I’ve been quiet for the past months, dear readers, because a sad, sad thing happened. My beloved father – who taught me how to garden, how to be a good person and never let me get off the phone without saying how much he loved me – died in April. He fell off a roof. At 85 years old. He fell off a roof then climbed back on to finish what he was doing. Later we learned he had 18 broken ribs and undetected heart disease. So he left us for other adventures.

Recounting the awesomeness of his loving life, how he inspired so many in his extraordinary, ordinary way has made me a bit self-reflective over the past months. He wasn’t a showy “look at me” type of guy. He just did the right thing because it was the right thing. And made a point of seeing the good in everyone.

Spending time with my now widowed mother – they’d known each other for 71 years – has brought up a lot of stories and memories as we both try to make sense of this loss. I want share two of them.

Daddy used to say that when I was little I loved to put on my “gardening hat” and run up and down the rows of our large vegetable garden. It was a twice-daily ritual. He would do his garden inspection in the morning, before work, and chores after work. And I would run up and down the rows chattering to keep him company. He didn’t think I was chattering to him, for the most part, but conversations were happening.

I believe this story to be true because one of my first memories is running between two rows of greens where I was stopped short by a spider web strung across the path. I remember the color of the greens (the row to the left was beets), the color of the light (it was Fall), the dirt under my bare feet and that enormous spider in her dewy web. If I close my eyes, I’m four again and see it all like it was yesterday.

Mother tells me that when I was little, despite having plenty of toys, my favorite activity was sitting in the kitchen and moving her pots and pans around. Sometimes banging on them with a wooden spoon or pretending to stir things. And chattering.

I believe this story to be true because one of my other first memories is sitting on her kitchen island with a bowl in my lap “stirring” (making a mess is more likely). We were making chocolate chip cookies. As she bustled around the kitchen she would stop by every now and then and say “let mommy get the feel of it.” She’d then stir my mess into something resembling cookie dough, add another ingredient, tell me what a good job I was doing and proceed on.

So you can see that food, gardening and family were foundational themes in my life.

I grew up in rural Oregon in the 70′s and 80′s. For those not from that neck of the woods “rural Oregon in the 70′s and 80′s” equates to lots of hippies. Not my parents – they were older and conservative – but everyone else’s parents and, well, most everyone else in general. After leaving home, I went to college at University of Oregon in Eugene. For those not familiar with Eugene, Oregon, that also equates to lots of hippies. Except in the 80′s and 90′s many of them were professors, employers or other influencers.

With this background noise of social consciousness and activism, I always had a nagging feeling that I’d missed out on something. Hearing revolutionary stories like marches against “the war” (that means Vietnam), protests against inequality of all kinds, hanging from “The Who’s” helicopter at Woodstock (hey, even hippies need to have some fun!) The Reagan-era 80′s and 90′s seemed, well, boring. My job with an environmental publication was a nice try but I felt the revolutionary days had passed by and I’d missed out.

Meanwhile I was learning some “radical” gardening ideas from a friend who was one of the original employees at Smith & Hawken. Companion planting, permaculture astrological gardening – you name it, I tried it. While most people get their religious or political beliefs challenged in college, I got my gardening beliefs challenged. And boy did daddy and I have some heated (but friendly) discussions!

I left Oregon and landed in Chicago, accidentally, in 1994. After adjusting to the lack of hippies, I settled into this land of opportunity, started a career, married a wonderful husband, developed an extended “family” of incredible friends and proceeded to have a great life. But those early influences of food and gardening (and hippies) haunted me. It all came to a head after seven years in a condo and me whining about no gardening space… my wise (or maybe annoyed) husband woke up one February and said, “Should we buy a house? Wait. Should we buy a yard?” And we did. We bought a “yard with a house attached to it” and we put in our garden the very next summer. And that’s how I started blogging about The Yarden.

As if having my own garden paradise wasn’t enough, I’d developed this condition I call “lot lust” where I see empty space and want to put in a garden. This is what happened with the empty lot on Peterson Ave. that became the first Peterson Garden Project garden. Inspired by a photo in a local butcher shop showing the space as a Victory Garden in WW2, my love of food gardening and a big dose my parents’ Greatest Generation “if you don’t like something change it” ethos, I took the first steps to revive the Victory Garden tradition on that piece of land and teach people to grow their own food. Quickly, an army of like-minded souls joined in and we had the largest edible, organic garden in the city in one short season.

One of the first volunteers to the project, Alexandra Nelson, wrote this one rainy day as we sat, in awe, discussing how people were so eager to grow their own food together. (And, Alexandra is, in all fairness, an old hippie.)

And I had a little ah ha moment. Maybe the revolutionary days hadn’t passed after all… maybe they were beginning with a new spin?

Shortly after that, Jeff and Jennifer Spitz of Groundswell Films approached me about featuring Peterson Garden Project in their movie Food Patriots. After about 13 seconds of conversation we realized we were kindred spirits. And their journey, as parents, to understand a food system that almost killed their son really touched a nerve…

Almost three years later, they’ve crafted an amazing story about how individuals, like you and me, are making a difference in our food system in small and large ways. And how this revolution is growing, day-by-day.

