by Linda J Banks

Created on: April 14, 2007   Last Updated: April 26, 2007

My Garden Taught Me How Important Family Is.....

Food preservation and preparation in the early part of the 20th century is almost a lost art today. It's too easy to drive to the grocery store and pick up a few items rather than make something from scratch. Unfortunately, it's way too easy. We lose sight of the old traditions that helped to keep families together and communities sharing. We have become a society where we routinely don't know our neighbors, lose track of extended families and extremely fast-paced.

What is missing is the wholesomeness and love that comes from the old-fashioned ways. Food that is grown from seed, picked and preserved using what nature has provided. No chemicals, preservatives or anything artificial. Gardens in the days of my grandparents were about survival.

Along with survival, gardens were used for socialization purposes. Families welcomed the treasures from the garden as a welcome excuse to get together for companionship and friendship. New neighbors were met with fresh blackberry jam. Bread was always home-made. Children welcomed the taste of fresh tomatoes, corn and beans straight from the garden. Families worked together to put up enough food for the winter.

This past year, we placed my 90-something year old grandparents into an assisted living facility. As we moved them out of their house, we also cleaned out their possessions. My son loves to cook, so my grandmother gave him all of her recipes! Reading through them on the plane back home, I realized just how much of my family history existed on those little cards. Just about everything was about food preservation from the family garden. There were recipes from great-grandparents, great-great grandparents and extended family.

So - I created a family cookbook, pulling together some of the recipes my grandmother regularly cooked and distributed the amateur book among family and friends. I asked family for stories of my grandparent's home and just about everyone centered on the fresh food from the garden, smells of the kitchen with meals being made home-made with love and the sharing of each other during mealtimes. These stories were placed within my Grandma's Cookbook and provided a true family experience.

My most amazing gardening experience hasn't been anything I've grown. In fact, I've realized it's time to create a garden for my own self and my kids. But - I've learned much from the gardening experiences of my grandmother and am humbled at the thought of the possibility of that much history dying out. I am truly amazed at what a garden can offer. A garden can offer much more than just food on the table, it can offer everything from an opportunity to be neighborly to a good workout. A garden allows us to get back to basics - family, food and friendship.

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