It’s well past National Agriculture Day and the first day of spring. With Earth Day, April 22, fast approaching, gardening is front and center in my mind.
I got the idea to sign up for a Community Supported Agriculture half share this year, so someone else will be doing a fair amount of gardening on my behalf. (It’s good to support young farmers and support our local food economy!)
I remember (not so fondly) hoeing the garden when I was a child. I remember picking raspberries – ouch! – and cutting fresh asparagus for dinner. I recall digging up carrots, eating sun-kissed rhubarb with lots of salt and freezing sweet corn, once, twice, maybe three times a season! But it sure tasted sweet months later with meatloaf and mashed potatoes.
This spring, I will attempt my second year with a straw bale garden. I experimented with one last year. About 13 straw bales lined my patio and I planted tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, onions, radishes and some flowers into the bales treated with a special fertilizer mix and lots of water. (For more info, Google straw bale gardening or find it on Facebook.) It was easy to water all summer long and easy to harvest just a few steps outside my kitchen! I think I’ll add some green and yellow beans to the list this year.
What really got me dreaming of gardens were the essays I read by fourth grade students for the Ag in the Classroom essay contest. The theme was: Wisconsin gardens provide many food choices for us.
Their creativity surpasses mine by far! Here’s a few excerpts:
“At home you should try gardening. All you need is seeds, a shovel, water and soil. Gardens can grow peas, celery, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, watermelon, cucumbers, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries apples and other vegetables and fruits.”
“Do you feel like starting a garden? It’s a very good idea. After all, it tastes better if you grow it yourself; don’t forget to take the weeds out. Gardening is hard work, but well worth it.”
“Almost every day you eat fruit from a garden. You might have pizza, salad, or a pickle, but each one comes from a garden. The tomato and spices from a pizza, the leaves and lettuce of a salad, or just a cucumber made into a pickle. All fresh fruits and vegetables are way healthier than sweets.”
“A salad is like eating a rainbow that helps my body grow big and strong. The colors in nutritious fruits and vegetables will always beat out those artificial colors put in unhealthy kid’s food.”
“Wisconsin farms provide almost all the food I eat. I don’t know what I would do without Wisconsin gardens. They are definitely something to be proud of. I don’t know what I would eat if I didn’t have Wisconsin gardens.”
“I love visiting farms because it is cool to see how they milk cows and grow food. I think of farms every time I eat and drink because our world would be weird without farmers.”
This student summed it up best: “Thank you to all Wisconsin farmers who work long hard days to help feed everyone who lives in the city. And thanks to all the farmers elsewhere who also give us healthy food choices! I love having Wisconsin farmers supplying the things I need. Thank you all farmers everywhere!”
Happy Earth Day!
In honor of Earth Day, I’ll be making three classroom visits to fourth graders here in Watertown. Each year I take my large, life-size calf poster and other “samples” from the farm. I give an update of what it’s like to care for land and animals every day. I encourage all the students to “ask a real farmer” when they have a question about food or farming. And I warn them not to believe everything they read or see on the Internet!
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