Chandra, would it be possible to sum up what you said in the "Role of Indigenous Knowledge in Food Security" talk? I'd be quite interested.

George

I would be interested as well.

What lovely pictures of everyone and all that you did. It is so nice to know that the younger generations are being shown and taught such valuable skills!

George,

I talked about the importance of the traditional knowledge about the farm practices, seed selection and storage and lessons learned from local farmers through their own innovations and experimentation from generations to generations, how they developed seeds and plants through preservation and selection, and designed crop mixtures and rotations leading to climate resilient and improved productivity while supporting local biodiversity with little 'water and carbon footprint'. I just reminded how our grand, grandparents used to select seeds from their own land races to produce a reliable crop, how important is mixed cropping over monoculture, farm-yard-manure over chemical fertilizers, heirlooms over GMOs/BTs, local supply vs long haul, traditional foods vs modern foods, Emphasis on foods that are adapted to local conditions, kitchen garden and their roles, traditional ways of food preservation with no chemicals, and above all how people enjoyed the joy of sharing and helping each other with great altruism and love!

There has been long debate has been going there on FDI, Fast foods, GMOs, etc and also how green revolution become detrimental to soil and water resources and thread to local biodiversity etc... it was great seminar and i learn a lot in that one week trip.

ezzirah011, I agree with you, and its high time we should teach next generation about the value of eco-friendly and sustainable living. I feel gardeners are doing their best job on this...

Cheers -Chandra

I get a newsletter from John Barron, a nutritionist. A recent one dealt with the claim of Big Ag that organic foods don't have more antioxidants than conventionally grown. Turns out that the antioxidants they most often measure are those based on Carbon, Oxygen and Hydrogen. In other words air and water which both organic and conventional produce have equal access too. What is needed is measurement of the antioxidants that are based on trace minerals--copper, selenium, zinc etc. that are almost never replaced in commercial fertilizers, but are tested and replaced by some of the older organic farmers, and even if not tested for are replaced in the organic fertilizers--compost, manure, kelp and mineral amendments.
The organic proponents will have to do this, as the results will not likely bode well for commercially grown produce.

I totally agree with teaching the next generation to grow their own food. You teach them a lifetime skill.

I've talked with our local 4H to have the kids do a Community garden .., I hope it works out.

Dorothy, I red about that study which compared the Big Ag and conventional farming, it looks like the study was funded by big ag firm and such research usually compare and quantify only few but most common elements and ignore the real substances such a taste, flavor, trace elements, nutriment concentrations, foot print of CO2/H2O etc. -Chandra

Chandra, Welcome home, and it sounds like you had a very productive and very interesting trip.

Dorothy, I agree with everything you said.

Melissia, You know, those of us who spent time with adults who gardened back when we were kids are so very lucky. At the time I had no idea that the time spent with my dad, grandfather and various aunts and uncles and neighbors who gardened would teach me so much. They didn't always take the time to explain why they did things a certain way, though they would answer questions if I asked them....but I feel like I absorbed so much knowledge just from working in their yards and gardens with them.

Over the years, we have shared the gardening experience with our own son, nieces and nephews, neighborhood children and the children and grandchildren of friends. I've never yet met a kid who did not quickly become very interested in the garden and in what it produced. I've noticed that kids who garden in some way, even if it only is by visiting a friend's garden on a regular basis, will eat almost any fruit or vegetable offered to them if they participated in raising that crop---even if they only weeded it once or helped water it or helped harvest it.

I wish every school had a good school garden with many types of curriculum lessons built around the garden so all kids of all ages could learn how to garden.

Dawn

Chandra- Lord knows we gardeners are trying! This is a national conversation we need to have here as well. I feel that some of us are getting the message, but most feel that organic food is just "for rich people". Sadly, it is priced out of the market for a great deal of our society. But if we can teach people just a garden what and where they can, that would help some. I really am behind the trend I see growing where farmer's markets are on buses that go into what is considered "food deserts", so that fresh food is more available.

Good for you and the work that you do!

Metta,
Ezz

I have 4 children ranging from 30 to 50 years of age, they just dont share the same love for gardening that I do. I know that most everyone has a busy life, but I would really like to see gardening become more important in my children's lives. Do any of you have the same feeling about your children?

Larry

Larry,

To certain extent, I do. When my son was a pre-teen and teenager, he enjoyed helping me in the garden and he learned a great deal about gardening. Once he got his driver's license, he was too busy to have anything to do with the garden. He still enjoys eating food from our garden, and during busy gardening periods, he offers to help me so I know that at some level he enjoys gardening. Right now, though, he mostly just enjoys eating stuff from my garden. I hope someday he'll have a garden of his own and that he'll enjoy raising his own food, flowers and herbs as much as we do.

He is very much into sustainable living so I believe he ultimately will have a garden because it fits so well with his sustainable philosophy. It wouldn't surprise me, though, if he does it in a different way than I do. I can see him gardening in Earthboxes or maybe hydroponically.

Dawn

I have four children ranging in age from 28 to 43. The 43 year old had a small garden in his Cincinnati, Ohio back yard at one time, but I think he decided it was too much work. The 37 year old recently moved into a house with a yard big enough for a garden. She was never the one who liked to garden, but with 4 children of her own to feed knows it's a necessity. (Her husband planted and sorta mulched it and then said, "There, it's planted; it should take care of itself from now on." Needless to say, he didn't grow up weeding a garden and handpicking potato beetles like my daughter did.) The other two don't have a place to garden tho younger daughter has two 20 gal tubs that she grows tomatoes in each summer. The girls are close enough to come help in my garden for some of the produce, and the granddaughters have been shucking corn, stringing beans and peas and cutting broccoli since they were tiny. And this year picking and peeling peaches.

