Looking ahead and looking behind.

Last summer I planted two tomato plants. It reminded me of growing up. My dad always had a large garden. Usually, it was so large it should have been called something else. Garden just doesn't sound big enough for what my father used to do. He had grown up on a farm and the connection to the soil and to growing things, never left him. Even latter in his life, when he couldn't keep up a large garden, he grew things. He had many flowers in his yard. Growing the tomatoes reminded me of my father.


When I was young I loved to eat from the garden but I didn't like working in it! When my wife and I moved into our first house I planted a garden. It seemed like the right thing to do. Every year it got smaller. It just seemed like a lot of work, when you could buy so much food just down the road at the store. Three houses and a lot of years later, I had no garden at all. Then, last summer, I decided to plant a couple of tomatoes in containers.

I don't know why it came upon me to grow something again but it did, and I wanted to do this right. I started reading about organically growing tomatoes in containers. The plants grew well and produced more tomatoes than we could eat. The tomatoes tasted wonderful. They were nothing like the ones you by at the store. The experience led me to the local farmers market and to wonderfully, locally grown vegetables and pastured, sustainably raised meat. My world was changed. I had to learn more, I had to grow more!

At the end of the season, I was sorry to see my little plants go and I regretted that I hadn’t planted more veggies. I resolved to plant a fall garden. The fall garden was a moderate success. I grew some fantastic tasting broccoli and some spicy little radishes. My attempt at Brussel Sprouts and spinach was a total failure. Not to be discouraged, I decided to put in a number of raised beds and expand my gardening in the spring. To get ready I started reading and preparing. My readings lead me in unexpected directions. I discovered how industrialized agribusiness worked and how our food was grown. I was troubled by much of what I learned. I began to wonder at the societal disconnect with our food. Food does not come from a box; it is grown in the soil and too many people take this for granted. There is a lot going on with the food chain and much of it is not good. The research reinforced my desire to take greater control of the food I eat and the food I feed to my family. It made me long for the land and for a farm. My parents both grew up in farming but they left it for the textile mills. I desire a greater connection to the soil. I stumbled on the ideas of small plot intensive farming and edible landscaping. I’m now in the process of turning my small lot into a piece of land that can, someday, produce a sizeable amount of the food that my family eats. It will be a lot of work. It will be a long journey.