And, four years later, the Peterson Garden Project has become an award winning education program encompassing 3,000 gardeners and volunteers, nine gardens, a learning center, a full-blown garden curriculum and an upcoming book called “Fearless Food Gardening in Chicagoland” for those would-be gardeners who have an inkling they might want to grow their own food, too.

There’s an old Greek proverb that reminds me of my father, and all parents, really:

“A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in.”

When my parents were young they were called the Greatest Generation for the ordinary work they did, en masse, to win a war. We live with the blessings, and challenges, of their effort every day. And today, we have the chance to win a war, too. We may not see the consequences today, or tomorrow, of making different food choices, or teaching others to grow their own food. But we have the opportunity three times a day to take part in today’s food revolution with every bite we consume and every dollar we spend. And the consequences of our actions – just like the Greatest Generation’s efforts and just like my own dear father’s loving parenting – will live on in unexpected and important ways long after we are all just a string of cherished memories.

We’re halfway through spring orientation for the Peterson Garden Project 2013 season and it makes my heart happy to see folks who, last year, had no clue about growing food going into their second season. And I really love the gardeners from our first, original garden in 2010. Some of them, novices at the time, have gone on to share what they know and teach others.

But most of all I love our GREWBIES (growing newbies)… every year they show up, eager, excited and a little scared… here’s some of the advice I share with them.

[Hopefully, if you're a grewbie too, no matter where you are, this advice gives you some comfort and encouragement as well. And to our Peterson Garden Project grewbies - I'll see you in the garden soon!]

1. Mother Nature is our best friend… and sometimes our worst enemy. One of the joys of gardening is becoming less distracted from our high technology, media stimulated world and settling back into the rhythms of nature. She is a little moody these days due to climate change and she’s keeping us on our toes. Last year on this day, April 18, it was 76 and dry as a bone. Today we’re in our third day of non-stop rain and there’s a chance of snow tomorrow. You never know what nature is going to throw at you but, as a gardener, you learn to adapt.

2. You will make mistakes. This is a promise and part of the fun. Even as a lifelong gardener I make lots of mistakes. Sometimes the same ones – see Top 5 Dumb Gardening Mistakes as a case in point. Just forgive yourself and move on – gardens are a good place to learn to not take yourself so seriously.

3. Your garden won’t look like Martha Stewart’s garden. Most normal peoples’ gardens aren’t photo ready and perfect. Sometimes leaves are brown or plants are scraggly as they’re getting started or ending their growing cycle. Sometimes insects like to camp out and there might be disease. You will learn to deal with these things and love your garden with its imperfections.

4. In fact, you might over love your garden but not in the way it needs… while last year over watering seemed impossible due to the stinky heat, you can over water, over prune, over tend. Find the balance of what your plants need and admit it if you have a little OCD. Save that for work, let the garden be your relaxed place.

5. Chances are you will over plant. If I had a dollar for every time one of our new gardeners showed up with enough plants for the back forty vs. their 4×8′ I could buy a house in Hawaii. I gently explain over planting, expecting the dejected look, and then remind them (and myself) gardening is all about trial and error. If you must plant all that then you go on and plant all that. It will be a great learning experience. (And I’ll smile next year when I hear, “you were right, we planted too much” and smile more when you do it again…)

6. You need 200 square feet per person to feed someone all season from a garden. Your 4×8′ will not feed your family of four. You will get a lot of produce, herbs, great stuff and save yourself some money, but you’ll still need to go to the grocery store. Sorry.

7.  You don’t have to buy a lot of fancy stuff to garden. You can if you want and you have the dollars but, even then, I don’t recommend it. Gardens are great places to recycle things and spending more money won’t make your plants any happier or make you a better gardener.

8. While it would be great if every seed and transplant provider grew their material organically, it is how you raise the plant that matters. If the seeds or transplants you buy aren’t organic, it isn’t the end of the world. You’ll raise them organically. That’s what counts.

9. Gardeners are the most generous people I know. Why? Because after all that love and care you bestow on your plants you can’t stand the thought of something going to waste. Extra produce is a great excuse to get to meet your neighbor. Since you’re a gardener now, why not get a head start and meet your neighbor ahead of time? Chances are they might have some good advice to share, offer to water while you’re on vacation or be really happy at the prospect of homegrown tomatoes. Share the love, people!

10. The most important piece of advice is this - plants want to grow. As much as we like to complicate gardening today with special methods or gadgets and create anxiety over it all, we have civilization because of agriculture so it can’t be all that hard. And it isn’t a contest. Gardening is a partnership with you, your plants and your patch of soil. So be nice to yourself – you can do this! – and welcome to a lifetime of adventure.

Over the past four years I’ve talked a lot about WW2 Victory Gardens to many groups. Some people come to my lecture for nostalgic reasons, some to learn a bit of history. Many come to find out about the revival Victory Garden that launched The Peterson Garden Project. My lecture takes about 45 minutes and I leave time for questions and, inevitably, someone will ask “That was wartime. How are Victory Gardens relevant today?”

I love this question.

