Tuesday, September 8, 2015

The Stuff of My Life

Hello,

Last night Leroy and I went to the community garden. Warm but not too hot with the sun going down earlier made for a pleasant time there. One other woman who often comes was there ahead of us. We pulled weeds and chatted. In a bit another woman came, one whom we had not met before. She was quite interesting. She works on Monday nights so cannot often come. I talked her into taking some of the soy beans. Hopefully someone else will get interested in this crop. They are so easy and carefree to grow. Dryness does not bother them too much and bugs seem to avoid them.

While weeding I got into an ant hill that I did not know about. They are fierce little bitters. My ankles still hurt when I walked home. It was necessary for me to leave the garden and clean out my sandals as well as inspect my feet and between my toes. Much better than being attacked by a bear, but still quite unpleasant.

Later two younger women stopped to talk. One of them was a Coe College student who lived right next door. Her sister, a former grad lives about 20 miles away. She talked as if she would come up next Monday and help weed as well as gather something to take home. She is a physical therapy student and quite interested in eating local produce. As she said, holding up her bag of bounty, “Tomorrow’s lunch is now much improved.”

This garden seems to come into its own more and more. There are some days when Leroy feels he is doing 90% of the work, but these times make it more worthwhile. My impression is that there is a lot of traffic in the garden that we never see. I know someone eats the kale as well as the collards. Most of the larger eggplant fruits are gone so those too have been taken. The bounty of the earth! I just hope and pray that it goes to those who need it and benefit the most.


Paula

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