The Year of the Flood

Adam One delivers a sermon dedicated to the beginning of Saint Euell’s Week, during which the Gardeners forage for the “Wild Harvest gift that God, through Nature, has put at [their] disposal” (149). Adam One announces that Pilar will lead the Gardeners through the Heritage Park, where they will look for edible plants and fungi. At the same time, older children will attend a demonstration where Zeb will reveal how to trap small animals, which Gardeners are allowed to eat “if gratitude is felt and pardon asked” (149).

Adam One then reminds everyone that on this day they commemorate Saint Euell Gibbons, who “provided for his family through his Natural knowledge” (149). Saint Euell Gibbons taught others how to forage and eat fungi and wild plants, and how to use “roadside medicine” (150), such as willow tree bark and dandelion root.

Adam One prays to Saint Euell and asks him to whisper into their ears “the names of the Plants, and their seasons, and the locations in which they may be found” (150) in time of need. The sermon ends with a hymn called “Oh Sing We Now the Holy Weeds,” in which wild plants and flowers are praised for being nourishing and always accessible.