A VEGGIE TALE

When I was a child (back in the dark ages when man roamed the earth praying he would not be T-Rex's next meal), all of the get-togethers with my Italian family centered around food. Homemade pizza. Pasta and meatballs. Ravioli. Lasagna. Stuffed artichokes and cardone. Homemade bread...is your mouth watering yet?

What is interesting to me as an adult (certainly not then, because it was 'normal'---what's to ponder?) is that I don't remember much of anything that ever came out of a box or a can. My Nana made her own pastas. I remember clean, white towels on the bed in the guest room, with acres of every type of pasta drying there for future feasts. Even tomato sauce and whole tomatoes were home grown and home-canned (i.e., Mason Jars). Produce galore grew at our home, my grandmother's, and those of my aunts and uncles.

But as I grew and became 'enlightened', I turned my face away from the bounty to which I'd been accustomed. For quite a while, I merrily went to the Big Name Grocery Store. The produce aisle has always been my favorite place (go figure?), so I would stock up. But after new information on the horizon of the dangers of traditionally grown produce (and after becoming Hypothyroid with an autoimmune disorder), I abandoned my beloved aisle.

My substitute was the offering of the pitifully puny Organic Section. It was amazing to me that the selections of pesticide-ridden foods can be so wide, while the safer, tastier organic produce is relegated to a tiny corner of the gigantic store, forced to exist in obscurity with only a few of the bold and quirky being drawn to its healthier alternative . And so, I pressed on, but only for a while. Higher prices soon brought down my spirits and my resolve.

Next I moved to a popular neighborhood venture: Fresh Farm Delivered Produce! Several in our neighborhood, also dismayed over the direction of the food supply, had a California farm deliver produce. Wow, that was great fun! I had a lot of flexibility in delivery and choices. However, to my extreme disappointment, the produce wasn't always up to my standards. The local Farmer's Market was an option, but my days did not always lend themselves to hunting and gathering mode. What to do...what to do?

Back in March, knowing Summer would soon be upon us, I gathered up my strength (and garden tools) and prepared my back yard. Beds were readied (curious name...as if I want the seeds to SLEEP!) Seeds and seedlings were purchased or brought out of cold storage (even now I still have some of my family's seeds!) Slowly, I coaxed each volunteer of my army into the ground. Water sources were readied with timers. Now, it was all up to the troops.

That was then...and this is now. It is mid-June, and I can't tell you how many mouth-watering salads we've enjoyed. Swiss chard and garlic have been married into delicious side dishes. And the artichokes! We've just finished the last of that harvest, and memories of greater than 30 artichokes from only two plants are forever etched in our memories. We now gaze longingly at the stalks, happily dreaming of a Cardone Festival.

Ah, yes....tasty food! What are some of the other real benefits? Talk about complete control! I fill my yard with ladybugs, who become my 'Pest-Eats-Pests' friends. And I fertilize the safe way: with an organic, natural compound. Everything I harvest is simply wonderful! There truly is nothing better than a Nantes Carrot, or a Burpless Cuke straight from the garden, still warm from the sun. And as I write, tomatoes, eggplant and squash are beginning to show signs of blossoms. Huzzah!!!

But, alas, Winter looms ahead of me. Yes, there will be spinach and fava beans; perhaps even some brocolli. And plantings of garlic and potatoes will surely take place. But for today, I bask in the lush abundance of my Summer Garden.

I have now come full circle in my Veggie Tale. And as the ghosts of Italian Gardeners Past lure me into implementing methods of food storage, I am confident of this: today I harvest, only to feast on yet another day!