I spent a lovely morning with Adina of Pocket City Farm chatting about Thanksgiving, pumpkins and her love of fruit plants, especially persimmon.

The traditional American narrative around Thanksgiving is that it is a celebration between the pilgrims coming to the “new” land of America and the Indigenous people  (the Native Americans). We celebrate a story of a shared first harvest, collaboration, and friendship. Like so many of our traditions, the story celebrates an idea we love, and glosses over facts that don’t complement that narrative.

“I believe it is harmful to all of us when we keep celebrating Thanksgiving in a way that doesn’t acknowledge the historical and current violation of Indigenous people’s rights.  Thanksgiving is a really important holiday for many Americans because it’s the time we celebrate friends, family and eating together – thinking about what we are thankful for. It is a really special time for my family, and I am striving to celebrate it in a way that’s honest and mindful. So for my family Thanksgiving is about focusing on respect while acknowledging our past and current failings, cultivating thankfulness, having quality time with family & friends, and celebrating the food that comes from the land we call home.”

Most of the ingredients in the Thanksgiving meal such as turkey, corn, beans, pumpkins, maple, wild rice and the like are found naturally in North, Central and South America .

“In America we use a small orange smooth-skin pumpkin call Sugar Pumpkin. You get it from the supermarket in a tin, you’d hardly cook it from scratch. But here in Australia I experimented by using the Kent pumpkin!”