Relishing the Toil

Is there no greater paradox in our modern American society than the fact that so many can take for granted the abundance of food?

Cursed is the ground because of you;
through painful toil you will eat food from it
all the days of your life.

Yet every day I leave my job, drive home, play around with the family, eat dinner and then go lovingly and excited to water the garden? Where is the curse in that?

It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
and you will eat the plants of the field.

When I garden and bleed or have ankles so riddled with mosquito bites that it looks like a weak case of chicken pox, I welcome it, because I feel so connected with what we often say metaphorically: putting food on the table.

By the sweat of your brow
you will eat your food

Something to get me outside, sweating and dirt under my finger nails and in my shoes? I relish the toil!

until you return to the ground,
since from it you were taken;
for dust you are
and to dust you will return.

What a sobering end, to garden in twilight. My watering of plants is my benediction. I look at the plants, how they grow so slowly, but so quickly (9o days to harvest!), and know that as I welcome the wonderful light of the dawn the ground waits to be cultivated, and I rise relishing the toil.

Staring At Seeds

I planted some basil, cilantro and chrysanthemum on my desk at work. Sitting under the neon lights, I have been watering them each day. Last Friday the basil and cilantro sprouted. I just stared at them, waiting for them to open up and get bigger.

Each day they are a little bigger, I think anyways. It’s hard to tell day by day. I know a few weeks from now I’ll walk in and see a full plant and wonder when did this happen?

I think our spiritual life is like that, for better or worse. Sometimes I wake up and wonder when was the last time I prayed? Other times, I relish the brilliance of my collective spiritual life, how everything is connected and deep.

Seeds are planted in our lives. We must take care of them. The trick of it is that there is no easy five step plan. Ten minute quiet times and random spontaneous prayers don’t get you to that when did this happen moment. Gardening, tilling, and cultivating our spiritual lives—that is what gets us to those deep, connected moments of spiritual growth.

The Mad Farmer: Wendell Berry’s Agrarian Poetic (Part 4)

Part four of my series on Wendell Berry’s Mad Farmer character is now up on Sustainable Traditions. Here’s a good summary of what it’s about from editor Jason Fowler’s intro to the piece:

In this post we are reminded that we are to cultivate an agricultural and communal vision that marries the wisdom from the past with a view towards the distant future. If the result is unorthodox and against the popular opinion of the day- than so be it- we are contrarian as a means to enact a restoration of what has been broken.

If that sounds interesting, head on over and read the article. Also, please keep Jason’s family in prayer over the next few days. Something pretty significant is happening in their family’s life.

Wendell Berry’s Agrarian Poetic (Part 3)

My third post in my five part series on Sustainable Traditions is up. An excerpt:

The Mad Farmer warns that mass-marketing, profit, and middle-class’s insatiable need for consumption will lead us into a mindlessness and carelessness that allows us to be manipulated and controlled by politicians and corporations.

Join the conversation over there.

This Year in Seeds

We placed our seed order this year from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. This year we are planting:

Molten Fire Amaranth

Solly Beiler Cucumber

Ching Chang Bok Choy

Collards – Georgia Southern Creole

Dwarf Siberian Kale

Filius Blue Pepper

Hungarian Hot Wax

Tabasco Pepper

Serrano Tampequino Pepper

Odessa Market Pepper

Tomatillo Verde

Lime Green Salad Tomato

Riesentraube Tomato

Rutgers Tomato

Ananas Noir Tomato

Basil – Dark Purple Opal

Shungiku Edible Chrysanthemum

Cilantro, Slo-Bolt

Cumin

Thyme

We’re excited to expand our growing into edible landscaping with the amaranth and edible chrysanthemum plants. We might put some purple basil and blue peppers out front as well.

The most peculiar plant we’re going to try this year is the Ananas Noir Tomato, which looks like all the neon pastels from the 80s mashed together to form a tomato that looks, well, odd. But, the catalog says it is one of the largest producers they’ve ever had and the flesh tastes great, so we’re giving it a try. Should make a bizarre looking sauce!

After problems with blossom rot on a tomato variety that isn’t particular to North Jersey soil, we’re switching back to the Rutgers tomato (my alma mater!) and trying out the Riesentraube tomato, which is a small tomato variety that the Pennsylvania Dutch brought over from Germany. The Lime Green Salad tomato is a good potting tomato, so it will be in pots and the other three varieties will be in our tomato plot.

I’ll also be gardening a bit at my office. I bought some nice planters at IKEA and will be growing some herbs under the fluorescent lights at work. Many of my coworkers have ferns and other plants, but I want to try out some edible plants!

A Flower Garden You Can Eat

We’ve planted portulaca in the front yard garden area each year at our landladies behest, she loves them, but I wanted to be a bit more adventurous this year, so I’ve started to look into edible landscaping. One of the seed catalogs I have sitting around has a vast array of herbs, flowers, and grains that are ornamental in appearance but edible. I think they will be a nice edition to the portulaca, which need lots of bees to pollinate them, and we’ve had a severe decrease in bee activity over the past two years (this led to me actually getting excited enough upon a bee sighting last summer to call my wife over for a look at it pollinating, something that was commonplace only a few years ago).

Here’s a run down of what I am planning to buy for the edible flower garden:

• Molten Fire Amaranth
• Dark Purple Opal Basil
• Edible Chrysanthemum

Any other suggestions or tips for an edible flower garden? I’d love to hear your favorite flower to eat!