Book Review 

The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World by Robin Wall Kimmerer 

After reading the author’s flagship title, Braiding Sweetgrass, this slim volume was a natural segue. This small hardcover book has only 112 pages and is a narrative guide to how gift economies successfully operate, in contrast to modern day economies which extol fierce capitalism, hoarding, the creation of scarcity and unlimited economic growth.

The eponymous shrub, the serviceberry, aka shadbush or saskatoon, provides gifts of soil stabilization, shelter for birds and small animals, food for caterpillars, browsers and other plant herbivores; flowers with nectar for birds and insects, and tasty, nutritious reddish-purple berries to fill the bellies of birds, bears, badgers, rodents, deer and humans. The seeds of the berries are excreted by those who eat them, and the species can thus spread its range and flourish anew. Everybody participates and everybody benefits.

Indigenous cultures have long used the Honourable Harvest as a way for accepting and using gifts from the land – be it water, grain, wood, fish, berries, seeds or edible plants. As a result of taking only what one needs and sharing with others, and ensuring the bounty remains for future generations, the people protect the wellbeing of themselves and the land that sustains them. In a world obsessed with consumption, acquisition and where many are heedless to the consequences, Kimmerer offers hope and practical suggestions for those ecologically-sensitive individuals who could otherwise be left despairing for the future of our Earth.

I recommend this easy read: it will leave you with a sense of joy and purpose, and a new appreciation for the hardworking and humble serviceberry.

Written by Laurie Smith, Gaia College Instructor

Kimmerer, R.W., (2024). The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World, Scribner, New York, NY