28 June 2020

Easily pleased



I made some garden-related comment to Mike the other day: it might have been about the first eggplant flower, or perhaps it was about the strawberries that were starting to ripen, I forget. His reply was "You're easily pleased, aren't you?"

Yes, yes I am. I take huge pleasure every year from watching the seedlings grow into food-producing plants, from harvesting the fruit and vegetables, and from serving food from the garden at the table. And in these constrained times, I also take pleasure in knowing that these things can continue. I have a friend whose community garden was closed because of Covid-19 and I honestly can't imagine not having access to growing space.

One of the industries that has done well in the pandemic has been the vendors of seeds. I visited the Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds website back in March to order something I had forgotten (beetroot seeds, I think), only to find this temporary closure notice:


And supermarket shelves were being denuded of flour and yeast. Suddenly it seemed as though the whole world was shifting to live life the way I do. In the midst of all the concern and disruption, there was something strangely validating about that. It will be interesting to see if the shift to home growing and home baking lasts beyond this year.