Growing up in the New York Metropolitan area as I did, I seem to have picked up a certain awe of growing food. Most of what I ate grew on supermarket shelves and sometimes tasted of them too.
We had a little patch where every year my dad would plant tomatoes and cucumbers and we'd watch eagerly for those vibrant little plants to yield their treasures. The beefsteak tomatoes had a smell so rich and fruity all you wanted to do was cut them up, sprinkle a little salt and bite into a taste of heaven. The "burpee" cucumbers (very amusing name for little kids to say) tasted of fresh air, pure soil and green outdoors even though they were grown in a shaded little sliver of land in the middle of a big city.
We'd make the 2hr trek every year to pick apples upstate and I'd be in awe of the fruit hanging on trees so perfect and juicy. When I was little, I was sure they glued them on there so people like us could come get them. When my parents weren't looking, I'd find some low hanging fruit and take a bite, leaving it hanging on the tree, just because I could. Even the occasional bout of poision ivy brought back from these trips never served to dim my anticipation of the yearly outing.
The first time I came out to Northern CA, I fell in love...but it wasn't San Francisco I left my heart in. We went up to Napa Valley touring the wine country one January. The wines were lovely but what I remember most were the orange trees, grown ornamentally (a concept I couldn't fathom at the time) in front of the wineries. Like the guilty 7yr old sampling the apples on the tree, I found a low hanging orange and "liberated" it in my purse when I left. Back at the hotel with a knife purloined from the room service cart, I cut my treasure open. Lush and fragrant juices ran over my hands as I forced the butter knife through the tough outter peel and found the rich orange treasure inside. It was probably the best orange I've ever eaten in my life.
Now that I live in the bay area myself, it's my goal to grow as much fresh produce as I possibly can on my little chunk of land. While I'm not a notable green thumb, I am determined to appreciate nature's bounty wherever I can encourage it to spring.
Here's what we currently have growing on our property:
Tomatoes - plum, purple plum, two kinds of cherry
Tomatillos
Green Beans
Soy Beans
Yellow Corn
jalapeno and fresno hot peppers
peas (they're not doing so well though)
leeks
fennel
broccoli
cauliflour
acorn squash
butternut squash
sugar pie pumpkins
Simon & Garfunkle quartet (parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme) as well as oregano, marjoram, basil, chamomile, lemon balm, lemon verbena, chocolate mint, yarrow and borage
The fruit trees/plants on our property are:
2 pommagranite trees
manderine satsuma tree
eureka lemon tree
mexican lime tree
donut peach tree
kiwi vines
thompson's seedless grapes
2 blueberry bushes
raspberry patch that frustrates the b-jeesus out of me because it grows great but never makes fruit
strawberries
two apple trees with about 6 different apples growing on them (we have a friend who is a member of the California Rare Fruit Growers Association and every year he takes us to the event where they exchange "scions" to graft onto your trees)
2 ornamental plum trees (we just found out we can graft other types of plums onto these so watch out!)
In addition to these, we have some "volunteers"...we planted yellow plum tomatoes the first year here and they've mysteriously traveled to all corners of the yard, popping up where least expected. And last, but not least, the neighbors apricot tree which is slowly seeking asylum over the fence in our yard.
So, with an aching back but a happy heart, my garden grows reaffirming that it is the most basic and simple things in life that bring us the greatest rewards.
Meryl
find some great quotes about gardens and gardening here:
http://www.quotegarden.com/gardens.html --
Edited by 2727835 at 05/29/2007 1:35 PM
--
Edited by 2727835 at 05/29/2007 1:59 PM
