If we’re defining local food by miles traveled, this delicious bowl of lettuce, tatsoi, arugula, and minutina was the most local meal I’ve ever had. Sprinkled only with salt and pepper, this first harvest from the balcony salad bar needed no dressing. The tender and succulent leaves with a mix of spicy, sweet, and tart flavors sang out springtime. It was probably best that Greg was away the night I ate this because all my attention was on the food—I would have been incapable of dinner conversation!
It has been fun to watch these easy to grow crops mature right outside my door. They’ve gone from little sprouts to heart-shaped seedlings to crisp salad leaves in just over a month. Now that I’ve tried it out, I’m going to get bigger containers so I can grow a greater quantity in the fall—after my first meal, I had wiped out half the patch! The cool thing is that only a few days later, the lettuce is already filling in for another cut.
I’m glad that the rising interest in small-scale food gardening doesn’t seem to be losing momentum. Whether it’s the shaky economy, greater concerns about food safety, or just folks jumping on the bandwagon, more people have decided to try urban gardening. The One Pot Pledge campaign is encouraging new gardeners to plant just one container to see how they like it. Community gardens have waiting lists several years long (I subverted mine and got in with a random person I met at a blog launch party—woo hoo!).
Growing your own is definitely in. But the U.S. has had other periods when vegetable gardening was in vogue (think WWII Victory Gardens). They eventually lost steam and it was the rare eccentric neighbor who continued to plant rows of peppers and beans during the less lean years. Will our most recent urge to get “back to the land” in backyards and community gardens stand the test of time? I hope so…and if it doesn’t, I hope I’ll be the crazy lady next door who never stops going ga-ga over the first bowl of freshly clipped spring greens.
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