Some of my earliest memories are at my great-grandparents in So. California playing in the patch of bamboo that was like a forest to me, to the shady side of the house where the water always seems to be dripping a little where the mint was and the other side of the house by the driveway I remember the snap dragons that someone taught me how to play with them, opening and shutting their mouths and the roses out front that were cared for like prize diamonds! Moving down the line my grandparents lived in Oregon where my grandfather grew comfrey for his rabbits and there were my grandmother's peas and of course carrying on with the roses which was a little patch in the middle of a dry yard. Her little patch of beauty. I can remember growing up in Northern California in a tiny town where agriculture was one of the main things in so many peoples lives. I remember them throwing bags of locally grown rice from the floats in the yearly parade. I used to rake walnuts that were all over town for money as a child. My main memory of my mom is of her sitting in the yard weeding .... always weeding. She wanted the front lawn to be only dicondra. She finds weeding calming. She lives on my grandparents property in Oregon now and most of her IM's to me are still about her day out in the yard weeding.
Working with, harvesting and enjoying the beauty of what the earth gives us is something that I've been taught by example all my life. Even during times as a teenager we lived in a couple apts. in the Bay Area my mom would always have potted plants. Always growing something. An outing to buy me my own plant for my bedroom. Things like that were important.
I guess that's why plants are important to me.
Deb
I forgot to say what I get out of it .... I get a feeling of accomplishment, a safe feeling with the edibles that I have no fear of what I'm eating, joy, peace, smiles and new friendships with people that stop by.