Learning from the Earth in Summer 2010

I realized that it's been over a year since my last post to this little blog, and much has changed yet again! I am almost done working my summer job for 2010, and although I am very excited to resume my studies at my new home and new University in Nova Scotia, I am a little sad to be leaving my job!

I have been working as a summer student for Loving Spoonful, a Food Security Project that distributes donations of fresh produce and prepared foods to meal programs in Kingston, Ontario. If you want to check it out, here's their website address: www.lovingspoonful.org. The main duty that I am performing this year has been to prepare, plan, plant, tend, maintain, and harvest the 750 square foot Acorn Garden with the help of awesome volunteers. The plants in the Acorn Garden come to us as seedlings that are donated by local organic farmers, we care for and tend them, then the produce we harvest is donated directly to local meal programs that feed the hungry in Kingston. The image at the top of the post is the Acorn Garden just after planting in early June. The plants are so small, but they did not stay that way! The second image is what the Acorn Garden looked like one month later in early July, and now it's even bigger! I will post more current images soon.

As a nutrition student and future dietitian, I have been interested in learning about growing my own food for quite some time, so this was the perfect opportunity to learn about community hunger and gain valuable gardening experience. If you are wondering, we planted tomatoes, beans, kale, onions, leeks, potatoes, eggplant, bell peppers, squash, and basil this year. MMM!!

Spending time in the garden has been a wonderful experience for me, especially after a hectic academic year that culminated in a cross country move. I have to say that seeing wholesome food grow out of the Earth is a humbling and exciting experience. Life can be hectic and stressful at times, and tending plants can be powerfully cathartic. The Earth is incredible, it feeds you, it doesn't judge you, it makes you feel so small and so big at the same time. The Earth runs on its own enormous clock, and you will feel a strong connection to that if you spend some time with it. That is refreshing when you think of the daily grind of minutes and hours that we tend to get so caught up in.

The plants have taught me a lot too. They take what the Earth provides, and they never complain. They do their best with what they have, they reach as high up and as far down as their circumstances and potential allow. If they are given what they need, they will happily make and give beautiful and nutritious food. If they are not, they will still try. Could you imagine if people tried to be more like that?

If any of you are on the fence and considering growing food for yourselves, DO IT! You won't regret it, and it can be done very successfully in pots (some things can even be grown on a sunny window sill), so even if you don't have a yard, please try growing something! I am making it my personal goal to grow at least some of my own food every year from now on. There is simply no excuse not to. The cost of purchasing food that has been transported across the globe is not going to go down, it is only going to increase. The impact that it causes to the Earth is terrible, so why not do a small bit to help yourself and help the Earth? I won't claim that I don't contribute to these problems, while I do try to eat locally as much as I can, I purchase a lot of transported food, and I don't blame other people that do as well, but considering all the benefits, it is absolutely worth a little effort and time to grow a little plant and eat what you grow. I guarantee that you will not regret it!