Thank You Mother Earth

Thank You Mother Earth! 
 
Today, I am in the Peruvian mountains in an adobe hut listening to Roy snoring softly. He is asleep on a lumpy bed that is covered with a thick wool blanket. The blanket perhaps once was brightly colored, but now shows countless years of wear. After consuming a lunch of alpaca soup, potato salad and fresh river trout browned over an open fire, it is now afternoon siesta time in Peru. Although I tried, I could not rest just thinking about Petro and Julia, the delightful couple that we are staying with for the next day or so.
 
After our siesta, Pedro’s wife Julia said that we were going to learn how Peruvian families farm. But before we started, she gave each of us a colorful and tightly woven blanket and carefully tied it around our neck. She also handed Roy a pick axe and some of the other men sickles. We then followed her up the mountain inching our way over loose rocks and stepping over streams of water coming from the snow on the top of the mountain. Julia, wearing her customary hat and colorful skirt, moved up the mountain only stopping occasionally to wait for us to catch up. The walk was hard due to the altitude and the fact that we are unaccustomed to the terrain.
Soon we arrived at a large garden that was filled with thousands of green plants that were all around a foot high and were all baring bright purple flowers.

Being a city girl, it was not immediately clear to me that these were potatoes. That was until Julia grabbed the pick axe with her small rough hands and with one large heave, she flung it high in the air and brought it down. Lifting the loosened plant she proudly exposed three large potatoes and a few small ones hanging from the plant. She told us to take the potatoes off, throw them on the blanket and replant the plant for future harvest. She handed the pick axe back to Roy and motioned for him to start on one of the many rows of plants that covered the mountain. As we all started to dig up the potatoes, Julia grabbed two of the women with us to go to the field below to pick beans.
 
Soon our old worn blanket was full of dirty mud covered potatoes of all sizes and shapes. Julia showed us how to bundle them up to carry them down the mountain in our blankets. The girls also picked a huge blanket full of the largest and greenest lima beans that I have ever seen. When we were all finished and together in the field once again, Julia started to sing and move amongst the rows of plants. We watched in amazement as she smiled and lifted her hands that were covered with mud and dirt to the sky. She twirled like a young girl with her many skirts bouncing in the air as she danced. Next she grabbed the other girl’s hands and they all danced together laughing and smiling. She told all of us that she was giving thanks to Mother Earth for the bountiful harvest.
 
Next Julia began to pick up all the discarded stalks from the beans and some tall grass and wrapped them in her blanket and threw the huge load over her back. When asked why, she explained that her bundle would be the food for the family cow. As we descended the mountain, we all had a huge sense of pride that tonight, we were providing dinner for our familia.

So, the next time we take our big steaming Russet’s out of the hot oven and we pile on the butter, sour cream and chives, we will remember Julia and Pedro and know that farming potatoes is really hard work. Maybe we will then go into our closet and Roy will wrap a blanket around his neck and I will put on my prettiest skirt and fanciest hat and together we will do a dance of thanks to Mother Earth!

Julia