Grow Your Own

It's amazing to see the growth of the local food movement in the past year. I've mushed over it before, but if you need inspiration to get on the path, please read Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. You can also visit this part of her site to see photos about how people are growing veggies in their front yards; I find it so inspiring to read about these normal folks, making a big difference in their community food security, health, environment, and tastebuds!

I'm no master gardener, by any stretch. Lucky for me, Boulder recently had a free "Vegetable Gardening for Beginners" workshop. Massachusetts has much more fertile soil than Colorado (and also the absence of summer hail, high winds, oppressive UV radiation, dry conditions, etc.), so I really needed this workshop. I learned what grows super easily here (radishes, tomatoes, potatoes, and greens), what it's possible to grow with some care and attention (lettuce, strawberries, peas and beans), and what does not do so well (carrots, asparagus). I'm really excited to get my plants in the ground, but around these parts I learned I have to wait until after the danger of the last hard frost, which is May 15th. And all that the presenters required of the sixty or so participants was an agreement to share the harvest with neighbors, friends, or Community Food Share. How is THAT for walking the walk! I'm so excited to get my hands dirty; show my kids again the wonders of growing food from seed; eat some yummy, healthy, organically grown food; and share it with people who need it!