Our event was small this year. My neighbors and I gathered to sit with the trees and plants in my front yard, create intentions (which we burned—see photos), and take vows:

Renewing Our Vows by Gary Paul Nabhan

We gardeners, farmers, cooks and eaters

wish to affirm our sacred vows

to steward, love and serve

the astonishing diversity of food crops

and their ferment of cultures here on this earth,

through our wounded-ness and in health,

in times of crisis and in times of joy,

to sow the seeds of food justice,

to glean the fruits of food security,

to distill the wild brews of food democracy,

to savor the flavors of true food sovereignty,

through our own actions and our own eating patterns

so that we may all eat what we have truly sown.

We hereby renew our covenant with this earth

to humbly become one more way that seeds themselves

regenerate into more seeds to nourish all of us.

Now go out to love one another, to sow,

reap and feast in peace.

[From Sown by Hand: Aflorisms, Poems and Prayers for Seeds, howled by Brother Coyote, OEF. Published by The Canelo Project, www.caneloproject.com]