For the Beauty (and Bounty) of the Earth

A week ago we went down to SoCal and stayed with my family for a little while. On Thursday the kids had an excellent time exploring the backyard.  I had an excellent time re-exploring it with them, for their grandparents' house also happens to be my grandparents' house!  I have such fond memories of running around in that backyard when I was a kid.  There's a large hill with many fruit trees, and multiple nooks and crannies that my sisters and I would hide in.  There are currently some beautiful flowers blooming, so being back there made me nostalgic and grateful for beauty and solitude.

 

I cannot emphasize enough how much pleasure the kids (Rose especially) derived from picking kumquats off the kumquat-laden tree.  They also picked a few oranges.  I got really into the whole fruit-picking thing, too.  In my adulthood I've never owned land or done any gardening that has actually produced much of anything, so I kind of marveled at the miracle of being able to pick food off a tree.  I took a huge bag of kumquats home, which I am hoping to make into a marmalade or use in salads or something. 

      

 

We also got an enormous amount of lemons from my Grandma Ellery's fertile, fertile tree.  That thing has never been shown much care, but it faithfully produces loads of lemons year after year.  A huge portion recently broke off in a windy storm, but it was still dripping with lemons when we visited.  Rose had a heyday gathering her bounty, and we used some of it to make lemonade the other day.  I also froze some juice for future use. 

These agricultural experiences were particularly special to me because lately I've been thinking a lot about how disconnected I am from my food sources.  Like I was saying earlier, there's just something kind of magical about seeing the thing you're eating come off a tree or vine instead of out of a grocery store bin.  I can only imagine how awesome it would be to know where all elements of a meal really come from.  

So, in hopes of reconnecting with food, I started growing corn seeds and tomato seeds in my "backyard" (cement patio) about a month ago.  Let me just say that I don't really know what I'm doing, but I sure as heck am giving it a good effort.  All of my gardening attempts thus far have resulted in brown stalks or fruitless plants, and I don't want that to happen this time around.  Since I have a patio, and since I am growing (what I hope to be) tall corn plants, I have had to buy large pots and lots of soil, making this endeavor a pretty costly one.  However, if I have some success, the good feelings that result might offset some of the cost. :)  I already am feeling pretty good just looking at my little 18" corn plants out there on the patio.  I knew them when they were seeds, man!  The other benefit of all this, of course, is that the kids really enjoy it, and they get to understand how we get food.  

Remembering Rose's excitement over the kumquats weakened my resolve when she kept pestering me to buy radish seeds the other day.  Radishes?  What kid gets excited about radishes?  Well, Rose does, and her wish was my command.  We planted a few little seeds with the small amount of remaining soil I had.  I'm glad we can share enthusiasm for this new hobby.