranos chili’s, handfuls of pickling cucumbers, mini cajun bell peppers and red onions when we need it. And yes, our tomatoes are finally ripening, but we have plenty of green tomatoes too. We also harvest 2 dozen eggs every day from our hens.

Today, I am grateful that I no longer create expectations, but just work daily and see daily what I reap. I am grateful that this is a family affair and that we work, harvest and eat together. I am grateful for the abundance of good food that we grow for ourselves and share with others. I am grateful for the element of prayer that is so important in keeping the faith. Lastly, I am grateful that my love of gardening reminds me everyday, that I am not really in charge!

Askwali – Thank You To All Who Made the Hopi Farmers Market a Success!

By Susan Secakuku

We had a very successful Hopi farmers market on Sunday. Thank you to all who made it happen.  Success of this kind depends on so many people. 

Special thanks to the 15+ little Hopi Rattlers Tball team for giving back! They and their coaches Daylen, Cheryl, Jory and Renee volunteered on our morning run, kids corner and managed the parking. They were at 6 am, ready to go and stayed until the end. We could not have done it without you!

A grand shout out, to our face-painters, artists JC, Jason, and Tiffany who offered both Hopi art and contemporary work. You are guys are so talented and made the kids so happy!

Thank you to the vendors and organizations, who came out to share all their work. We had people selling baby clothes; fresh flowers, baked goods; fresh eggs, ceramic bowls; vegetable transplants; fresh dill and mint; grape vines; lotions; essential oils; compost and more! Others shared program information on other great community events such as Miss Hopi and Hopi heirloom seeds.

Our Co-op members are simply awesome. We all spent hours and energy to plan, execute and show up to make it happen. About 30 of us were there, talking up food, positive lifestyle changes, and better wellness through local foods. We were overtly seeking new converts!

Hopi Tutskwa Permaculture, Natwani Coalition and Kykotsmovi Water either made a donation, sought funding, or redirected some of their program dollars to support this event. They along with our funders are greatly appreciated.

Lastly, success doesn’t happen unless the rest of the community shows up! There was a steady stream of community who came over the course of 4 hours. They purchased, ate, learned, visited, shared---in essence, they gave back too. 

This market was so successful in many ways.  It is small start to keeping some of the food economy, local here at Hopi. It is a small start for our community to reconnect beyond their families, to freshly grown or freshly made food. It was a small effort that created a social venue to visit with your neighbor. It is a small start for those who have a passion about something, be it baking, sewing, or growing food, to share with enthusiasm, their work with their neighbor. It is beautiful to be a small part of such a successful community!  Thank you all for making it happen!

What Does the Hopi Farmers Market and Michael Pollan's Food Rule Have In Common?
by Susan Secakuku

Michael Pollan has written many great food related books, but the one titled, "Food Rules: An Eaters Manual" is indeed an manual, and a quick read. He writes, "most of us have come to rely on experts on one kind or another to tell us how to eat---doctors, diet books, media, government advisories and food pyramids. How odd it is that everybody now has at least a passing acquaintance with words like 'antioxidant, saturated fat, omega-3 fatty acids, gluten, carbohydrates, etc.' when it comes to food. I know you probably agree with me, that this can all be so confusing!

We here on Hopiland, have often heard, that we need to start just eating our own food again. Meaning using ingredients we have grown on our own soil and food made from recipes that that are now labeled as "traditional," but we know are low in fat and salt and most important, that have sustained us for thousands of years.

So although I agree that we should go back to growing and eating our foods too, today we have become so acculturated that our daily lifestyle and diet, highly reflects the average American one, to the point that, I think we do need help in simplifying our American food choices and food knowledge.  So with that, let me introduce you to one of Pollan's 64 Food Rule's:

Food Rule #36: Eat Only Foods That Eventually Rot!!

        "Real food is alive---and therefore should eventually die (or at least go bad). Food processing  
        began as a way to to extend the shelf life of food, often by removing nutrients that will
        eventually make it turn rancid! The more processed a food is, the longer the shelf life, and the
        less nutritious it typically is."

