decolonize your lawn, decolonize your diet

So I've been working on this instructional guide for an ecological anthropology reader. I love the topics they cover, everything from relocating people because of mega dam projects, how stereotypes affect peoples' ideas about the ecological and environmental racism to globalization, water branding, and indigenous peoples struggles for self-narratives and environmental sovereignty.

I could go in and on about my personal journey with each topic but the one most dear to my heart currently, is the American lawn. While doing research for activities I came across an article written by Michael Pollan discussing lawns. Making me reflect upon my own lawn experiences. I never really thought about lawns too much until I moved from inner-city NYC to an Indiana suburb. One of the first things I purchased was a push mower because I knew that as a resident of this subdivision I had a responsibility to keep my yard tidy. It was my responsibility to my neighbors, but it was also the law. I looked at this work as a form of exercise. As an avid weight lifter, bicycle commuter, and lover of the outdoors I enjoyed my time outside. But after a while the lawn became a daunting task. I began to resent the grass and questioned its worth. Grassy Lawns produced nothing and they ate up time. God forbid I used a motorized mower, I would be spending money on diesel while polluting the local air and quiet space. I was in a minority in my hood. Everyone else surrounding me had mechanized everything. I chose to rebel and use my muscles; burn some calories rather than fossil fuels. My husband, Joe and I began talking about doing away with the grass in our yard. The first year we tried to establish a small plot in our back and front yards. Our dogs prevented any substantial progress in the back but the front grass began to give way too more and more flowers. 

A lazy winter evening,

In May 2010, Joe and I went to do doctoral field work. We had an acquaintance rent our place while we were away. Just before returning to the States we found out that our renter stopped paying us rent and was moving out earlier than agreed. A day it two after landing in NYC we drove to Indiana to check in our house. Out tenant left the day we landed. When we arrived we were pleasantly surprised to find everything intact and fairly clean. The only issue was that we had a warning issued from the city staying that we had to cut our lawn immediately lest we get fined $50! The grass was about a foot and a half long in the back. One of our next door neighbors who we were friendly with mowed the front for us to keep us out if trouble. We suspected our across the street neighbors, who kept an immaculate lawn filled with all manners of pesticides and herbicides, but not one weed, called the city on us. Our neighbors agreed to take care of our lawn until we returned from NY where Joe was competing his research focusing on Tuscarora environmentalism and connection to nature. During our time on Tuscarora, between working as a waitress at the local restaurant, I spent a lot of time doing yoga and roaming the paths through the rez looking at the plants and learning what I could.

Backyard garden looking at the house.

When we returned to Indiana, January 2012, I was determined to do away with the large tract of grass in the front and replace it with flowers and a veggie garden. We also gated a larger portion of the back to prevent our dogs from entering and destroying the cultivation. I germinated seeds indoors and after the last frost relocated the bursting seeds to their places in the earth. The front housed popcorn, squash, sunflowers, snap peas, lettuce, and okra. Not to mention flowers, sage, and lilac bushes. The back was home to Tuscarora white corn and bear beans from Joe's uncle, pinto beans given to me by my granny in South Africa and a plethora if heirloom seeds we purchased from IUB's Wiley House.

July 2013, here there was once grass is replaced with flowers and greens.

Soon after I discovered freecycle.org and began using Craig's list to find free plants and garden items. One woman a few miles away was giving away eastern prickly pear. I found mums from an older archaeology professor at IUB. In the fall Joe and I audited a wild edible class with Lucille Bertuccio. 

2012, last hike of the Wild Edible class. Lucille standing in the right, Joe far left, me to Joe's right.

We learned to identify the different parts of plants and how to do ids using Newcomb ‘s Wildflower Guide. We learned about harvesting acorns and beechnuts, stir frying sedum, making sumac tea, and making salad from lambs quarters. At the end of the class we had a group cooking session using harvested wild edibles. I made beechnut, pawpaw (Indian banana) muffins that I harvested.  We sampled some dandelion wine, indulged in persimmon pie, and feasted upon other delicious edible wonders from the wilds. Later, that fall Joe and I harvested white oak and bur oak acorns. My daughter and I broke outer shells with stones, feeling a little like our primate relations, busting open nuts. The nuts were placed in plastic mesh bags and left in the clean water of the toilet tanks to wash out the tannins, making them edible and digestible with every flush. That winter we developed a taste for delicious crunchy acorn muffins and still eat them to this day.