I have gallantly returned from spring break on Paradise Island, forgive all the vacation pictures here. Okay, so it wasn't actually named Paradise Island (it was named Little Gasparilla Island), but it was a wonderful and relaxing week in the sun with Jessica and Joe. My mind was still back in Chicago, at least a little bit, fretting over the fate of my newly planted seeds. Mom was put in charge of the watering and general care of the baby seedlings. Overall, kudos to you, Mom. Without your care and attention, they for sure would have died. However, we will share publicly how you confused the labeling system and a couple trays of tomatoes got a slight bit confused when you moved trays without their numbers. I think we're back on track, but we'll just have to see as the weeks go on.
The plants are looking healthy. I'm slightly concerned at how tall they are and that perhaps they've gotten a bit leggy, but I think that every year and everything tends to turn out alright. Many of the tomato varieties (10 in all) are starting to form their first set of "true leaves". What this means is that when the seeds initially sprout, their leaves look nothing like what you would think of as a tomato leaf. These initial leaves are meant simply to help them sprout and then gather enough sunlight (or fluorescent light, as the plants in my basement are forced to gather) to properly create their first set of real leaves. So many of my tomato plants are showing signs of the teeny tiny leaves that finally look like what tomato plants are supposed to look like. The broccoli looks great, as do the onions and leaks. The peppers are going strong and I can't wait to see what takes off and really begins to grow strong.
In other news, I have had a lot of lovely press recently with the whole Beekman Boys gardener thing. It's been enabling me to connect more with my community and with an even larger surrounding community. The school where I work has been talking a little bit about starting a garden on the grounds to help feed the students. I hope that they do end up going in that direction and that I can be of help in getting better, healthier food to these kids who I truly adore. Two of my students have been given permission to start a community garden, which is way cool and way exciting! I'm doing my best to help guide them to a successful season. It's going to be hard, as they are incredibly ambitious kids who are trying to go at 1000% their first time out, but I trust in their enthusiasm and drive and their love for the community. They'll do well, even if it isn't quite what they expected. My other cool news is that I have been hired to grow seedlings for some people. It'll be the first money I'll ever make in my career as a farmer. I may need to frame the first dollar! Life is getting super busy, the rototiller is ready and waiting to break ground in Harvard at the first sign of decent weather. The church garden is still being worked on. We need to build some portable raised beds that look beautiful so that they compliment the program and get the community interested in what we're doing. For now, this is all. More seed starting in the days ahead, more searching for an affordable pickup truck. Lots of stress, but finally today I got my hands dirty. Like, had to scrub my fingernails dirty! It's been far too long since that happened, and I was giddy with excitement when I noticed it was happening this afternoon. Here's to far more dirty days ahead than not!
Wow, two posts in one day. I just haven't said much in quite some time and still have a few things to say. I want to tell two stories, one from the church garden and one from the farm. Both have to do with my spirituality, and so if that's something you're not comfortable reading about, I won't be offended if you navigate away from the page now. For anyone still with me, here's what I've got.
First is the story of Ed and Amin (whose name, no joke, was pronounced amen). My mom and I were attempting to shovel the dirt from the swimming pools into an area behind the shed to store over the winter months. It was just the two of us against three tons of dirt, as everyone else was occupied that day. After three straight hours of what was absolutely back-breaking work, a little boy of no more than four years and his father came by walking the family dog. We stopped our work as they came closer to say hello and pet the dog. As we approached them, the little boy started firing away with questions about what we were doing, why, and could he help. Well, his dad took the leash and I lead the little boy over to the pools of dirt while my mom talked to Ed. First, Amin and I talked about what we as a church had done over the summer and who we had done it for. We talked about how great it was to be able to give substantial things to people who were without. Then we ate a leaf of lettuce together, as that was all that was left from the season. At this point, he asked if he could help me shovel. I nodded my head as a tear or two welled in my eyes. For the next 20 minutes, Amin and I shoveled side-by-side, taking wheelbarrows full of dirt over to the pile together and dumping it on. It was only when his father began bargaining with him that Amin finally put down the shovel that was quite literally twice his size to re-grab the leash and finish walking the dog with his dad. These are the kinds of encounters that I lived for this summer. And just when my mother and I felt like we could not continue on, that we were too tired and had no strength left to finish the project, God sent us a little Amen.
