The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World

By Robin Wall Kimmerer and John Burgoyne

An Instant New York Times Bestseller

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Braiding Sweetgrass, a bold and inspiring vision for how to orient our lives around gratitude, reciprocity, and community, based on the lessons of the natural world.

As Indigenous scientist and author of Braiding Sweetgrass Robin Wall Kimmerer harvests serviceberries alongside the birds, she considers the ethic of reciprocity that lies at the heart of the gift economy. How, she asks, can we learn from Indigenous wisdom and the plant world to reimagine what we value most? Our economy is rooted in scarcity, competition, and the hoarding of resources, and we have surrendered our values to a system that actively harms what we love. Meanwhile, the serviceberry’s relationship with the natural world is an embodiment of reciprocity, interconnectedness, and gratitude. The tree distributes its wealth—its abundance of sweet, juicy berries—to meet the needs of its natural community. And this distribution ensures its own survival. As Kimmerer explains, “Serviceberries show us another model, one based upon reciprocity, where wealth comes from the quality of your relationships, not from the illusion of self-sufficiency.”

As Elizabeth Gilbert writes, Robin Wall Kimmerer is “a great teacher, and her words are a hymn of love to the world.” The Serviceberry is an antidote to the broken relationships and misguided goals of our times, and a reminder that “hoarding won’t save us, all flourishing is mutual.”

Robin Wall Kimmerer is donating her advance payments from this book as a reciprocal gift, back to the land, for land protection, restoration, and justice.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Scribner
• Release date: Nov 19, 2024
• ISBN: 9781668072257

Robin Wall Kimmerer

Robin Wall Kimmerer is a mother, scientist, writer, decorated professor, and enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. She is the author of the New York Times bestseller Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants as well as Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses. Kimmerer is a 2022 MacArthur Fellow and was named to the Time list of the100 Most Influential People of 2025. She lives in Syracuse, New York, where she is a SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor of Environmental Biology and the founder and director of the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment. --- Robin Wall Kimmerer es madre, científica, escritora, profesora condecorada, miembro de la Nación Potawatomi. Es autora del bestseller del New York Times Una trenza de hierba sagrada, así como de Reserva de musgo: una historia natural y cultural. Kimmerer es becaria MacArthur Fellow de 2022. Vive en Syracuse, Nueva York, donde es Profesora Distinguida de Biología Ambiental en SUNY y fundadora y directora del Center for Native Peoples and the Environment.

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Cover: The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World, by Robin Wall Kimmerer Author of Braiding Sweetgrass.

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The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World, by Robin Wall Kimmerer with illustrated by John Burgoyne. Scribner. New York | London | Toronto | Sydney | New Delhi.

To my good neighbors,

Paulie and Ed Drexler.

All

Flourishing

Is

Mutual

THE COOL BREATH of evening slips off the wooded hills, displacing the heat of the day, and with it come the birds, as eager for the cool as I am. They arrive in a flock of calls that sound like laughter, and I have to laugh back with the same delight. They are all around me, Cedar Waxwings and Catbirds and a flash of Bluebird iridescence. I have never felt such a kinship to my namesake, Robin, as in this moment when we are both stuffing our mouths with berries and chortling with happiness. The bushes are laden with fat clusters of red, blue, and wine purple in every stage of ripeness—so many, you can pick them by the handful. I’m glad I have a pail, and it’s getting pretty heavy. The birds carry their berries in the buckets of their bellies and wonder if they will be able to fly with so much cargo.

This abundance of berries feels like a pure gift from the land. I have not earned, paid for, nor labored for them. There is no mathematics of worthiness that reckons I deserve them in any way. And yet here they are—along with the sun and the air and the birds and the rain, gathering in towers of cumulonimbi, a distant storm building. You could call them natural resources or ecosystem services, but the Robins and I know them as gifts. We both sing gratitude with our mouths full.

Part of my delight comes from their unexpected presence. I never imagined that I could pick them here. The local native Serviceberries, Amelanchier arborea, have small, hard fruits, which tend toward dryness, and only once in a while is there a tree with sweet offerings. The bounty in my bucket today is a western species—A. alnifolia, known as Saskatoons—planted by my farmer neighbors, Paulie and Ed. This is their first bearing year, and they produce berries with an enthusiasm that matches my own.