My answer is this… the famous permaculturalist Geoff Lawton said “All the world’s problems can be solved in a garden.” I wish I’d said it first because I agree wholeheartedly. Sure, we’re not in a wartime situation but people have their own personal reasons for growing food today.

While the landscape industry is taking a nosedive financially as people have cut back their discretionary spending, the interest (and spending) related to food gardening has increased almost 70% over the last three years. A soon-to-be-released study from Rutgers University (and co-sponsored by the American Community Garden Association) on community gardens reveals that urban, suburban and rural communities all over the country are starting community gardens in droves. People from all income levels and walks of life, in cities and in the country, want to grow their own food for a thousand good reasons at their homes or in community gardens.

I call these “Today’s Victories” – they’re all valid and they’re all important.

Here’s a few of those victories that we’re going to be highlighting at the Chicago Flower and Garden Show March 9-17 in our exhibit The Peterson Garden Project: Victory Today!

[If one of these victories resonates with you, let me know. Please share this post. Post your Victory on your FB page or Twitter with #VictoryToday in the copy.]

The types of vegetables you find in the grocery store are grown to withstand shipping distances, not to taste great. When you grow your own food, it is more flavorful, and you have numerous tasty varieties to choose from.

Eating more fruits and vegetables reduces the risks of obesity, heart disease and other health problems caused by poor nutrition. By growing your own, you have more control over your health and wellness.

Growing a portion of your own food can save you money. A package of seeds costs less than two dollars and, if they are non-hybrid, you can save them to use next year, too.

The average commercial produce travels an estimated 1,500 miles to get to the store. By growing your own food at home or in a community garden, you help the environment by removing the carbon footprint of some of your food.

Children are natural gardeners! By spending time growing food with your children, you not only increase outdoor family time but your kids learn new skills and, more importantly, where their food comes from.

Founding Father Thomas Jefferson said, “Although I am an old man, I am but a young gardener.” Skills like gardening, cooking, and canning all come into play when you want to grow your own food. These skills last a lifetime, can be shared with others, and can bring great joy.

Growing food with others in a community garden is a great way to get to know new people and do something good for your neighborhood. “Many hands make light work,” and your group efforts can beautify your corner of the world and feed a lot of people, too.

In Chicago alone, 1 in 6 individuals are food insecure, which means they don’t know when or where their next meal will come from. By sharing the excess produce you grow with local food pantries, you help neighbors in need.

As the Peterson Garden Project expands (people really want to learn how to grow their own food!) we’ve fine tuned our registration and membership process for 2013. Thanks for all your support and participation! This year is going to be awesome with your help…

This post originally appeared on the We Can Grow It! blog.

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We’re delighted to announce details for 2013 Peterson Garden Project membership and garden registration. As always, we offer returning PGP members first dibs (until Friday, March 1), and will continue registration until gardens are full.

2013 GARDEN LOCATIONS

• Global Garden (Lawrence at Sacramento)
• Land on Lincoln (Lincoln at Sacramento)
• Montrose Green (Montrose, at the Montrose Brown Line stop)
• Vedgewater (Broadway at Rosemont)

Note: Stars Garden will close this year, and its members will have priority registration at a new location, Land on Lincoln, on Lincoln at Sacramento.

Additional locations will be announced soon—we’ll update this list as soon as we have confirmed all logistics.

KEY DATES

2/18 Returning member registration for Global Garden, Stars Garden and Vedgewater Garden began. If you gardened at one of these locations in 2012 and cleaned out your plotappropriately at the end of last season, you received an email with instructions for registering for the same plot in 2013.  Please note, our system-generated confirmation emails are not including your “assigned garden” in the text, but rest assured that we have this information in our database.  Once returning gardener registration ends on Friday, March 1, returning gardeners will receive a new confirmation email including the assigned garden information.

2/27 Returning member registration for Montrose Green begins (technical details for membership at this location are currently being fixed. If this date moves, you’ll see updates here, in our newsletter and on Facebook.)

3/4 New member registration begins for Global Garden, Land on Lincoln, Montrose Green and Vedgewater. Anyone who is a new member to PGP will be able to register for membership to begin gardening at a plot in one of our existing garden locations. Spaces are allotted on a first come, first served basis.

3/18 New garden location registration opens. Anyone wishing to become a member at one of our new 2013 garden locations can register today. We are still finalizing details around new garden locations, and as soon as they are finalized, we will announce their names and addresses.

MEMBERSHIP FEES

• Garden membership is $75 for the 2013 growing season which includes education, events, some materials and a garden plot
• We also provide need-based scholarships. If you want to request a need-based scholarship, send a note to info@petersongarden.org.
• If you would like to support a scholarship plot, please make a donation of $75 athttp://j.mp/PGPDonate.

ORIENTATION

As always, an annual orientation session is mandatory for all members, even if you are a returning gardener. Why? Because membership in a PGP garden means that we all share responsibility for maintaining our gardens together, so we need to review how that happens with you every year.

• You will pre-select an orientation date during the registration process.
• All orientations will be held at The Peterson Garden Project Learning Center, 4642 N. Francisco, Chicago (adjacent to the Francisco stop on the Brown Line).
• IMPORTANT: If you don’t attend one of the orientation sessions, we will refund your registration fee and release your garden to the waiting list. For any questions, please email registration@petersongarden.org.