My other story is of my final visit to the farm this year. I went up over Columbus Day as the frost had finally hit and I needed to bring the pumpkins and sweet potatoes home. Retrieving the sweet potatoes was a silent comedy all its own as the dirt was the consistency of concrete and it took me nearly twenty minutes to dig up five rather small sweet potatoes. The pumpkins were easy, as were the too tiny melons that I really just wanted to take home and cut open to see what they looked like as they were too immature to eat. As I loaded everything in the car and got ready to go, I gave myself a few minutes sitting in the middle of the patch to reflect on the summer and say a prayer of thanks. I believe this will be the summer that I look back on for the rest of my life and see where I finally found my way. It was so very important that I thank the land, Mother Nature, and God for allowing me to have the experience. As I was getting to the end of my prayer, and the official end of my summer on the farm, tears were streaming down my cheeks as I said the following: "God, there are many things I doubt in my life. But the one thing that I never doubt, the one thing I am always sure of, is that you are always around me. You are always here." As I said this, the flock of birds that were sitting in the Weeping Willow off to my right flew out of the tree by the hundreds and landed in all of the trees that surrounding the field where I was sitting. I was so incredibly awestruck and humbled by the presence of the Lord. I can think of no greater sign to be given that I have finally found my path. It was a perfect ending to what can only be remembered as the perfect summer. It was most certainly the summer where I lost my mind, but maybe it was time my mind went away for a while, only to come back to me stronger and clearer.
Most days, when I think back on this summer and all the wonderful people I got to share it with, I think to myself: I am so incredibly blessed!
Oh so much has happened since I last logged on here. The frosts have finally hit full force. First it was the farm, then the church, and finally the house (although, truth be told, we're still eating broccoli and kale from the side yard!). This past season has been one of the happiest times in my life. It was challenging, difficult, sweat-inducing, and joyous all at once.
March 25, 2010 was when this picture was taken by the lovely Barb Bay. I had her take this the very first time I saw the land that I would be working with over the summer. This picture was intended to be proof to my future self that I was really excited about the journey I was about to embark on. Proof was needed, I felt, because I knew that, come July, I would be hot, sweaty, exhausted, and probably have little to show for the great amount of effort I had put into the farm. And yet, the pictures of me from July are even more joyous that the one you see here. I never really thought that I could take this entire experience and really walk away from it even more energized than when I started.
This image to the right was the very last picture taken of me at the farm (wearing, of course, the super awesome tshirt that Donna Boyko brought back from Kentucky for me!). The girl in this picture has finally found her purpose, been shown her way. I could not have envisioned that this summer would change me so very much, but change me it did. How many people get the opportunity that I did, to live out the thing I believed I was passionate about? How many people are afforded the luxury of knowing, with such clarity, that they have truly found the thing they were made to do? Because I have found this, I feel it in my bones.
Enough of the "I found my calling!" stuff. Back to the nitty gritty of cleaning the spaces for the winter. Though I was sad to see it all end, it was certainly time as the plants were getting tired, and frankly so was I. The farm has not been tough to deal with so far. But that is mostly because we haven't yet gotten around to the task of taking down the fence, plowing the field, laying down manure...stuff like that. At this point, those tasks may have to wait until the thaw comes in the spring. At the house, my trusty migrant worker (Mom) and I got all the plants out of the ground and into the brown bags, or back into the corner of the yard to break down during the winter months. The only things left are the broccoli and kale, which continue to grow until after it starts snowing. The church cleanup has been the hardest part. Back in April, I ever so cavalierly stated that it would be no problem to dig the dirt back out of the swimming pools in November when the time came. Boy was I dumb. Three tons of dirt is even heavier and more back-breaking than it sounds. My mom and I spent an entire afternoon shoveling dirt to no avail...we were only able to move about a ton and a half of dirt into a spot behind the shed. There is no describing how badly I cursed myself out as I tossed shovel after shovel into the wheelbarrow. Next year should bring about some more positive developments that will prevent me from having quite this problem in November of 2011.
At the end of all of this, I have quite a bit to show for myself. Our Thanksgiving dinner a week from tomorrow will feature a few foods that I will have grown. We're still overloaded with fresh tomatoes and even a few potatoes. The freezers both in the house and the garage are jam packed with foods that we grew or preserved, ensuring a tasty, healthy, fresh, and local winter. All of this success will only breed more success as we begin moving toward next season. Next spring brings an expanded growing space, as my wonderful Cousin Tim is interested in tearing up close to an acre of his front yard. I am way excited about it because there will be a hose nearby! I'll also be able to better use the acre that Barb and Steve Bay have so graciously allowed us to use yet again. The church garden will hopefully include some semi-permanent raised beds that are not children's swimming pools and I know now how to better utilize the space that I am working with. The house garden will not change significantly, other than the onion pools I plan to put in the back corner...only because then I won't step on the baby onions and halt their growth like I've managed to do every other year!
