Today, my daughter picked her first red beet out of our garden. The beet is perfect and I tell her we will fix it at lunch and share it with Daddy – the first beet of the season. In response, she promptly throws the beet down on the ground and says she doesn’t like to eat beets, only to grow them. This has now become a common occurrence since she started her gardening career at the age of 3. Each spring, she excitedly plants the seeds, tends the plants, and picks the produce. Then, when the fresh produce is prepared and on the table she quickly shuns the item and will not eat it (however she will eat the same vegetable when it is processed and purchased from the freezer section of the local grocery store – why?)
In our fast pace, convenience driven society, where grocery stores now carry practically every type of produce year round, the family vegetable garden is quickly becoming a thing of the past - just another outdated thing from our childhoods which many of my daughter’s generation will never experience, such as listening to their favorite music on vinyl records, or using a public pay phone, or typing their school papers on a manual typewriter.
Tending a vegetable garden has been part of my life since I was old enough to walk next to my father and pick up rocks. While my small city garden is an enjoyable endeavor which supplements our meals with small additions of fresh vegetables and herbs throughout the summer, my father’s gardens were large scale behemoths that provided our family with the majority of the fruit and vegetables we ate all year long. Gardening on this scale was common place, especially in the rural areas of this Country through the 1950’s. In fact, the U.S. Government encouraged patriotic Americans everywhere to establish vegetable gardens during the rationed years of World War I and World War II when local supplies of fresh foods were limited. These Victory Gardens, as they came to be known, were common fixtures in the backyards of homes nationwide. Americans quickly converted flower gardens to vegetable gardens and many towns and cities converted public lots and parks into large community gardens. I have even heard tales about residents in the D.C. Metro area raising chickens and other livestock in their backyards.
Now let us return to the realities and obstacles of what modern day residents face when it comes to growing food on their property. Many cities and housing communities have home associations which govern how residents may improve or use their property. In theory, the rules and regulations enforced by these associations are beneficial in the fact that they ensure that residents maintain their properties. However many communities have taken their regulations to extremes, dictating the color you may paint your house, whether you may have a swing set, clothesline, or outbuilding in your yard, or require that you submit plans of all proposed landscaping of your yard to the association to ensure that your garden design meets the acceptable guidelines established by the community. Combine this with the fact that our Country has a bountiful selection of foods available to the average consumer at their local grocery and megastores, and it is no wonder that most people have traded in their vegetable gardens for flower gardens. But why can’t we have both?
This year, I took my vegetables and brought them right out in the open – an unused flower bed in the center of my front yard. The bed contains both vegetables and flowers, a mix that I believe will look attractive once the plants take hold and fill in the bed. I have to confess, I am one of the lucky ones who lives in an older Frederick City community which does not have an association that governs the use of my property. Of course I must obey the city codes, which include keeping my grass mowed (no problem, dry grass makes excellent mulch around young vegetable plants) and I cannot raise farm birds in my yard (which is something I would love to try – residents in cities such as New York, Washington D.C., and San Francisco can raise limited number of chickens on their property but regrettably Frederick City has not joined the ranks of these progressive cities).
Almost every day now, my daughter asks if it is time to pick our peas. She planted the seeds back early in the spring, and has watched the plants sprout, develop tiny white flowers, and helped me make a trellis to support the three foot long vines. She daily checks the progress of the miniature pea pods and counts the number of ‘baby peas’ she sees in each pod. Last year, we had a great crop of peas, and she diligent picked the pea pods and helped me shell all of the peas. But when those same fresh peas appeared on the dinner table that evening, she would not even taste one pea (however, all winter long she has eaten the frozen peas I bought at the local grocery store – the ones most likely grown in Mexico and which have sat in the grocer’s freezer for the past 6 months – I wish I understood the logic of my 5 year old gardener!)
Tara
Attention all Sol gardeners – we want to hear from you. Please share your gardening adventures, photos, tips or recipes with us at our Sol Yoga Facebook Page or here at Shine, our Sol Yoga Blog by send your post contributions to Linda@Solyoga.org
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