The serviceberry gift giving guide

As Black Friday respawns into Cyber Monday wringing out our last dollar and drop of dopamine there is probably no better way to get regrounded than by reading botanist Robin Wall Kimmerer’s essay on the selfless abundance of the serviceberry.

As she eats serviceberries by the handful on her friend’s farm Kimmerer is almost embarrassed by the plant’s generosity, it’s the antithesis of the way we accumulate stuff, especially in this past week.  

Giving away all its berries may seem profligate, but the serviceberry has its own wealth creation strategy; rather than accumulating it invests in relationships with birds, rodents, squirrels, bears, insects, micro-organisms and of course humans.

Growing out of these relationships is an ecosystem that in turn ensures the successful spread and survival of the serviceberry’s seeds.

Storing wealth in community is the serviceberry’s counterintuitive genius and the essence of Indigenous gift economies.

With a few weeks left until the summer holidays the pressure on us builds into a sort of collective madness where we buy gifts for each other in a blind frenzy that can leave us empty and exhausted. 

For these times I imagine Robin Wall Kimmerer might make up a little Christmas gift-economy giving guide to slip into our pockets.  It could go something like this…

       Does my gift; 

• improve habitats, build soils and keep air and water clean?
• build reciprocal relationships between makers, givers and receivers? 
• provide opportunities to give thanks and celebrate with each other?
• leave no waste we might have problems dealing with later?  

Usually we give thanks to the farmers, foragers, growers, sprouters, mushroom magicians, bakers, beekeepers, chefs, cheesemakers & chocolatiers, brewers & winemakers, fishers & providores, soap crafters, egg collectors, tea towel artists and everyone who has fed and looked after us this past year on the Sunday before we go on the end of year break.

But thinking about gift economies it makes more sense to say thanks now and give people the chance before Christmas to buy their world-bettering wares, to talk them up to friends, or to seek them out and say hi face to face at a farmers’ market.  

So here they are, the people who care for the Earth on our behalf, who feed us, who cook, ferment and transform ingredients with amazing skill, who rise early in the dark, whose hands get cold and whose crops get eaten or flooded or baked but get up the next day and figure out a way to plant again and somehow make it work, so we can eat….

302 Flowers  
3000 Acres
Al Naturale  
Aquer Foods  
Arancini 4 All 
Aroha Earth  
Australian Pumpkin Seed Company
Australian Superfoods NQ 
Back To Basics 
Backyard Honey
Barambah Organics  
Bee Sustainable  
Beechworth Natural Farm
BeesFriend
Bellco  
Bene
Berringa Honey
Biodynamic Marketing  
Bite Me Fine Foods
Black Chicken Remedies 
Blue Pumpkin  
Blue Sky Organics 
Boatshed Cheese  
BOC     
Broth of Life 
Calendar Cheese
Cello Bags
Central Victoria Honey 
CERES Bakery  
CERES Fair Food
CERES Microgreens   
Ceres Organics 
Claire Mosley   
Cockatoo Grove  
Cocoa Rhapsody 
Croft 
Cultiv.Ate   
Daintree Estate
Dan’s Empanada Bar 
Daylesford & Hepburn Mineral
Day’s Walk Farm 
Dench bakers  
Dr Planet  
E. & A. Salce
Eat Rite  
Eighteen Thousand Islands    
Emmeline Park  
Encore
Eurostore Australia  
Eze
Farm Raiser  
Farro Organico  
Feel Good Foods
Ferrinda  
FieldTech Solutions  
First Ray  
Flavorite   
Food To Make You Smile
Foothill Organic
Fourth Wave Wine Partners
Gazzola Farms
gfprecinct   
Gippsland Free Range Eggs
Global By Nature 
Gollings The Florists 
Good Goods  
Goz City  
Grandewe Cheeses
Grateful Harvest  
Green Cauldron Farm 
Green Gully Organics 
Happygreen   
Hawkers Beer   
Healthybake   
Heaps Normal   
Himalaya Tibetan Tent 
Holy Cow Chai 
Holy Crumpets
Home Stand Produce 
Honest Eggs
Honest to Goodness 
Honey Lane Farm    
Iminamuck   
Indys Pavillion   
Island Home  
J&M Alexandra
Jala Jala Treats  
Joe’s Market Garden     
Kadac     
Kas Organics  
Legudi   
Lello Pasta  
Lil Bit Better 
Little Tin  
Little Tuna
Long Paddock Cheese 
Love Tea  
Loving Earth  
Luscombe Foods  
Mabu Mabu 
Madame Tiger  
Madelaine Eggs  
Maison Ilma  
Meals With Impact  
Melba Fresh Organics 
Melbourne City Rooftop Honey
Mount Zero Olives 
Mountain Bread  
Muddy Creek Gardens 
Nature’s Cargo  
Netti 
Oborne Health
Organic Growers  
Organic Needs  
Organux   
P & H Kamvissis
Pepo Farms  
PHD 
Pie Thief  
Pierogi Pierogi  
Plenty Valley Produce 
Postmistress   
Premier Fruits  
Priest Bros  
Pud for all Seasons 
Pure n Cure 
Pure Organic Harvest 
Ratio Cocoa Roasters 
Raw Materials Australia 
Ray Gregory & Sons
Reed   
Remi’s Patch  
Robb Wright  
Schreurs & Sons 
Schulz Organic Farms 
Silvertine Farm    
Sisterworks   
Smalt 
Soggy Bread  
Songbird Wine  
Sophie Treloar Merri Creek
Soulfresh Group
  Southern Seagreens
Spiral Foods  
Stir Crazy Lady 
SunButter Oceans  
Sunzest   
Tailor-Made Foods  
Tenfarms   
The Corner Store Network
The Dirt Company 
The Fermentary Pty Ltd 
The Forage Company 
The Mushroomery
The O’Kelly Group  
The Whole Food Kitchen
Timor Coffee Roasters
Trialia Foods  
Tucker and Elm 
Unearthed co. Mushrooms 
Unique Health Products 
Vedder   
Velisha National Farms 
Warbotanicals   
Warburton Wellbeing  
Wattle Gully Produce
Wilder Foods
 Wildwood Organics
Wilhelma farm  
Willow Zen
Yarra Organics  
Zeally Bay Sourdough 

Have a great week

Chris