The Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians’ (GTB) Agriculture and Food Sovereignty department began its Community Harvest Days this month, providing fresh, healthy produce back to the community.
At the Peshawbestown Farm, there are over a dozen crops growing including tomatoes, peppers, onions, carrots, beets, peas, cucumber, melon, squash, corn, and more. Gete Okosomin squash, an heirloom variety, was one of the star traditional crops revived and planted a few years ago. The Gete has been planted at several different sites since it was first revived, including in Peshawbestown and in Grand Traverse county, having expanded to reach and feed more people in different communities.
“We’ve grown out enough that we’ve actually been able to grow it in a couple spaces that we’re working with like our allies at the (Traverse City) district library children’s garden — they’re growing a Three Sisters Garden there,” said Tera John, whose been working for GTB’s Agriculture and Food Sovereignty department for the last several years. “Then the Poor Farm in Leelanau also has some of the Gete growing there as well and a Three Sisters Garden. And the gentleman at the Botanic Gardens (at Historic Barns Park), Matthew Ross, has been growing some… Allies out in the world are helping me take care of it.”
The produce from community harvest days is used for GTB events like the Health Fair, Pow Wow Farm Market, the Fair and Fest, GTB Food Pantries, Elder’s Department programming, as well as Northwest Food Coalition. In addition, volunteers and others who support the farm are able to take home produce.
“There will be snacks and refreshments (at community harvest days) and you can learn about some invasives to take care of your own yard and some of the things that we’re growing to feed the community,” she said. “So it does go out to food rescue for other community members, too.”
Last week, agriculture department staff held its first Asema (tobacco) harvest at the Peshawbestown Farm, giving people the chance to learn how to harvest, dry, and prepare tobacco for use in ceremonies and offerings that they later took home.
“We did a traditional tobacco harvest for the first time in the community in probably 100 years,” she said. “The food sovereignty (department) is bringing that back as a traditional (crop) working with the land there. I’ve been working with TC Botanic Gardens, and there were three years of starting seeds that were traded seeds. We had tried to get tobacco to grow for us (the GTB community) before and it didn’t take. But last year, the botanic gardens offered space and their staff, labor, and expertise to be able to help us grow some out.”
For planting and growing crops, John said they’ve been working with fish emulsion as fertilizer. GTB Agriculture is now producing a fish hydrolysate fertilizer product made from freshly ground fish waste (carcasses), molasses, and water. The natural enzymatic fermentation process results in a liquid fertilizer packed with nutrients for plants and has proven to have good results. While the department is looking for more grants to fund this endeavor, the GTB Agriculture staff is leading the process for commercial fisheries in Michigan. In the meantime, the fertilizer will be available at community events such as the upcoming Pow Wow and Natural Resources Fair and Feast.
“We pick up the waste from Carlson’s, which they purchase quite a few tribal fisher’s catch as well… So we’re picking up their (fish) waste and then we’re turning it into an emulsion down there in the big pole barn and putting it back out for fertilizer with an idea of ‘beginning to end,’” she said. “That’s essentially what’s feeding our food is those tribal fish, and that’s a (fish fertilizer) traditional old school practice…” John said she hopes community harvest days not only help to bring people together, but that in the process, it helps collectively heal those that come from traumatized communities like native, BIPOC (Black, Indigenous people of color), and refugee communities.
“I’m big about project based learning and project based bonding. All of these communities have gone through these collective traumas…” she said. “If we can get something done together, everybody is moving towards a goal together, that’s where those relationships are built and you can rely on each other, and you know how to trust through problems and you know how to fix issues, so that’s my big goal. My little goal is that we share laughs and get to know the land again as friends and neighbors. Really working to heal all of us all at once.”
Community harvest days are on Fridays in August from 1-3 p.m. at the Peshawbestown Farm. People are encouraged to wear closed-toe shoes and to bring gloves if possible. Crops harvested can also be found at the GTB Health Fair at the Strongheart Center this Friday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., and the Pow Wow on August 17-18. The GTB’s Natural Resources Fair and Feast is set for Sept. 14 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., where more produce will be available for people to pick up.
