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People I know, people who don't live in Portland, that is, think that my husband and I are kind of freakish to grow as much food as we do in our garden. We live on a city lot, and we grow asparagus, sugar snap peas, tomatoes a lot of herbs including a ton of basil, a lot of salad greens, blueberries, raspberries, pie cherries, a few potatoes, garlic, strawberries, green beans. I think that it's more freakish for human beings NOT to have kitchen gardens. Even 50 or 60 years ago, everyone except maybe the very richest people grew at least some of their own food. It's this basic human activity-- that almost went extinct in the 20th century, as Americans decided to outsource everything. I think that part of the reason our world is on antidepressants to such a large extent may be that we've given up such a great store of knowledge and satisfaction and yummy, healthy food.

Gardening is for me and my husband, because we love to cook and eat and spend time puttering in the garden, for my children, who get to eat the healthy food and learn about growing and cooking it, and it's also for my grandparents who lived in West Virginia and always kept a garden. A sweet memory for me is of going out into the garden with my grandfather and picking still-warm tomatoes that actually had flavor, the wonder of that.

posted 4 years, 1 month ago
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