Saskatoon, Juneberry, Shadbush, Shadblow, Sugarplum, Sarvis, Serviceberry—these are among the many names for Amelanchier. Ethnobotanists know that the more names a plant has, the greater its cultural importance. The tree is beloved for its fruits, for medicinal use, and for the early froth of flowers that whiten woodland edges at the first hint of spring. Serviceberry is known as a calendar plant, so faithful is it to seasonal weather patterns. Its bloom is a sign that the ground has thawed. In this folklore, this was the time that mountain roads became passable for circuit preachers, who arrived to conduct church services. It is also a reliable indicator to fisherfolk that the shad are running upstream—or at least it was back in the day when rivers were clear and free enough to support the spawning of shad.

Calendar plants like Serviceberry are important for synchronizing the seasonal rounds of traditional Indigenous People, who move in an annual cycle through their homelands to where the foods are ready. Instead of changing the land to suit their convenience, they changed themselves. Eating with the seasons is a way of honoring abundance, by going to meet it when and where it arrives. A world of produce warehouses and grocery stores enables the practice of having what you want when you want it. We force the food to come to us, at considerable financial and ecological costs, rather than following the practice of taking what has been given to us, each in its own time. These Serviceberries were not coerced, and their carbon footprint is nothing. Maybe that’s why they taste so good—they come only this time of year—these ephemeral sips of summer, without the aftertaste of harm.

The name Serviceberry comes not from its service but from a very old version of its Rose Family name, Sorbus, which became sarvis and hence service. While the name did not derive from its benefits, the plant does provide myriad goods and services—not only to humans but to many other citizens. It supports biodiversity. Shadbush is a preferred browse of Deer and Moose, a vital source of early pollen for newly emerging insects, and host to a suite of butterfly larvae—like Tiger Swallowtails, Viceroys, Admirals, and Hairstreaks—and berry-feasting birds who rely on those calories in breeding season.

Human people, too, rely on those calories, especially in traditional Indigenous food practices. Serviceberries were a critical ingredient in the making

Reviews for The Serviceberry

[bell7_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Robin Wall Kimmerer first received my notice in 2020 when her 2013 book, Braiding Sweetgrass was on the NY Times paperback best seller list. My book group read it in 2022 and I enjoyed her thoughtful writing style and how she "gently challenge[s] us to reevaluate our relationship with the natural world." In The Serviceberry, she takes one aspect that she touched on in Braiding Sweetgrass, that of reciprocity and the gift economy and expands on it. What if, she asks, our communities could be based more on mutual giving than monetary transactions? What if we were more like the serviceberries, giving of abundance instead of hoarding?

The long essay that follows in a meditation on and attempted answer to that question. It's sometimes meandering and repetitive in the way sitting down with a friend and hashing out possibilities can be. But I enjoyed the contemplation, and thought about ways I have been part of a gift economy - my neighbor just yesterday morning was out in my yard cutting rhubarb, and I am very glad that she can use it because goodness knows I have more than enough for just myself. And when I do use it, I love to make things, have some and gift the rest away. Or take Little Free Libraries - an example Kimmerer herself uses in the book. I like to think that Kimmerer would be delighted to know that I found this book in a Little Free Library and plan on putting it out in my own to send on to the next person. For all that she talks about the good of this kind of economy, Kimmerer is clear eyed in knowing that some people will take advantage, and does not think that capitalism will go away any time soon. But she does challenge you to think about a better, more communal way of interacting, both in relationship with each other and the natural world.

[gwendydd · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Kimmerer uses the serviceberry as a metaphor for a gift economy, imagining how our world might be improved if we moved from an exclusively cash economy to a gift economy that recognizes that exchanging of goods is a reciprocal human relationship based on care and mutual prosperity. It's a very short book, but this act of imagining an alternative economic system is so important right now. We're stuck in a capitalist dystopia, and the first step for getting out of it is to imagine other ways that we might structure our world. Capitalism is so entrenched that it's hard to even think of any other way, but this book offers some ideas that feel very realistic, at least on a small scale.

This book complements a lot of the ideas in David Graeber's books.

[kalliegrace · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Beautiful natural wisdom, if only we could move away from capitalism and towards a steady-state gift economy. You can't grow indefinitely, making more profits every year, but we can provide more than enough for everyone.