GARDEN CLEAN-UP, SET-UP AND OPENING

We will announce garden clean-up dates and assorted events in all our garden locations in the coming weeks. We anticipate existing gardens to open on April 22 and are targeting new gardens to open Memorial Day weekend.  Watch our newsletter and Facebook page for ongoing updates.

DONATE!

Membership fees alone don’t cover the full expense of building/maintaining the gardens so we need your help to support scholarships, community programs and events, volunteer management, and free classes. Please go to http://j.mp/PGPDonate today and make a tax-deductible gift to the Peterson Garden Project today.

The Speedy Vegetable Garden by Mark Diacono and Lia Leendertz is a quick read (that’s a joke). Actually this wonderful book by Timber Press arrived just in time to stave off the mid-winter crazies. Too soon to plant outside but full on garden growing in my brain. I had been looking for a book on sprouting – not necessarily because I crave speed, but I certainly crave that special taste – and pride – you only receive from growing your own food.

This book provided my sprouting education – or, in all fairness, refresher – I remember when sprouts were all the rage in the ’70′s and my mom always had a mason jar of alfalfa sprouts in production under the kitchen sink. Sadly, alfalfa sprouts always grossed me out so I was determined this new phase of sprouting  would be tastier and The Speedy Vegetable Garden delivered the info to make that happen. Sunflower sprouts – a favorite. Fenugreek and chickpea? I can’t wait to try them!

Sprouts have a slightly older sibling… micro-greens. Having associated micro greens with restaurants I can’t afford I had never thought to grow them myself. I now have a tray of arugula babies sprouting away in my garage.

The best part of this book from the perspective of an educator (we teach hundreds of new gardeners each year at The Peterson Garden Project) is the full-on vegetable section. It isn’t that the growing techniques are different, per  se, but the philosophy is… grow things that come on fast and eat them small (new potatoes, radishes, tiny zucchini). And do a lot of succession planting… The new gardeners we teach often have a case of A.D.D. (sorry folks, it is true!) They aren’t familiar with the growing season and they want stuff NOW. Of course we know this can’t happen, but by approaching this new set of growers with a small/new, fast growing perspective it might help them get more instant gratification on the beginning of their gardening journey.

Speedy vegetables, long-term gardeners. Sounds like a good plan to me.

Recently friends have been questioning my sanity – “Who goes to Fargo in the winter?!”

It was a first trip for me, and as we were flying in, I really, deeply understood the meaning of “Great Plains” – the view from horizon to horizon is flat as a pancake.

(And, yes, movie fans, the wood chipper lives at the Visitor’s Bureau.)

Gardening in Fargo-Moorhead (a twin city in Minnesota just over the Red River of “Red River Valley” fame) has its pros and cons. A big plus is that this area has some of the best soil in the world. A serious con, a very short growing season (USDA Hardiness Zone 3-4). But these good natured and hard working descendants of Scandinavian pioneers make community gardens work – and work well – with what they’ve got.

I was in Fargo, in the winter, to be the “lovely assistant” to facilitator Amanda Edmonds to teach a workshop on community gardens. Amanda alone was worth the flight – she’s founder of Growing Hope, a not-for-profit based in Ypsilanti, Michigan, former American Community Gardening Association board member and Michigan local food systems dynamo.

Friday morning, after some amusing confusion with our names being so similar (mine LaManda – hers Amanda), house keeping and intros, this seasoned Growing Communities facilitator quickly demonstrated to a group of 40+ diverse personalities and programs that the two-days they were about to spend together would change how they viewed their gardens, their programs and their sense of what community is really all about.

Through an intense and hands-on weekend, the learning went both ways, Jack and Nola from Growing Together shared how their gardens work as a “food and family” ministry for “new Americans” from Bhutan and Africa (which reminded me of the excellent book on this topic The Earth Knows My Name – a must-read for those working with refugee populations.) Focusing on the “original Americans” Colette and Robert discussed how gardening is bringing heritage and traditional ways alive at the Bismarck United Tribes Technical College. In a similar vein, Jamie talked about using community gardening as a forum for her daughter’s Girl Scout Troop and revealed that her grandmother was the last Mandan corn priestess. Clearly, growing corn has special meaning for her family! Our organizer, Abby and her colleagues from NDSU Extension provided support, expertise and good senses of humor. Numerous folks who introduced themselves as “just home gardeners” proved to be excellent resources (and potential volunteers) while Ross and Amber, emerging farmers at Heart & Soil Farm decided that, in all their free time, supporting the community gardens in Fargo-Moorehead would be central to their new farm’s mission.

For over a decade the American Community Gardening Association has been offering Growing Communities workshops across the US and Canada. Participants usually think they’re coming to learn how to install or maintain a community garden (no matter what the flyer says). What they really learn is that community gardens are 10% garden and 90% community. And they leave with the skills needed to make the most of their communities no matter where they live and what challenges they face.