I am very much looking forward to what the future has in store for me. Saturday takes me to Angelic Organics Farm in Caledonia, IL. I'll be attending a workshop on what it takes, realistically, to become a small family farmer/market gardener. After that it comes time to ready the basement for the seedlings and begin looking through catalogs to select the produce for next year. I am so very excited. I'll try to continue posting on here as things relating to any of the growing spaces pop up, so thank you for continuing to check back. Raise your glass to one hell of a year!
Sorry once again for the delay in updating...starting back at work again has been far more draining than I anticipated! Today's post is just about the activities of the Green Thumbs Up For God Summer Sundays program. This was the morning we had been working all year toward. We met at 8 this morning to continue to pick from whatever was ripe, load it into our cars, and deliver it to the Des Plaines Self Help Pantry. These wonderful kids picked over a 1/2 bushel combined of tomatoes, peppers (both sweet and hot), onions, and basil. A half bushel doesn't sound like much, but there were well over 100 tomatoes, 15 peppers, and several bundles of hot peppers and basil. These things will hopefully provide sustenance for those who find themselves without the ability to provide for their family. More importantly, I hope that this is an experience that imprints on the kids who were able to be there and be a part of it. I want this to be a moment that they continue to come back to, that continues to drive their intentions in life.
We worked so hard to nurse these plants to life. To think that such tiny seeds, put into a small amount of peat moss in my basement in March turned into a bounty to bring to those who don't have, well it was just such a fulfilling day. I was so looking forward to this last night that I found myself unable to stay asleep. Yet again another sign that these are the things I am meant to do. In the past, I would look forward to my weekend as a way to recuperate from my very busy week. And I still do need to recover from my work week, but I find that my recovery comes through working in the soil. Nothing makes me more joyful. I sometimes can't believe my luck that I get to go outside and play in the dirt. I am hoping tomorrow to get to write about the last two visits to the farm. We went up last Saturday and today. Many exciting things are happening, but I am too tired right now and must get myself to bed. In addition to the update, I will be buying the domain name of this site and begin uploading a few videos of the various gardens I work in. Very exciting things! So please stay tuned, and thanks so much for sticking with me through the information blackout that has become my life. Stay happy.
Very exciting day here in the Goodman household. It is the first day we are able to put up any of the harvest. We have some beautiful tomatoes (well, I think they're beautiful, but I see their beauty through their ugly) that we will be unable to eat before they go bad. And some of them have burst significantly due to all the recent moisture. Ever see a tomato that has cracked open and you kind of get to see their insides? Well, that happens because the plant got too much moisture (i.e. rain) in too little time. And so the tomatoes grow too quickly and begin to burst. Kind of like stretch marks on a pregnant lady. I have several stretch-marked tomatoes. These are not ones I would ever give away, because they look ugly and inedible. But they are perfect, and the time, energy, money, spirit, love that it took to create these first gems is too much for me to let any little bit go to waste. Now I just wait for the water to boil.
The process for getting these beauties ready for the freezer is fairly simple. The water is boiling in a sort of large pot right now. I will then score an X on the bottom of the tomatoes, or at least the few that haven't burst. This X allows for the skins to begin to pull back once the tomatoes have been tossed in their hot tub. As I notice the skins start to retreat back, I pull out the tomatoes and dunk them in a cold bath of ice water. This is kind of like when you crawl out of the hot tub and jump into the swimming pool. Once in the cold water, the skins shrink up even more and become very easy to pull off. At this point, you're almost home! Once the skins are off, you core and deseed the tomatoes, only really keeping the meaty part of the tomato. Toss in a freezer friendly bag, and cart out to the industrial freezer in the garage. Now you can have home grown tomato soup in the dead of winter, or create a really yummy homemade pasta sauce for the cold months when all you want to eat is a hot bowl of pasta.
Oh gosh, oh gosh, oh gosh!!! I just took them out of their ice bath, and I forgot exactly how gross they feel when you handle them! I think if I knew what brains felt like, this would be it! But, as my mother reminds me, you just have to tell yourself that this is what these feel like. It's not gross, it doesn't feel like brains, it feels like the inside of parboiled tomatoes.
