When I was growing up, my family always had a large vegetable garden. Since my father was a teacher, he generally had more time in the summer to work in the garden. And I enjoyed helping him.
We also had relatives who lived on farms, whom we often visited and assisted with gardening and chores. So I had instilled in me a love of the outdoors and appreciation for nature and fresh food.
When I was growing up, my dad (a teacher who had summers off) always planted a large vegetable garden.
As his tomatoes, beets, carrots, and other vegetables multiplied, he would often take pails of produce around the neighborhood as gifts to other families. I helped with planting and weeding, although my main role was taking care of the flowers decorating the garden.
Ever since then, I’ve always enjoyed gardening. Being outdoors with the smell of dirt (to me it smells good) and the bees buzzing gives me a sense of calm and peace.
When our children were young, we, too, had a vegetable garden. However, it got to be too much work to keep up with the weeding and harvesting — plus two of our neighbors had gardens and liked to share their produce with us. We decided to give up the vegetables, but we still have flowers and maintain our fairly large yard.
MADISON — In its 65th year of service, lack of fresh, healthy produce in the food pantry is no longer a problem for the Catholic Multicultural Center (CMC).
An over one-acre community garden began providing produce for the center this spring. The garden, which has been in existence for 12 years, is one of three overseen by a local volunteer group, Madison Area Food Pantry Gardens.
Gleaning, the act of harvesting surplus produce from farms, celebrates the local food economy while increasing access to nutritious food.