To learn how a Growing Communities workshop can change the outlook of your town/city/state’s community gardens send a note to info@communitygardens.org

When I run into our gardeners or people who know about the Peterson Garden Project I hear a lot of comments like “what do you do to stay busy during the winter months?” This makes me laugh because the winter months are just as busy except the work is more cerebral in nature vs. the heavy lifting of spring and summer.

The PGP leadership team, and our wonderful partners, have been planning a number of exciting things as we go into year four of our mission to recruit, educate and inspire a new generation of gardeners who want to gain control of their food supply, grow their own produce organically, and make urban gardening the norm—not the exception.

From our single, eponymous revival Victory Garden in 2010, we’ve grown to four giant Pop-up Victory gardens, two demo gardens, a workplace garden at the Field Museum and a school garden at Mather High School. It was quite a year!

2013 shows no signs of slowing down as even more people want to learn to grow food and make stronger communities.

Here’s ten things I’m looking forward to doing – with YOU – in 2013:

Unless you’ve been to one of our plant sales, a movie night or another event, you may not know about our Learning Center at 4642 N Francisco Ave. That’s probably because we got the space (thanks to a grant from CEDA and the Cook County Dept of Energy) right in the middle of April when we were building all the gardens. The Learning Center, or HQ as we like to call it, developed slowly over the summer to host the plant sales, some events, meetings, etc. For 2013 we will be using the space to the fullest with a complete list of “winter” classes. (Information will be available the week of Jan 7 on our Classes & Events page.) We’re very excited about expanding our educational offerings and using the Learning Center to its fullest.

That being said, our annual Seed Swap is too big for the space so we’ll be having it again at Swedish Covenant Hospital on Sunday, February 10 at 2pm.

Immediately before the Seed Swap at 1pm we’ll have a Informational Session for new and returning gardeners to talk about more exciting plans for 2013. Details about the Seed Swap and the Info Session will be on our Classes & Events page the week of Jan 7.

We’ll have plenty of information prior to the swap on how it works, what to bring and more. Plan on a really fun day!

Word has spread about what we’re up to on the north side teaching people to grow food. The Chicago Flower and Garden Show has asked us to participate with an exhibit March 9-17 highlighting the history of Victory Gardens in Chicago and how community and home food gardening provides “new victories” for modern lives. Lucky for us, our talented creative team - Mark Kanazawa and Patrick Ewing - will be designing the space using found objects and their amazing sense of style. Lots of other partners are helping to tell the story, too. Stay tuned, we’ll be talking about this exciting event more in the next few months and please save the dates because we’ll need your help!

Building so many new gardens was a lot of joyful work last summer… and there might be more this year!

We’ve gotten a lot of calls and emails about unsightly empty lots that communities would like to convert into food gardens and neighborhood hubs.

We’ll be announcing new gardens after March 1. Get those work gloves out!

Our third annual Plant Sale will be held Mother’s Day weekend at the Learning Center.

This year we are very excited to be working with a local grower who is providing plants raised from organic Seed Saver’s Exchange seeds in an environmentally friendly peat-free mix and a biodegradable pot.

The Leadership Team will be developing a selection of “PGP Picks” that we’ve grown in our own home gardens and know to be strong producers in our area. Stay tuned for more information!

On the note of Seed Savers Exchange… we partnered with them last year for the Edible Treasures Garden at the Field Museum. What a wonderful and positive experience that was! Being a lifelong SSE/heirloom seed junkie, this was a dream come true for me and I know the sentiment was shared by the Leadership Team and many of you as well.

This year we’re going to continue the partnership with SSE by building a seed saving garden at Global Garden to expand our educational scope to teach people how to grow and save their own seed. And we’ll continue helping with the Edible Treasures garden and work to facilitate a larger community of seed saving groups in the Chicago area. We’ll also be teaching and hosting workshops with SSE about relevant seed-specific topics. If you’re a seed junkie too, and interested in helping with this initiative, send a note to info@petersongarden.org

2012 was a “build year” – a lot of our energy was taken up organizing the new Pop-up Victory gardens – and dealing with that brutal heat!

Now that the gardens are in place, we want to focus on more community events in the gardens like “plotlucks,” music, story hour for the kids and other events. A community garden is 10% garden and 90% community according to the American Community Gardening Association and we love those fun events that bring us all closer as neighbors, friends and gardeners.

And we’ll do our big events too! Last year’s Gnomedependence Day on July 4 was a blast! We’ll have other big PGP-wide events to bring us all together to celebrate the great work we’re all doing and have some fun. Hopefully the weather will be a bit cooler this year but who knows?!

Last but not least, our expanded Grow2Give program this year was stellar. In addition to our gardening volunteers we had lots of other people join us to grow in excess of 1,000 pounds of produce to share with food and nutrition partners in the communities where our gardens were located. Under the supervision of our Leadership Team member, Xan Nelson (“the lady with the pink hair”), teams maintained, watered, harvested, weighed and delivered produce faithfully all summer long. And our partners sure appreciated it.

For 2013, we will expand this program in the communities where our new gardens are located and fine tune it to provide more opportunities for volunteers and more food for those in need.