The tomatoes have been finally finished. I tried to salvage all that I could of the meat itself. Much is lost from the original tomato to what is appropriate to be put up for later use. I'm fairly certain that the seeds, skins, and extra juice can be processed down into tomato juice. However, that adventure is for another time. Let me know if you know what to do with the extras, and I'd be more than happy to do that and give it to you! Finally something has been preserved. Finally, I grew enough, at least by a little, to be able to feed my family past the time of harvest. That alone makes the hard work worth it. And this is definitely not very much to speak of, probably no more than about a cup of tomato. But as the season wears on, and as the tomatoes begin to turn more and more, those cups will add up. I cannot wait for the time when the glistening jars stand proudly on our shelf, waiting for the colder months ahead.
On a final note, we have some awesome neighbors. Many nights (and many mornings), we meet in our collective spaces and discuss how our gardens grow. My mother was commenting on some cucumber envy today. Our vines look pretty good, and are making many flowers, but are just not quite bearing bunches of fruit yet. And so Mr. Randy next door walked us over to his growing space and picked the very large cuke you see here. He also threw in a jalapeno for good measure (I think I'll try it on a sandwich tomorrow). We're already talking about next season, expanding our spaces, getting better stakes for the plants (as many of my tomato plants have fallen over under the weight of the fruit and the cages seem to not be holding them up), and sharing an order of peat moss and fertilizer. When I get potatoes from the house, we'll be sure to share!
I have this bracelet on my arm. It has three beads, all different colors. This bracelet is very special to me, I got it at church camp. It is a blessings bracelet. As I go to sleep each night, I look at the beads and contemplate my blessings. The first bead is for me to recognize the people and things in my life that have been a blessing to me that day. Bead number two is supposed to remind me to do my best to be a blessing in the lives of others. The third is to remind me that God is always with me, and that is the greatest blessing of all. Today I want to share how blessings were visited upon me. My neighbors were a blessing to me today. They shared with my family their bounty when we had none. At church this afternoon, as Mom and I were checking on the garden, an older man walked up to ask if we were selling our produce and to inquire about what we were growing. He was a blessing to me as I was able to further expand my reach with this entire project. But I also hope that I was a blessing to him as I shared my joy with him and gave him an Illini Star tomato to take home (I would have given him more than one, but it was the only thing that was ripe). And finally, I was able to laugh and see sunshine and enjoy time with a dear friend today. In those things, I saw that God was with me and felt entirely blessed throughout my whole being. All in all, good day today. Very good day.
I love to think of nature as an unlimited broadcasting station, through which God speaks to us every hour, if we will only tune in. ~George Washington Carver
Just a quick update, more to follow tomorrow. There are new pictures in the church garden portion of the website. We had a great day in the Green Thumbs Up Garden. One tomato, two mini green peppers, and a few salads-full of lettuce were harvested and brought in for the members of the congregation. We had a new family join us this week and they were super cute, super enthusiastic, and a joy to have with us. It's nice to see some new life coming into the church. For so many years now, we have just lost some of the most enthusiastic members (along with their small children). Dorian's mom today commented that a big reason that he wanted to come to church was for the garden and accompanying sunday school program. What a wonderful compliment. And finally I feel like we're doing something active to restore some life to our aging church. Tomorrow brings a trip to the farm. The hope is that the weeds haven't gotten too bad, and that the rain hasn't turned the soil to mush. I'd love to be able to let Mike pick some potatoes to take home! I promise a longer update with fun pictures tomorrow. And I even have a surprise outfit to show off!!! Thanks for reading, enjoy the dry, cool weather.
The rain came and went. Thank goodness. I didn't sleep much last night and the only things I really kept thinking at 2, 3, and then 4 in the morning were thoughts of my possibly drowning plants all over northern Illinois. A good soak was much needed and our severely flooded backyard was hardly wet by 2 in the afternoon. Mother Nature does a far better job than I of properly watering. And so I am ever so grateful for the rain, but will next time be very careful about how hard I wish for it. It has rained about 2 inches in Harvard over the last 24 hours. Moisture was desperately needed. I'm pretty sure the rain totals for the last 24 hours surpass the total rainfall for the last four weeks there. The hope is now that the soil there absorbs enough so that when we go up to work on Monday, it won't be one big pit of mud. Mostly because I would still have to work in it, no matter the conditions!
