The Noongar Seasons
Acknowlegement of Country
The Natural Farming Alliance would like to begin by acknowledging the original people of the land on which we live today, and to pay our deep respect to the Elders of all tribes, past and present.
In the spirit of homage, the NFA acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout the land known as Australia and their connections to land, sea and spirit. We will strive to demonstrate respect and to educate our community about the original Custodians of Noongar Boodja on which we stand, and grow our food from.
These are Birak, Bunuru, Djeran, Makuru, Djilba and Kambarang. Each of the six seasons represents and explains the seasonal changes we see annually. The flowering of many different plants, the hibernation of reptiles and the moulting of swans are all helpful indicators that the seasons are changing.
The Nyoongar seasons can be long or short and are indicated by what is happening and changing around us rather than by dates on a calendar. Aligning Nyoongar seasons with Western calendar months can provide an overview of a typical year.
This six season calendar is extremely important to Nyoongar people, as it is a guide to what nature is doing at every stage of the year, as well as understanding respect for the land in relation to plant and animal fertility cycles and land and animal preservation.
The Noongar Seasonal Wheel
“Each season has a plant indicator that flowers in advance of each change. Plants, animals and weather patterns coincide with each season, which runs for the duration of every second full moon. This determines where to forage, gather, hunt and camp.”
The Noongar people had an inextricable tie to their environment and therefore their food.
There is a colour wheel holding each of the six seasons. There are profiles for each on our website, if you wish to learn more about them.
We work with each 8 week season within a CSA to provide healthy, local and farmer supportive produce, while discovering what each of the seasons means for us and who grows our food.
We aim to use the Noongar Seasons as a bridge between us, residing in a modern world, and our greater environment; Respecting our inner and outer worlds.
Seasonal Eating and Health
In uninterrupted nature our human bodies changes dramatically from season to season, and like a symphony, the microbes needed to digest each seasons harvests thrive with each seasonal shift.
The microbes that make up the bodies microbiome come from the very soil that nourishes the plants we eat. With each seasonal shift, the microbiology of the soil changes, the chemistry of the plants change and the microbes that attach themselves to the roots, stems and leaves of plans shift like a changing of the guard.
When we eat seasonally we consume the nutrients in the plants alongside the microbes naturally associated with them. When we do not eat seasonally, our microbiome is quickly disconnected to the intelligence of nature, and much of our genetic dependence on seasonal microbes is completely lost.
Without a diet rich in seasonally changing foods and their microbes, our gut microbiome are often populated by space occupying microbes that take up precious real estate. When this occurs our gut and therefore our immunity alongside many other adaptive processes function less than optimally. Without the influx of seasonal microbes to boost our digestive strength we become extreamely vulnerable and hyper sensitive to our environment and foods.
How we utilise our Noongar seasons
Our CSA program utilises these six seasons throughout the year. Each 8 Week period has distinct seasonal change and this is also reflected in the foods our farmers supply. It is not normal to have pineapples grow here in winter, so we dont grow them in that period! Each season our members receive their weekly produce drop, but they also receive exclusive access to the wisdom of each season, alongside recipes and ideas of how to use seasonal food.