When I was a kid we used to go to Disneyland every year for spring break. I grew up in Oregon and we had family in California so it was a great chance to see the cousins and have some fun at the park. My favorite ride, Big Thunder Mountain, had this caution as the ride was beginning “Hold on to your hats and glasses! This here’s the wiiiillldest ride in the west!” Whenever I heard that, I knew the fun was about to start!

Well friends, hold on your hats and (sun)glasses because 2013 is going to be amazing. Together, as a community of neighbors, friends, gardeners, partners and sponsors we are all making a difference and that is a wild and exciting adventure indeed.

Please feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions via info@petersongarden.org and, on behalf of myself and the Leadership Team, we’re looking forward to seeing you all in 2013!

Books are  a welcome token of love for any occasion. They truly are the “gift that keeps on giving” as they get passed from friend to friend and share their goodness along the way. I am an avid reader and sharer. Since I don’t keep books, one of my few regrets in life is not making a list of everything I’ve read – mostly because I sometimes buy something and start reading to realize I’d been there before. Oh that makes me mad! But I digress…

I’ve read each of these books in the past year… some inspired me for the work we do with Peterson Garden Project. Some have made me feel that the writer was a friend of mine and we were having a talk about a topic we both love. All of them touched me deeply. And, for someone who reads as much as I do, this is a beautiful thing.

Part 1: Garden Biographies and History (with a tasty distraction)

If you’ve heard the expression “standing on the shoulders of giants” it aptly applies to Diane Ott Whealy and Seed Saver’s Exchange. The explosion of popularity for heirloom seeds and, more importantly, the awareness of their critical value can be credited to 30+ years of hard work and dedication of this great lady. Gathering: Memoir of a Seed Saver chronicles the birth of a movement from humble beginnings. I won’t gush too much about how I admire Diane (you can read more here) but reading this book about how SSE was founded and evolved to the important role it plays today in the world of genetic diversity was awe inspiring.

Will Allen and Growing Power have become household names – at least in the households I am invited to. The Good Food Revolution should be required reading for those invoking Will’s name and work. Like Diane Wheley’s book, The Good Food Revolution explains how passion can fuel years of hard, hard work and that faith in an idea can change the world.

I got first hand exposure to the power of the revolution Will has been nurturing at the 2012 International Growing Power Conference in Milwaukee. The energy and hope this movement has inspired are non-stoppable. Read the book now so you’re in the know – this is good stuff.

Back to the heirloom seed theme… Jere Gettle from Baker Creek has turned a childhood obsession into a thriving business and furthered the mission of seed diversity in the process. The Heirloom Life Gardener is another epic tale of love woven into a life’s mission to create something we’re all benefitting from now.

This past November, I got a chance to visit the Petaluma Seed Bank in Northern California and see this work up close (and walk out with a staggering credit card total – how could I resist?)

And now a little palette cleanser:

Don’t hate me but I don’t watch food shows because I think they are cruel. You can’t smell or taste the food – torture! Until reading this book, I had similarly avoided prose books about cooking. A decision that I now very much regret.

Once in awhile you pick up a book and feel the author had read your mind.  In The Everlasting Meal, Tamar Adler captures the passion of loving food not as a hobby (she’s not a “foodie”) but as a daily companion. The story is an endless thread of how one ingredient or meal becomes the basis for the next one in a lovely string of days and life. Her cooking isn’t fancy, nor is her equipment, but the way she humanizes home cooking is remarkable.

As soon as I read this book I started reading it again and recommended it to my friend Susan from Cardamom Kitchen. She suggested that I read Laurie Colwin’s A Writer in the Kitchen which I loved. MK Fisher is up for 2013! I have learned my lesson…

And now back to gardening topics…

Rebecca Rupp’s How Carrots Won The Trojan War is FUN. I read it twice. Then I bought several copies to send to my garden geeky friends (Seasonal Wisdom – yours is in the mail!).

This book is a 1-2 punch for those who love gardening AND history – and who doesn’t?! With chapter titles like “An Eggplant Causes a Holy Man To Faint” this charming book is full of surprises and joy. After reading it, you’ll think differently about your garden next season – or at least have some good dinner table conversation topics. Throw down “Corn Creates Vampires” next time someone is ready to bore you on a monologue about the Twilight Saga and see where that gets you…

On the history topic, I read Andrea Wulf’s Founding Gardeners just after this year’s unpleasant election. Aside from appreciating how gardens and agriculture deeply influenced the birth and early years of our country, I was also reminded that politics are ugly and always have been… after the Geo Washington’s first presidential term the country split into (roughly) what we understand as red states and blue states now. And the founding fathers found solace from the pitfalls of politics in their obsession with gardening and agriculture.

This book is well researched (that means lots of footnotes).

I also loved this book because I’m a big Thomas Jefferson fan. His “although I am an old man, I am but a young gardener” quote has become a mantra for me. I have yet to make the pilgrimage to Monticello but another TJ geek I know, P. Allen Smith, was there earlier this year and shared this great video to make us all jealous…

Up next – Part 2: How-To Books Written by the Obsessed Passionate

My parents moved to St. Helens, Oregon in 1949 shortly after Father got out of the army. He served as a paratrooper in the Occupied Forces in Japan. They had met and married near Los Angeles, California. Mother was a Rosie the Riveter while she waited for my Father to return from the war. They married in June of 1945 and Father shipped out in August. The first two years of their marriage was lived via mail.