The Hopi Food Co-op is here to celebrate our community farmers/gardeners/orchardists who continue live life by the Hopi value of "itam nav yani"----doing it ourselves. Let's take our own health and wellness back into our hands by growing and eating as much of our own food as possible.  Our co-op encourages those with extra to share their wealth!  And for those who will buy such food anyway, to have them consider getting such items from a local farmer/gardener instead!

So I challenge you to Food Rule #36 - Eat only foods that eventually rot. You can find this in plenty this Sunday, July 20 at this years first Hopi Farmers Market.  To be held at the corner of 264 & 87 in Second Mesa, from 8 am - 12 pm.  Local gardeners will sell or trade their extra vegetables, fruit, eggs, transplants, etc. Also invited are those artistic folks who make beautiful hand-made crafts and our great cooks, both who are invited to sell their wares or food.

This Market is organized by the Hopi Food Co-op, The Natwani Coalition and Hopi Tutskwa Permaculture. For more information contact hopifoodcoop@gmail.com.

Share Your Wealth - One Plant/Animal/Tree At A Time

by Susan Secakuku

It has been one hot summer here at Hopi, once summer finally got here. It has also been one dry summer, with very little rain.  The Katsinam have been doing their part to bring us rain, with many visits to us the Hopi people with their beautiful songs and dancing. But just yesterday, it looks like the Katsinam have decided to revisit us as clouds!  Our sky’s are beautiful, full of big, puffy, cumulus clouds, offering us relief with their shade. But most importantly, they give us hope that the rains are not far behind! And they did not disappoint. As I write this, the first drops of summer rain are falling outside!

Despite the recent hot, dry weather, we continuously work daily to care for trees, animals and plants that will feed us. We do this, not only because we are supposed to, but because we love to.

Today we are reaping the investment of our work---we are harvesting food!! 

Co-op member Tiffany (pictured below left) and her family have agreed to share their harvest of apricots with whomever wanted some. She and her family are gracefully fighting the birds to gather many apricots from this “tried and true tree that was planted before (she) was born.”  Another co-op member Lillian (pictured below in center) announced that she has an “abundance of swiss chard” straight from her own garden to sell. She even shared the nutritional qualities and basic ways to cook swiss chard for those who don’t know what an awesome food swiss chard is. I myself continuously sell my local eggs to those who know that fresh eggs are the best. In fact I trading some eggs for a beautiful bouquet of swiss chard and purchased some apricots, which I plan to make into jam!

What I think most of us like best---is the sharing of our food wealth with our friends and neighbors. And these particular friends and neighbors want to shake the hands of those that (partly) feed them and their families! What better way to support community, with one plant/tree/animal at a time, then sharing the wealth!

  

Hopi Food Co-op Presents at 2014 Hopi Food & Agricultural Symposium

June 4, 2014

First Mesa Elementary School, Polacca, AZ

Members of the Hopi Food Co-op took time out of their busy lives to share the wonderful things the Hopi Food Co-op is doing at this year’s Hopi Food & Agricultural Symposium organized by the Natwani Coalition.

Dorothy Denet, Lillian Hill, Marissa Nuvayestewa, Mary Duweynie and Susan Secakuku shared the Co-op mission; support local foods, get access to organic products and bulk food purchases, share and learn together about food  knowledge and support one another in the food related changes we are making in our families and homes. The second session was aired lived on KUYI 88.1 Hopi Radio. 

They showed them all the equipment (canners, pressure cookers, pasta rollers, dehydrators, etc.) that the Co-op has accumulated and is available for members to share the use of.

They also donated many canned goods, such as pickled carrots, salsa, green tomatoes, chicken, jalepeno jelly and wild greens such as nanakovsi and mongkuku tea. This was pulled from their pantries or the earth to share and offer for taste testing to the audience (photo).  Dorothy and Mary demonstrated how to roll out fresh pasta, and gave away small portions away to our audience!  They also all contributed about 15 more jars of canned goods, fresh local herbs and dried goods as a gift for the Symposium’s raffle prize.

Since the Co-op has been meeting for over 14 months this session was a great opportunity to reflect on all that has been done. The session was well received and the Hopi Food Co-op expects there will be some new members at the next meeting.