In the winter, all of the regularly farmed plants begin to break
down in a systematic fashion. Disease and insect attacks are better able to
destroy energy-deficient and temperature stressed plants, and so they
eventually die off, returning to the soil and restoring to the soil those
elements that are crucial for the flourishing of life when the energy returns.
The waiting seeds know to begin drawing the resources and extending organic
structure outward, taking in what nutrients can be procured as the heat grows
once again.
What one eats and offers up to one's community decays, and so one breaks down in the winter in turn. But if one can rest and conserve one's energies, there are great pleasures to be had. And it makes the coming renewal all the sweeter.
