Why More People are Growing Their Own Food
I hated our family garden, but now people are returning to the soil.
My early interest in gardening had more to do with mules than with food. In early spring, my parents transformed their small parcel of land into a lush garden, where corn, butter beans, tomatoes, squash, and cabbage vied for space beneath a southern summer sun.
But it wasn’t the vegetables, it was the preparation that was exciting. My father rented a mule and plow to prepare the land every year. For a child who loved horses but didn’t have one, a mule was the next best thing.
I was allowed to sit on the sidelines and watch as the mule trudged up and down long rows, creating furrows in the loamy earth that my parents would later sow with seed. I looked on, entranced, wishing I could sit on the mule’s bony back and pretend it was a black stallion.
But once the mule had finished its work, I hated the garden. I despised shucking corn since removing the outer husk meant exposing fat, green worms. My siblings and I screeched in horror over each worm, but my mother viewed them as enemies competing for the delectable corn beneath the husks. Exhibiting little patience with our screeches, she told us to pull off the worms and continue our work.
