Who are these people and why are they so obsessed with growing good food?
She’s Erica (on the right) and I’m Alice. We both started gardening long before we met. Once we got together, we started a homestead and grew our own food. Later we grew gardens on city lots, even one just outside the apartment. Now we live on a large plot of land specifically so we can have a big garden. When we were growing up this wasn’t so unusual; our folks were barely off the farm. But this isn’t true anymore. We don’t see many “serious” gardeners. This website is where we communicate our experience. We think this knowledge is essential.
We now live in beautiful Arroyo Grande, California and are grateful every day for our lives together here. A “couple of” years ago we left the high tech world in order to returned to doing what we really like – growing excellent food, eating excellent food, helping people grow excellent food, playing music with friends, puttering around the house, backpacking, meditating somatically, watching movies, drinking good wine, car camping, getting real, and cats (to name a few). We have been together many decades and have had a garden (and cats) wherever we lived.
In our neck of the woods we are an anomaly because we grow and eat our own healthy food. A friend asks, “Are you really saving money?” Maybe we are, especially when health care costs are factored in, but is that really the point? We want to be close to the land and move at the speed of the garden. We like knowing the phase of the moon and measuring the rainfall. There is nothing like the taste of a fresh veggie you planted from seed and cared for its entire life. It tastes extraordinary and it makes you feel extraordinary. Who wouldn’t like to be that close to their life?
In the world as it is now, we are very privileged to be able to own a plot of ground and grow our food. We aspire to live in a world where those who work the land, work their own land and live in their own thriving communities. By turning toward life we turn away from the systems that make farmland a commodity and farm labor a bargaining chip. There is a conversation to be had around recognizing the history that led us to this point and deciding whether we want to extend its trajectory any further. An immense amount of suffering is tied up in the current food/health care system and at the same time, an immense amount of power and momentum invested in keeping it going. We don’t have answers. It is an issue worthy of our time, money and effort.
We might be serious about gardening but we can still have fun. Here we are with our granddaughter, enjoying a mad tea party. Do write, we love to hear from you.
