For the last few Thanksgivings, I’ve harvested. Not turkeys, or squash, grapes, or kale but birch, winterberry, and other seasonal growth tree trimmings that make amazing displays, colour and decor around the holidays.
For the last 2 years, I’ve trekked to the Ottawa Valley to friend’s rustic cabin and 40 acre woodlot where my favourite catch is plentiful. The birch is hand stripped from fallen and rotting tree trunks — I fight the fight the birds for the abundant winterberry which is trimmed from mature bushes that grow at the swamps and waters edge and the kids forage for the pine cones and lichen covered sticks to earn their stew and slice of bread.
Good times.