The good earth: Sharing the bounty of your garden

For five days and nights, my sister, her husband, their two daughters and their dog stayed with us and our dog in our one-bedroom apartment on the Island. Their purpose was to visit and hang out on the beaches. The girls attended farm camp at Sylvester Manor Educational Farm.

As much fun as my nieces had at camp, the most fun they had, along with the rest of my family, was picking berries and letting the daily harvest dictate our meals.

My nieces get just as excited as I do when tasting something new or eating the harvest from a newly ripened crop. Preparing and eating a meal that you just picked is a great thing to share, but there’s so much more.

At farm camp, the kids squash pests that are eating our plants in the vegetable field. “Scouting” has to be taken seriously, especially if you’re trying to do it by hand to avoid sprays — even organic sprays. Would you expect kids and family members to find squashing Colorado potato beetles fun? Thinking about my little nieces scouting vegetable plants and squashing bugs, while their parents are trying to join in but feeling a bit grossed out, always makes me smile.

Digging potatoes by hand, hanging garlic to cure in the garage, finding the massive zucchini you somehow missed when you harvested them the day before, biting into a carrot that still has a little soil on it, cracking open those first watermelons of the season over a rock because you can’t wait to get a knife from the kitchen. These are amazing experiences. Maybe you think it’s just kids who will enjoy these activities, but you’ll quickly learn that most adults relish these opportunities as well — often for the first time.

The rarity of these experiences shows a complete detachment from our food production. But I think a garden is a chance to find joy.

Joy is an elusive commodity in today’s global economy but it’s one that should be shared. It’s easy to stress over your garden, thinking that the weeds will overtake everything while you’re on vacation, or the tomatoes will over-ripen when you can’t find time to spend in the garden.

Every gardener shares some of that angst. Don’t lose sight of the fact that it’s an opportunity to find joy. Invite some friends over for a “weed and feed” when you return from vacation; show a neighbor how to harvest your tomatoes. Smile when you think of them picking the freshest tomatoes they’ve ever tasted while you’re away on a business trip.

If there’s one thing I know, folks need to plant more gardens and have more opportunities to get their hands dirty and eat crops right off the vine. Regardless of how big or small your garden is, share it.

Kurt Ericksen is a vegetable grower at Sylvester Manor.