Dear Kitchen Gardener,

Greetings from southern California. Roger invited me into this space on the eve of the day that the world's diverse peoples stop to celebrate their common home.

I don't know about you, but Earth Day frightens me. Schoolchildren learn to “save the planet” in umpteen ways, our communities plant trees in inappropriate places regardless of the weather, the media spins the celebratory aspect. Retailers embrace the day by touting “greener” products. Earth Day has become a pre-packaged event, a shopping opportunity. How have we come to this?

As a gardener, I feel “Every day is Earth Day.” I worry about the worms and the soil microbes. I try to be careful, to give back: composting, mulching, watering with care rather than to excess, minimizing inputs while hoping to maximize the yield without damaging the fragile soil, the precious groundwater, the environment we live in and depend on every day.

In bygone times, before Earth Day was invented, food was directly related to each household’s efforts. Everyone, children included, could see the cause and effect: recycle animal and plant wastes, plow and plant in the spring, hoe endlessly all summer, hope for rain, and with luck, harvest enough to survive another winter.

In today’s pre-prepared, instant and fast food world, we’re forgetting that seasonal progression and our immediate, urgent dependency on our natural resources.  And our children are losing sight of how we all truly depend on the earth, including  how our food grows, and how food can be grown: at home, with love, with care, with respect for the environment.

I once asked a group of bright ten year olds: Where does your breakfast cereal come from? “The box!” “The store!” Before that? Eventually, after much pondering and consternation, they decided on “the factory.” Is that your final answer? Blank looks, although these children lived in a rural area surrounded by orchards and dairy farms. This lack of awareness scares me.

Another day, different kids, this time planting seeds as an Earth Day project at a nature center.  Just for fun, along with the usual veggie seeds, I’d brought an authentic-looking packet labeled “Donut Seeds” (see photo above). This proved irresistible: “Can I really grow donuts?” Truly, they did not understand the joke. I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

Newly transplanted to Los Angeles, with its famed freeways and smog, I wonder how many city children ever even see any type of food being grown? Sure, there are a few community gardens, but they are small and far between. I did see a pumpkin patch once: they trucked in the pumpkins and rolled them out on a vacant lot behind a chain link fence.

Now a reluctant apartment dweller, I tend a solitary tomato plant alongside containers of favorite herbs, edible nasturtiums and violets, and a few flowers: my “eye candy” and “soul food.”  I grow these in my parking space, next to my car.

So I have a renewed appreciation for farmers markets. This sprawling metropolis supports a farmers market somewhere every day of the week! I’m thankful for growers who bring us city dwellers real food – seasonal and fresh from the garden. It takes me back many years to when I drove our vegetables to town two mornings a week. Finally, I understand the true pleasure of the kitchen garden.

If only we could teach our children, too. Maybe on Earth Day?

Sincerely,

Barbara Martin