Growing up, I’m not sure that I knew what a good thing I had going. My mom and pop always had big gardens in the back yard, and we had more fresh fruits and vegetables than we could handle, of many different varieties. We had our own little orchard in the back yard too, with apples, pears, apricots, and cherries.
My parents would get up early in the morning, before the working day began, and spend time together in the backyard planting and weeding and nurturing. Many days throughout the year, they would come inside from the garden with a harvest in their arms, and mom would can a lot of stuff that we didn’t eat fresh, so that we could have the fruits of their efforts in the winter months.
They don’t have as large a garden these days, but they still like to plant around the house, and everything they eat usually has something fresh in it, even if it’s the herbs that share space around the house in flower beds.
When I read about topics like crop diversity, those gardens bring back some pretty pleasant memories. The miracle of plants taking sustenance from the earth and from the rain is one that we take too much for granted.
Places like the Global Crop Diversity Fund are hard at work trying to insure crop diversity, and to help identify crops that might be able to handle climatic changes. The force behind the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, it’s encouraging to see them taking action.
I’m also encourage by the declaration of the United Nations that 2008 has been named the International Year of the Potato. Their site dedicated to the year of the potato tells us:
The potato produces more nutritious food more quickly, on less land, and in harsher climates than any other major crop – up to 85 percent of the plant is edible human food, compared to around 50% in cereals.
Living in an apartment in a small town, I miss those gardens. I wonder how reasonable it might be to try to start a community garden. It might be fun, and it might help raise a little more awareness of the miracle of growth within the community.
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