The City Gardener #4

Could it be? Sprouting up without a care in the world? Everything is turning up roses, or maybe... green with envy. Even last year's tomato seeds decided to (finally) make the long journey towards the sun (unfortunately last year's peppers did not fare so well). Coming up so quickly I'm hardly ready for the transplant-- I need more buckets for all these blooming babies!

What is so fascinating about gardening is seeing these vegetables in their youthful form. We hear it more and more now that people have become so detached from the Earth. Our farms and reliance on them are shrinking and people are propelled towards the fast eats without taking a moment to consider "do I even know what is in this?" Our vegetables are split to create super products and our meats are injected with hormones. Many have stopped caring. Instead we have grown disgusted with bones meats, fish and poultry, and too many cannot even get a Chia Pet to grow. It is too often we go to the supermarket unaware of produce, how we get it and what it even looks like. Have you ever yanked corn from the stalk? Harvested tomatoes from a bush? Popped a peach from its stem? My own mother grew up on a farm and I became so distanced from that life the only farm I was on growing up was a petting zoo.

My friend and his Spanish fiance were over for dinner the other week. Discussion turned to organic products, who buys them, what to buy (because theyare so expensive) and what it all means anyway. J, the Spaniard, suddenly interjected: "I just don't understand all this organic stuff. This word is so clinical. In my country it is just called food."

Wouldn't it be nice to not worry about whether a food is organic or choke full of who knows what? Wouldn't it be nice if all food were merely food.

I am happy with the recent push for organic products and green markets, even with government trends of weakening regulations to appease big business. I wonder how far reaching this desire is, especially when I am seeing fast food joints packed at every roadside rest stop and every block of the city. Is awareness really reaching enough people? If it is, do people care enough about their bodies and what goes into them? Are we just preaching to the choir?

At least I can rest assured with my own salads this summer knowing exactly where everything came from, how it was grown and all the conditions that went into growing my beautiful greens.

The City Gardener #3
The City Gardener #2
The City Gardener