"Getting rid of everything that doesn’t matter allows you to remember who you are. Simplicity doesn’t change who you are, it brings you back to who you are."

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Incredible Edible

I was on Bee Haven Acres and found this link to "How we can eat our landscape."

It's worth the 13 minutes if you're interested.  Pam is an impassioned speaker.  She can get you excited.  And she's got me wondering what changes I can make in my own front yard.

You see, my garden is large enough that if you made an effort to look around the house to the backyard you'd see it.  You might not know everything I'm trying to grow in there but you'd know that I was likely growing some veggies.  Only the neighbors directly around me know the extent of my efforts.  That I've got fruit trees and bushes too.

My neighbors and co-workers are also the beneficiaries of my excess and it's not at all hard to have excess with a veggie garden, is it? 

The other day, I had a fellow in the building that I work in ask me if I was planting onions again this year. He LOVED getting my excess onions last year and he lit up like a firecracker when I told him I had.

But why doesn't he do it himself?  Not interested?  No space?  (Surprisingly, it takes so little...)

Why do it for yourself if it's handed to you? 

That's what my head said after I walked away.  (I'm ashamed to say.)

But that's a pretty harsh statement and implies blame, which is not what I think at all.  Really...

How can you blame someone raised in a culture where you go to the store to buy what you want?  That was me not that long ago.  If that's all you know, than that's what you think is normal. 

To him, I'm the odd duck who likes to garden and he thinks it's amazing that I'm able to grow these monster onions that taste so good.  It would never occur to him to do it for himself.  No one else around him does.  Unless someone got him interested in it.

And how do you get someone curious about a thing?

I agree with Pam.  It's all about exposure

Changing your local culture bit by bit...Or perhaps I should say bite by bite?

I found this clip to be very inspiring.  So much so that has me wondering if I might want to get a raised bed going in my own front yard with some veg and flowers in it.  Close enough to the road that folks might be tempted to pick a tomato or a summer squash.  Maybe I could plant some veg in the landscaped patch where my mailbox is?  Maybe it will start a conversation in my own neighborhood.  And maybe they might think that they could plant a tomato next to their mailbox too.

Change is best accepted if it's done so slowly that no one recognizes it. 

Lucky for me that I don't have an HOA to stomp me down.  So maybe some veg in the front yard will fly.





"Thank You" Bev at BeeHaven and "Thank You" Incredible Edible for the inspiration.

Here's the link to their website if you want to explore some more. 

I've already got it under my favorite places and I'm looking forward to spending some time browsing their site for ideas and motivation.

Check it out!

5 comments:

  1. Good points, good post. I may be wrong but nearly everyone has room for a 4 x 8' raised bed in which to grow some yummy vegetables. And what about container gardening on a patio or deck? Sad to say, I think what keeps most people from gardening is the work involved. We're so used to not doing any kind of physical labor (unless you count the sweating at a gym for some) that without a passion (for one reason or another) for gardening it seems a lot of work when you can purchase food from the grocery store . . . or are lucky enough to be handed some from you! To my mind the best thing to happen would be for people to experience empty grocery store shelves a time or two and decide to start growing their own. We need to get back to a level of self-reliance and self-responsibility. (That was kind of a grouchy rant, wasn't it? Sorry.)

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  2. Tami, I think you've hit the nail on the head in that 'growing what you eat' has been lost or forsaken or simply ignored on a cultural and societal basis for some time. Not to mention the pervasive 'immediate' mindset ~ peeps don't even want to wait for prepared food much less GROW the lettuce/tomato/potato et al, lol

    Mamma Pea drives the same nail home in pointing out how unaccustomed our society is to the physical work of growing food and the passion (not to mention rewards) of food gardens. I'm amazed at the numbers of people who don't even care to tend to their flower gardens...

    It's a shame the process has become so commonly foreign to most people ~ because there IS such a sense of achievement and stability that comes alongside the work of growing/harvesting (any amount) of your own food!

    I'm with you - education/exposure alongside the sharing may well peak the interest of those around us and perhaps plant a seed of different kind. :-) I think many belive growing takes lots of land, super-special knowledge, and may be hesitant to ask about 'how'?

    I once had a woman say she didn't have acres of land to plant the number of tomatoes she used, going on to say "what with each tomato plant growing only ONE tomato all season long" (oh my gosh, lol) So, you never know what holds people back.

    Interesting post - thank you!
    (and I'll be checking out the links)

    Issy

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  3. Grand idea! I wanna see you do it! Going now to check out her video.

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  4. Funny that. The houses that have just sold across the street from us contain a passionate gardener. I was told that he had 68 tomato plants alone last year. But as you say it is about spreading the exposure. If he wants onions, I'm sure I'll have a few left over.

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