Replanting reverses the harvest and asks the land’s permission to give back

Evidence

After dinner, I take the basket of unwashed leeks to the tiny patch of forest above my pond to plant them. The harvesting process now unfolds in reverse. I ask permission to bring them here, to open the earth for their arrival. I search out the rich moist hollows and tuck them into the soil, emptying my basket instead of filling it. These woods are second or third growth and sadly lost their leeks long ago. It turns out that when forests around here grow back after agricultural clearing, the trees come back readily but the understory plants do not. — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass, 728

Categorization

• SEED: The ‘emptying my basket instead of filling it’ reversal is a strong image for restorative reciprocity essays across the polyad.
• XREF: connects to: Traditional harvesters request and receive consent from trees before cutting them. — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom,…, 504; Harvesting ritual asks a plant’s consent and aims to bond children to place — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom,…, 623; Sustainable harvesting is deepened by deliberately giving back more than is taken — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom,…, 704 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Gifts returned to the land come back as unexpected reciprocal gifts #expands (0.85) — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass, 979