I'm heading off to church early tomorrow morning. I need to get there and survey the damage to the containers. I may have to run to Pesche's for stakes (I fear the wind blew over the pepper plants), plant food (because, well, they're in containers!), or insect soap (the aphids and thrips have taken a commanding hold over at least five of the tomato plants). Hopefully, I get there and all is right with the world. The plants will look well watered and well nourished. There will be a bright red tomato for the picking! It's Justin's turn to pick something, so I really am praying he comes tomorrow to take our lone Amish Paste tomato off the vine. I've got to remember to charge my camera to take some stellar pictures to show off how well the kids are keeping things up.
At the house, we are finally starting to see the plants kick it into high gear. The pepper plants are making many green peppers. I finally have a Sub-Arctic Plenty tomato beginning to turn. This should be the straw that breaks the camel's back...many tomatoes should follow after. The green beans have climbed well over the top of the swingset and are now beginning to set flowers. We should be eating green beans in 1-2 weeks. It's all beautiful here, and though there are always issues to deal with, I am happy as a clam. Thanks to those of you who have been reading. It's nice to feel like there are others taking this journey with me. And to the people who have expressed interest in helping or coming to visit the various spaces, thanks so much! It's what I'm all about. I love to share this and maybe even instill some passion in others.
Love to all, I must get some sleep!
Give me the splendid, silent sun, with all his beams full dazzling. quote / saying by Walt Whitman
Sitting in the living room after a really wonderful day, I'm trying to figure out what words to use in this post. It's scary to put this in writing, but I have to say what is bursting to get out of me. Things are starting to happen. I posted this website on Facebook again a few days ago and got a lot of hits. And then I got a couple of offers of people wanting to come and experience the farm (like, legitimate offers). On Sunday, I got to spend an amazing time with Alex in the church garden where we picked his favorite veggie, zucchini, and had a great talk about how zucchinis come to be and why there are different types of tomatoes. I then watched him bring a friend into the garden and explain to him what everything was. The excitement he exhibited while showing off our garden to Azu was something else to behold.
While driving home from the church garden today (which was sorely in need of water and reinforcements), I made the comment to Alycia that I think I finally know what I want to do with my life. How could I not farm? How could I not educate others, and try to instill a passion for food and the earth and being a part of creation? Nowhere in my life have I ever felt the kind of peace or excitement that I feel when I am with the plants or talking about the plants or thinking about what I'm going to grow next year. To have a sustainable farm that would be a place for education and fun and existing in the outdoors would combine the majority of the things I love in life (if only I could figure out how to make it musical...).
I don't want this to come out wrong. But I, for the first time in my life, am feeling like I have a direction. The last three years of my life, and perhaps it's been for a longer time than that, I have felt as if I had no plan, no real passion to pursue. Sure, there are things I love and what I was going after for my life I did love and thought would be the wonderful thing I did. But I have never wanted anything more than this. I have never worked this hard and been this happy at the same time. I hate hard work, or any work at all...I avoid it like the plague. I cannot for the life of me keep up with my laundry or the god-awful mess in my room. My car is not clean and I really don't care. I can't seem to send off mail to my friends. I still have christmas gifts sitting around the house for my college friends because I can't seem to muster up the energy or whatever to get my behind to the post office and mail them (which is certainly not because I don't love them...at this point I'm just waiting until I see them all at the end of July) But this farm business, this church garden business, this I seem to be able to do. It must mean something. And the thought of not doing this with my life, the thought of this becoming another one of my washed away dreams fills me with a panic and deep, deep sense of loss. I have never wanted anything more.
Things around me feel like they are starting to change. Everyone who did big things in their life, with their life, started with a small dream and a small impact on those around them. Gradually, more and more people became aware and involved and opportunities began to present themselves. I feel like there are opportunities that are beginning to open up to me. Having anyone want to be involved in this with me is a miracle in itself. Maybe I can do this. Maybe this is what I've been called to do with my life. I know it would be hard, perhaps the most difficult thing I could ever think to do. I know that farms do not make money, I would never be wealthy (monetarily, at least). But I feel such a strange draw to it all. I have no idea how to start, where to start, if I'm even able to make a start! I'm trying to stay open to any possibilities that may come my way. In the meantime, I'll be going back to school in the spring for my teaching degree. I want to be a certified educator because I love kids and want to be educating whether it's in a classroom or on a farm. Please God, help me make this dream mine.
