Time for the colours of the harvest and hot sunny days to creep into our home decoration – I just love it!
I would like to wish you all a very happy Lammas today, and for the coming days, weeks and months of harvesttime.
The word ‘Lammas’ originates from the Saxon for ‘loaf mass’, the special baking and consumption of the first loaf from the new grain harvest. This is a relatively new tradition which only evolved with the practice of agriculture and the domestication of wheat and other grains a few thousand years ago. It is no less important to us now than it was then, and with the rapidly changing and volatile state of the weather around the world and the effect it is having on our environment, each and every harvest safely brought in is literally a triumph.
This year, certainly in the U.K., I have heard farmers worrying about the amount of rain that we have bee experiencing countrywide, the fact that they couldn’t get out onto the land to plant the seed and that when they did, it was rotting in the ground. Yields this year are predictably lower than usually expected and in previous centuries, this might have spelled widespread shortages and hunger. Nor can we rely on topping up our supplies by importing from other parts of the globe as everywhere is being effected in different but just as severe ways, either by manmade aggression and misuse or extremes of weather resulting from it.
So, when you eat some bread today, chew it well and really appreciate the taste, and the fact that you are lucky enough to have it on your plate. Give great thanks to the Earth which allows us to grow and harvest it in abundance. We are truly blessed. Send out some loving appreciation for what the land provides, and keep on acknowledging and sending out your thankfulness.
