, hundreds of cherry tomatoes, and ten tiny fingerling potatoes. For the cook. With the exception of some eggplants and peppers, and the remains of the leeks, this is the last from our wonderfully productive garden this year. I have pulled out the unproductive broccoli and the cucumbers. I will let the tomatoes go to the birds and the worms. Asparagus is gone to seed. The sunflowers remain. Figs and grapes are promising a great harvest.Today Andy built me a wonderful raised bed for lettuce and greens. It will live in the fenced garden, safe from deer, rabbits, and my worst enemy, the armadilloes. The deep rooted plants such as tomatoes, collards, and the root vegetables will have to take their chances.
All year we have eaten out of this garden. Our salads have been amazing and tasty, always different from the usual baby greens mix one finds in the supermarket. In Florida our mid summer is akin to the north in winter. Very little is local now. We are fortunate in that almost everything growing in our state is local most of the year. But now we are down to okra, black eyed peas, watermelon, some collards, and peanuts.
I have been reading Barbara Kinsolving's book, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. She and her family spent a year living by eating only from what they grew or could purchase locally. This is the Next Big Thing. We have to consider how much carbon is consumed in getting us our food! I think this may be more than a blip on the radar of 'with it young folks'. We are getting rid of sodas sold in schools, and in a very few places, schools are thinking of providing really healthful and locally grown foods.
I have this vision of kids connecting to the food they grow. It's science, it's math, it's practical fun, and most of all, it tastes really good. I am thinking of being the food/science volunteer at Lacoochee next year.
Lacoochee, by the way, won big this year in the FCAT. The school made an A rating, and almost all the kids were above average.
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