"To dig one's own spade into one's own earth! Has life anything better to offer than this?"-- Beverley Nichols
Wednesday brought about a busy and productive day at the church garden. The plants look so big and beautiful. It's amazing to me exactly how good they look! We are beginning to have an aphid problem (teeny, tiny bugs that eat the sap off of the tomato plants and don't allow the tomatoes to actually grow). But I'll get some stuff (organic, of course) to use quite sparingly to try and get things under control. The big task of the day was to get the buckets filled with herbs and bean seeds and cucumber seeds. The trick here was to get holes drilled in the bottoms of the containers so that the water could drain freely out of them, as if it were ground and not plastic. Well, these buckets had dirt in them that Steve Bay had so kindly filled. But it has taken me a few weeks to get around to taking care of draining the buckets. So the dirt has been sitting and stewing and soaking for quite some time. As a result, the buckets were heavy, laden down with water, the dirt turned to muck. We got the holes drilled and put some window screening down over the holes so that we didn't lose the dirt in the draining process. Barb and I attempted to shovel the muck back into all 17 buckets. Only 15 ended up being filled, we'll need to get a little more dirt. Because of how wet the dirt was, I decided it would be a bad idea to plant seeds in it (thinking they might rot before they got a chance to sprout). So instead we planted herbs: sage (three colors), oregano, and rosemary (basil will be coming from the farmers market this weekend). We also planted a honeydew melon and a butternut squash and one last tomato plant to replace an Amish Paste plant that is looking slightly worse for wear. And the buckets looked like they were draining as we left. I'll probably go back today to see if I can get the seeds into pots that have hopefully drained a bit since Wednesday.
There were a few other maintenance-type things that had to be taken care of. We were finally able to get all of the plant markers down. Barb found this great craft where we took old and broken clay pots (donated by members of the congregation) and had the kids paint the names of the different plants on them. They were then sprayed with a sealant and stuck at the base of the plant they were made for. It looks so very cute and was super practical in terms of being able to recycle something and also label the plants. The kids did a wonderful job and just added to the colorfulness and beauty of the garden. We also were able to get the last of the tomato cages up, and then try to squish some of the aphids off of the afflicted tomato plants. Radishes were also harvested. The spinach bolted before any real leaves were grown, so we'll have to try again in the fall. I knew there was a good chance that it was too hot and sunny for the spinach, but I took the chance that we might get something. I can't wait to see all of the bounty that the garden seems poised to provide.
I think that if ever a mortal heard the voice of God it would be in a garden at the cool of the day. ~F. Frankfort Moore, A Garden of Peace
It was quite the exciting day at the church garden yesterday. We were able to pick our first produce of the season! We planted, about three weeks ago, Saxa 2 Radishes. These are quick growing radishes that mature in just 18 days. As we have had plenty of sun and rain, they grew right on time and were ready for little hands to pick Sunday morning. An intense storm tried to put the kibosh on doing anything in the garden beds, but the little ones who are all a part of Green Thumbs Up for God could not be deterred! We headed out toward the end of church, marveling at the impressive growth of all of the plants over the past week (I swear each plant nearly doubled in size!). After picking a few weeds, it came time for everyone to come over and pick a few radishes. Almost 30 radishes were picked in total. They were a wonderful size and a beautiful sparkling red color on the outside. We were able to give all but one away to members of our congregation, who seemed overjoyed at the early "bounty" we were providing them.
This first harvest came at the perfect time. Our lesson on Sunday was all about how we are God's providers. We are given all the resources we need to be successful and to give to others and it's just up to use to use those resources to actually make a difference in the lives of others. It was so amazing, after having that discussion with the kids, to be able to go upstairs and actually live the lesson.
The final amazing thing to experience was the enthusiasm of the kids. These kids are not new to me. I've been hanging out with them for years, some since they were babies. But they never cease to amaze me (seriously, you guys, even with PFC, you never stop surprising and impressing me). The excitement coming off of them was contagious. It was not a lot of stuff to pick, but it was a thrilling moment. We even kept a radish to go and split between us so that everyone could try what we had grown. Mike had never tried a radish before and really was interested in what it might taste like. That kind of thing is a lot of what I'm about. He was interested because he had a stake in creating that radish. I hope we're able to do this with everything we grow this summer. I'm even going to participate when we try a tomato...even though I really really really do not like fresh tomatoes. But maybe my feelings on that will change as I get to experience that tomato grown with love with kids who I absolutely adore.
Success is the name of the game at the church garden right now.
The best place to seek God is in a garden. You can dig for him there. ~George Bernard Shaw, The Adventures of the Black Girl in Her Search for God, 1932