A forgotten harvest

Soon my children will be having their harvest festival at school. They will sing songs about the bounty of the earth, tell us to think of those who do not have enough to eat and read poems about Autumn. Parents used to be encouraged to bring food into the school which was collected up and taken to a local old peoples home, but this is no longer the case.
A couple of years ago we collected all the food but the care home didn't want it because it contained fresh veg from some of the parents gardens. I presume this was some sort of health and safety thing, either that or they just didn't know what to do with fresh vegetables.
Any harvest festivals I attend now, seem to consist of lots of tins of baked beans and spaghetti hoops.

It makes me sad that this country just doesn't 'harvest' anymore.
The children sing about the Earths gifts but how many accept (or even understand)them? Harvest is solely for farmers now, and is done from the back of huge machines.
Fewer and fewer people collect apples from the tree's, pick brambles from the wayside, know the fungi to eat or grow their own small harvests.

Something has been lost.
The apples sit and rot under the tree's.

It's not the food, we all have plenty of that, it is the recognition of the Earths seasonal gifts to us all and it is the thankfulness to creation for caring for us in this way.

I wonder how many other 'harvests' we have forgotten?
What else are we forgetting to bring home and be thankful for?
Our health? our friends and loved ones? our gifts in life?

I hope that each of you has a Harvest of your own this Autumn and that it sustains you and you are thankful.


...and if you want some of my apples, I have tons. (this is one basket of three from a single tree, there is only so much apple pie I can make!)