My great grandparents had moved to St. Helens the year before. My great grandfather had retired as a furniture maker and he wanted some land to have chickens and a big garden. With a new adventure ahead of them, my folks decided to try it “up north” too and see what life would bring them.

Being a native Californian, my Mother spent the first winter crying, bundled up in a Pendleton wool coat and sitting on the wood stove. She wasn’t used to the cold. But by the time their first summer rolled around they were hooked. They’ve lived there ever since.

Father got a job at the paper mill. Mother did odd jobs until 1950 when her friend, Betty, asked her if she wanted to hoe (please note the “e”) with her in the strawberry fields. Grandpa Luttrell – the patriarch of the local strawberry farming family – didn’t like Betty being the only woman in the field working with all those men. So Mother joined Betty – the only two women on the “Hoe Crew”. This started what would be a decades long adventure for my mother in the strawberry fields of Columbia County.

My brother and sister came along in the 50’s. Mother resorted to just being a “picker” on the weekends when they were little. She’d take the kids along on the weekends and Father would go too. They always wanted to earn a little extra money. Back in those days a flat of strawberries – 12 “hallecks” – which is the equivalent of one of those plastic baskets of berries you get at the grocery store- got you 25 cents. It doesn’t seem like much to us now but, by comparison, gas was 30 cents per gallon so it all made sense at the time.

As my siblings got older, and could join Mother in the fields, she went on to be a bus driver shuttling kids from town. As my brother likes to tell it, mother would often start yodeling in the fields to amuse the kids at the end of the day. Knowing her, it was probably her way to get their attention and get them back on the bus. By the time I came around in 1967 the yodeling was long gone but my Mother and Fred Luttrell (Grandpa Luttrel had since passed on) were dear, dear friends. Fred often said he couldn’t manage the kids without Mother. My grandparents watched me during the summer days as Mother worked. She’d been promoted to Row Boss.

Row Bosses were in charge of a bus full of kids. They were responsible for their safety and making sure they picked instead of “horsing around” as my Mother called it. Horsing around could include any number of offenses like berry fights, stealing berries, “packing” (putting dirt clods in the bottom of your flat and putting berries on top), tipping over outhouses, napping in the fields, canoodling in the woods surrounding the fields, yelling, listening to loud rock and roll music and smoking cigarettes or, worse, pot. Other questionable practices that she quickly “nipped in the bud” were wearing short shorts, flip-flops or tube/halter tops. Mother made it very clear that none of this was happening on her watch. She’d call kids’ Mothers to report on their behavior and wasn’t beyond making someone walk back to town if they were disruptive or, worse yet, used profanity. It usually didn’t take drastic measures to get “her kids” to tow the line. She was 6’, had a booming voice and eyes in the back of her head. Luckily she also wore a cone shaped hat (the kids called her “Conehead” thanks to the Saturday Night Live skit) so if you were vigilant, you could see her coming from a mile away.

It is ironic that I met my best friend, Suzette, in the strawberry fields – after she had stolen my berries. For 30+ years we’ve questioned the wisdom of this move on her part since, by that time, Mother had been promoted to Field Boss. She was the big cheese for all the Row Bosses, drivers and busloads of kids from our town. There were only two other Field Bosses – one from Longview (another mill town just over the Columbia River in Washington) and one from Portland about 30 miles north.

Strawberry season generally started early June – sometimes late May if the weather was right – and ended around July 4. When the season was close to starting, Mr. Luttrell would put ads in the local papers with our number. Our harvest gold phone would start ringing non-stop and we’d write down names, addresses and phone numbers on a green steno pad. “No, season hasn’t started yet. Probably next week. Yes, we’ll call you.” “You live where? OK, you’ll get bus #6 at Zatterburg’s grocery at 4:30am.”

Yes, 4:30am. It was worse for us because we had to get up at 3:30am. The sun wasn’t even up and I always had that nauseous feeling of being woken up way too soon. We’d get in the car and drive down to the Bus Barn. Mother would meet the drivers and the Row Bosses and give the days marching orders. (She and Mr. Luttrell had talked the day before so she knew which fields we were going to.) Then we’d load on one of the busses and start hitting the checkpoints and picking up sleeping teenagers in mismatched “berry clothes” (clothes that were too worn to be a hand-me-down and were probably going in the trash after the season was over.) It was always quiet on the morning bus ride – we were all sleeping.

Once we got out to the fields, the bumpy dirt roads usually woke us up. It was still pre-dawn but with enough light to see where the outhouses were and the vague outline of rows of dewy strawberries for as far as the eye could see. The Row Bosses would start assigning kids their rows, which were about 150 feet long and took most of the day to pick. It was a cardinal sin to not “clean your row” as I heard approximately five million times every season. I had to set a good example, you see.

