According to my parents my first experiences in our vegetable garden involve eating a green pepper like an apple and helping to pick cucumbers, one of which I would eat on the walk back to the house. The first things I can remember for myself are “helping” to weed and traveling to little explored portions of the yard to pick blackberries, then trooping inside to make blackberry sauce with the old metal sieve used for garden tomato sauce. In second grade my science class started our own tomato plants which I eventually took home and planted in an earth box. I remember seeing that plant grow huge and eventually become a fallen giant. I watched it slowly die. I had planted it not thinking that it would grow or amount to anything, but it became this huge plant and then collapsed and died all within a few months. I had remained unchanged while the tomato plant I had named Fifi had lived its entire life. A strange lesson in mortality. My most recent childhood garden memory is planting a bed of potatoes all by myself and being weirdly proud when they were successfully harvested. We used to plant everything on Derby Day as a family. One year we successfully trained a black-eyed Susan vine up the old, repurposed trellis at the head of the garden. Last spring, we made arches for vining plants and had the most snap peas I have ever seen. My dad and I went out to pick them every day and they just kept coming. I hope we have the same experience of vines and planting this year. As I got older, I went through a phase of not being interested in the yard/garden and seeing it as more of a chore than an activity. But it was chore I felt guilty for not doing. During summer vacation, I would promise myself that tomorrow I would start getting up early to go on a walk with the dog and then help in the garden. This rarely happened. Two summers ago, during quarantine, my mother got really into gardening, and we finally replaced the elderly raised beds with fresh. It was necessary that I help with this and was part of how I got back into the garden. Discovering many old books about gardening and preserving food also piqued my interest. I would read them and think about what methods and recipes I would use for myself if I had my own house and garden. Last summer I was able to start consistently helping in the garden. It felt so good to hear that I was helpful. Things my mother has gotten into over quarantine: winter sowing in plastic bags and starting seeds in the house. For some reason I don't like starting seeds. I still can’t see tiny seedlings and think they will amount to large plants. Or maybe I just don’t like messing with potting soil. I like to read about canning recipes more than to can foods. Last summer I spent many an hour packing our green beans into glass jars. It was worth it; we still have some left and they are better than store bought. Besides the green beans our canning successes include dried beans, bread and butter pickles, tomato sauce, roasted pepper spread, and honey spiced with lemon cloves and cinnamon. If I ever obtain my own garden as an adult, I will probably begin making my own canned goods. This year we will be trying to make canned whole tomatoes, Italian eggplant, homemade baked beans and vegetable stock.
Why should you be out gardening when you can buy vegetables for less money probably? Gardening helps you to appreciate the work that goes into producing the food. It is a form of exercise that produces something besides tiredness. It can help to teach children about nature, bugs, how good soil is created, the carbon cycle, life, and death. It’s just good to do something that is productive but does not require your brain and to have a good reason to go outside every day.
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AuthorI am a high school student who is creating her own blog for the first time for school about our food system and environmental issues Archives
May 2022
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