Learning from Our Arboreal Allies
Akiva Silver owns and operates Twisted Tree Farm, a homestead, nut orchard, and nursery located in Spencer, New York, where he grows around 20,000 trees per year using practices that go beyond organic. His background is in foraging, wilderness survival, and primitive skills. He has been observing nature intensively for the last 20 years, cultivating a deep appreciation for life.
The following excerpt is from Trees of Power by Akiva Silver. It has been adapted for the web.
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Listen to the following excerpt from the audiobook of Trees of Power.
Trees in fog stand without leaves, dark stems in a maze of inexhaustible intricacy. Patterns laid upon patterns in a seeming randomness that gives way to a single beautiful scene. These life fountains spring from the ground, rising from a dark and mysterious world fully charged with life. They rise and rise and then spread. From the end of every branch tip drip the fountains. Seeds rain down, feeding birds and mammals. We breathe these trees through our lungs, shelter ourselves with their wood, and fill our bodies with the energy of their fruit.
These fountains of life are incredible beings that perform so many services for free and indefinitely. They have the ability to reproduce themselves, run on sun and rain, build wood out of carbon in the sky, create flavors, carbohydrates, proteins, fats, medicine, and vitamins. We are just tiny animals scampering beneath them, picking up their gifts as fast as we can, because there is not enough time to keep up with the rain of presents.
Photo courtesy of Akiva Silver.
The feel of autumn in the wind pushes us to gather faster, filling bucket after bucket. The harvest looks staggering. It fills trucks and porches. Where will we put it all? and How will we have time to process all this? are some of the thoughts we have, and still there is so much more lying on the ground. Millions of pounds in my county alone. The heart of the gatherer is one of gratitude and amazement.
I have been astounded so many times harvesting.
As I start to pick up the first bushels of wild pears, I realize just how much is there. I sell wild pears to a cidery that presses them into perry (pear wine, which is a very excellent drink with a long history in Europe). Last fall my family and a friend gathered over 3,000 pounds of wild pears from a handful of trees in two days.
Over 1,000 pounds came from a single tree. Seeing that much fruit does something to you. It is impossible not to be impressed even if you aren’t interested in pears. But we are interested; it’s a part of our livelihood, and each bushel is cash. We gather with speed and efficiency, sometimes chatting, sometimes working silently. It is good work, work our bodies and minds were built for. At night we see pears when we close our eyes. We have a connection to those trees. We care what happens to them. To us, it seems like a good idea to plant more of them. The highest level of appreciation comes through participation.
Life circles around trees; it is drawn in like a magnet. One crab apple tree in the middle of winter will pull in birds, possums, mice, deer, raccoons, wild children, and countless other forms of life. Animals and people will travel for miles to gather persimmons and chestnuts. Songbirds will flock to mulberries. These are magnetic trees, fountains of life that shower Earth with abundant gifts. When we become aware of these trees, we can begin to work with them and elevate the level of abundance in our world to staggering heights.