[loraineo_8 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Another well written book by Robin Kimmerer. She has such a gentle.sensitive ability to write about the importance of remembering what we learn from nature. This is a small book but full of thoughtful information.

[jbd1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

"We live in a time when every choice matters." An all-too-brief exploration of gift economies and the idea of reciprocity, using serviceberries as a focal point.

[treebeard_404 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Even for one such as I who is sympathetic to the pitch Kimmerer is making, the argument and examples feel weak. Granted, this is a slim volume, not a full-throated economic manifesto. But I doubt anyone not already in the choir will be moved to join.
(That it took me 6 weeks to finish its mere 109 pages should offer a clue as to its light impact.)

[sarcher-3 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Stunningly short in length and depth and the hardcover version feels low-quality. Very small format (probably because it's so short, needed some way to inflate the page count) with a faux deckle edge. Leaves the reader with the impression that there must be a better book on this subject out there regarding both content and format.

[davidabrams · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

In uncertain economic times (and frankly, when *aren't* we in one of those times?), "The Serviceberry" is the kind of sermon we need. Robin Wall Kimmerer makes a gentle, but impassioned, plea for us to reconsider the ways we spend our paper and plastic money: surely there is more generosity and sacrifice to be found in the bottom of our wallets? The book is short, thought-provoking, and a lasting testament to the power of words to make a difference in a society. May we all heed Kimmerer's urgent call for a sense of greater community.

[jennybeast · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I wasn't really expecting an essay on gift economies and contemplation on how they intersect with current economic trends, but I am delighted. I think Kimmerer is right, that this is how we move on from unsustainable trends, into a mature and abundant community. Gorgeous, accessible, and lovingly tied in to science. A joyful path forward, if we can find the way to take it.

Advanced Reader's Copy provided by Edelweiss.

[msf59 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Like many other I readers I was very impressed with Kimmerer’s last book Braiding Sweetgrass, so I had been looking forward to her next book. For me, it didn’t reach those heights. It felt more dry and repetitive, despite it’s short length. Her writing is still solid and she made interesting points about a giving economy versus a market economy, using the serviceberry tree as the centerpiece. She explains that “Serviceberries show us another model, one based upon reciprocity, where wealth comes from the quality of your relationships, not from the illusion of self-sufficiency.” These concepts are interesting but not enough to completely engage me. Once again the illustrations by John Burgoyne are beautiful.

[wellred2 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Originally a shorter essay that appeared in Orion magazine that has been extended to a slim, but thoughtful, book.

[neil_luvs_books · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

An inspiring read. An invitation to participate in an economics of reciprocity rather than scarcity. Lyrical writing that is a pleasure to read.

[nancyadair-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

We live in a time when every choice matters. The Serviceberry by Robin Wall Kimmerer

“When an economic system actively destroys what we love, isn’t it time for a different system?” Robin Wall Kimmerer asks us in The Serviceberry. She contrasts the Indigenous idea of a gift economy, where one views abundance as a gift to be shared, to the market economy that allows wealth to be privately held by a few.

Her illustration is the native serviceberry tree, whose berries were a staple that Native Americans used in pemmican. “Imagine a fruit that tastes like a Blueberry crossed with the satisfying heft of an Apple, a touch of rosewater, and a minuscule crunch of almond-flavored seeds.” Birds and animals rely on the berries.

She tells of a woman whose Serviceberry trees were so productive, she gave the berries away, an example of a gift economy where wone with an abundance shares with others. She references public libraries as another example of a gift economy, for the books belong to everyone.

Take only what you need, what is given. Never take over half or waste what you have been given. This teaching is contrary to a market economy focusing on buying more, waste actually a positive: buy cheap, toss, buy more, keep the factories going.

I participate on a social media site for our city where we give stuff away. People get what they need, and items are recycled and not trashed. A few years back, our apple trees were so productive we couldn’t keep up. We made applesauce and apple butter and froze them and baked. We have away boxes of apples. Our two mile square city has a half dozen Little Free Libraries. My weekly quilt group brings fabric and patterns and supplies to give away on the ‘free table” and we often share quilts we entirely made with fabric found there.

People do want to share.

It will take a revolution, or worse, to change the market economy. But we can each personally choose to live with gratitude, sharing what we have.

Thanks to the publisher for a free book through NetGalley.