Then we’d start picking and waking up fully because it was always cold and the berry plants were wet with dew or rain. Once we filled a flat we’d go see the “checker” who inspected our berries and handed out the money. By the time I was picking, a flat was $1.25 or $1.50. The “stacker” put them in 20 high stacks on a pallet. When the pallets were full of eight stacks of 20, a big truck would come by with a forklift and move them out of the field.

It was always a big bummer to trip and fall when carrying your flat, or multiple flats, to the checker. If someone fell and their berries went everywhere, other kids would come to help pick them up and, if they were really dirty or smashed, contribute from their own “picking cans” – usually an old coffee can or small bucket with a handle.

Toward the end of my strawberry career, I was following in mother’s footsteps, and was promoted to checker. I liked the big bricks of $1 bills that were handed out each morning. Nan Mallory, the “lead” checker taught me how to “break” the new bills and massage them so they wouldn’t stick together. At the end of the day the amount of money in our pouches had to match up with the number of flats taken out of the field so I was always very diligent about handing out the cash.

The fields had interesting names like “Asbury Hill” or “Bachelor Flat”. And the berries had interesting names too like “Hood” or “Totem” or “Puget Beauty”. Each separate field grew a different kind and everyone had their favorite. Mother liked Hoods and would ask me to pick a “nice flat or two” with the stems on so she could make jam or strawberry shortcake at home. Normally the berries in the flat had to be “hulled” (stems removed) for the cannery. Picking them with the stems on took extra time but I didn’t mind – I always find the best berries because Father really liked Mother’s strawberry shortcake.

Mother always paid Mr. Luttrell for her berries – or tried. Sometimes she’d just sidle up to him and put $3 in his overall pockets when he wasn’t looking. Mr. Luttrell was renown for his generosity to his workers and the kids. On extra hot days, we’d stop at the local convenience store near Yankton School and all the kids would get an ice cream. One year, “hippies” were camping on Mr. Luttrell’s property when their tent caught fire. They lost everything in the blaze – he gave them money to buy a new tent and other equipment. That’s just the kind of man he was.

Most kids didn’t know about Mr. Luttrell’s kindness – except when it was ice cream time. Our teenage brains were too concerned about looking good in our berry clothes (good luck) and complaining about our strawberry stained fingers that lasted long past the end of the season and well into August. Our hair was a constant concern since there were no mirrors which brings me to one final form of horsing around – “the Shampoo”. Offences of this magnitude were usually saved for the last day of the season.

The last day of the season was a tightly guarded secret. I could sometimes tell when it was coming because Mr. Luttrell would come to the fields and talk with Mother in a hushed voice and point toward an empty field. I always kept the secret – like having a clean row, I had to set a good example.

Last day, we’d be taken to a field where Mr. Luttrell had set up an ice cream party for all the kids. In the “old days” they used to bring burgers in from Portland but in our day it was ice cream. Imagine 500-600 hot, strawberry stained kids eating ice cream and rejoicing that the season was over (the rock and roll music usually got really loud). That’s when “the Shampoo” usually happened. Like my Mother, I always wore a hat in the field (I’d given up on my hair looking good early on). Someone would rip it off and smash berries all over my head and face. It was gross but, well, that’s the price for being the Field Boss’s daughter. By that point the threat of Conehead had lost some sting. Season was over – we were all going on to other summer pursuits like Bible camp, County Fair or the Port-o-Fun where we’d spend our strawberry stained dollars on rides and elephant ears.

After I graduated in the mid-80’s, Mother “retired” from the fields. Shortly after that, Mr. Luttrell couldn’t afford the taxes on his large farm anymore when the price for berries changed radically. Piece-by-piece, he sold off Asbury Hill and Bachelor Flat. Industrialized farming was ending a way of life that was central to our small town for almost a century.

When I think of those times, I have a powerful memory of Mother stomping through the fields with her stick and her cone shaped hat. She’d march through the rows inspecting bushes with her stick “Susie! Get back here and clean this row! You know better!” “Eric, turn down that music!” “You two – yes, I see you and I can smell what your smoking – do you want to walk back to town?” This was the sound of summer season after season for me and generations of other kids.

I went home recently for a reunion. The first thing someone asked me was “How’s Conehead? She scared me in those fields!” That’s the consensus if you ask “the kids” – you didn’t mess with Mother.

When I got home I told her what my friend had said. She’s almost 85 now and was sitting in her recliner. She’s not as mobile as she once was (nor is Mr. Luttrell but they’re still friends.) She didn’t say anything for a bit then she got a big smile on her face and said, more to herself than me, “Yep, I was real hard on those kids. Real hard.”

On a final note, in my work putting in community gardens and teaching people to grow their own food there are a lot of volunteer events as the gardens are installed and I wrangle the troops. This past April we had a particularly large turnout for a garden build and everyone was waiting to be told what to do. I was marching around “You – with the gloves – grab a trash bag and go weed!” “You two with the power tools – over by the lumber!” “You – fill that wheelbarrow full of soil and bring it here.” At one both painful and exquisite moment I stopped speechless as it dawned on me… those years watching my Mother do her thing in the berry fields had subtly equipped me to be a leader as we’re starting a new, collective urban agricultural future…

Mirror, mirror on the wall. I am my Mother after all.