I guess we are all chiming in about how interested our children our in gardening so ill join in. My daughter is 2 days 10.5 hours old and shows absolutely no interest in the garden yet. I am definitely looking forward to having her in the garden when she gets older. However I don't want her to grow up to fast!

Josh, That is great news that she is here even if she shows no interest in the garden. LOL

I didn't like the garden when I was a child and now I am addicted.

I am a little like Carol, when I was a young father my Butt would not fit anything but a boat seat or a tree limb. My two sons cant seem to get past that point, if you cant shoot at it or yank a hook into it , it has no value.

My youngest son is 30 yo, I have had a wonderful time with him planting his garden when he was young (before the teens). A garden just cant compete with a girlfriend or an automobile.

Larry

A garden just cant compete with a girlfriend or an automobile.

When my husband worked for the Boy Scouts he always told the parents and leaders that they had to encourage the boys to get their 'Eagle' before they were old enough to be over-taken by 'fumes'.....gas fumes and perfumes.

I would like to take this opportunity to pay tribute to my parents and grandparents. My grandparents were small land farmers and operated a vegetable stand for as long as I can remember. And even though my parents were citified, they had the foresight to send me to my grandparents every summer as free labor. I was not thrilled at the time, trust me, I didn't pay much attention to the lessons they gave me,and my gardens do not do them justice. But those lessons do come back. Especially the lesson of "teach the children". I, too, forced my children into the garden, and they, too, were not happy. They took a lot of aggression out on weeds. But today, they have gardens. And today my grandchildren send me pictures of what they are growing. And today, my nieces call and ask what I am growing this year. And today, when they visit, the first place they go is to the garden. I am very proud of how they have grown to appreciate what nature can give them. But I am espcially proud of how they learned to "teach the children".
Melony

I don't have any children, but if I had had them, I hope they would have seen the value in it. My husband teases me all the time that gardening is an "old person's hobby" and I think that is how it is seen. I try to tell him, "heck no!It is almost fashionable these days!"

This I know is true: That gardening heals. I see it too many times people get in the garden and come out with a whole new outlook on life. Certainly is the case with me...

I think it brings peace to the soul when you are able to provide for yourself, but gardening allows you assist nature, along with providing something beautiful to look at or healthy to eat. I enjoy the process.

Josh, Congratulations to you and your wife on the birth of your daughter. That is so exciting! You just may be surprised at how quickly the months and years fly by and likely will find she's interested in the garden while still very young. Our son enjoyed the dirt and water hose a lot when he was about 12-15 months old, but wasn't much interested in the plants for another couple of years.

Melony, I would be proud of that too. It sounds like you've passed the "gardening gene" along to everyone in your family.

I am grateful that I had not only family members who gardened but many neighbors who did so as well. When you grow up in a neighborhood where almost everyone grows veggies, herbs, flowers and fruits, you absorb so much knowledge from all those folks when you're a kid, without even realizing it. Also, when you grow up that way you think it is "normal" for everyone to grow edibles. I always felt sorry for school friends who didn't have peaches or plums or tomato or peppers growing in their backyards. I felt like they were deprived of so many experiences--like picking a peach right off the tree and eating it warm, standing there in the yard, with juice trickling down your chin.

Of course, I also thought the non-gardening kids were lucky because they didn't have to spend a hot summer day picking and carrying hundreds and hundreds of plums into the house to make plum jelly, or spend every summer night hulling peas or snapping beans. Now, all those chores I thought were a drudgery at the time bring back such precious memories since most of the adults I gardened with now are gone. I no longer mind spending hours picking fruit, hulling peas or snapping beans either.

Dawn

Well, I gained a passion for gardening, as a child, in my parents' home. Our children, mostly, aren't doing too much gardening, in their 20s. But they all consider themselves to be gardeners. We just hosted a young couple, in their 20s, for a month. They contacted us, all the way from Denver, asking if they could come out and learn about homesteading skills, which include gardening and other means of living simply. In exchange for learning, they did quite a bit of work for us. It was refreshing and exciting for us.

George

Congratulations, Josh, on the birth of your daughter.

My youngest son never learned to like to garden, but has always liked to eat. When he was in Army Basic in NC, he walked into the messhall one early summer day to see boxes and boxes of fresh ripe peaches lined up on the counter. One of the guys he met there asked him, "What are those?" "Peaches," my son said. (He had grown up picking them off the tree.) The other man said, "Really, I ain't never ate a raw peach before." "Can you imagine that, Mom?" my son said.

George -How cool is that! What an awesome experience!

I love reading about everyone's memories! I grew up in inner city Seattle. There was no gardening, and food came in boxes and packages. It is such a joy to get out in the dirt and grow something. It never stops amazing me that I have this wee little seed, then it gets big, then you eat things off it! LOL. I still giggle when I find something to harvest!

Chandra, It looked like you had good crowds at your presentations. Each time I think of India, I think of those big piles of wasted grain that never made it to the table. So sad. I am sure they must have been impressed with your pictures and all of the food you grow in your backyard. You are a great example of how people can learn in such a short time to grow so much of their own food. We have watched in pictures as your garden has grown from a few raised beds to a major production center.

Although my family is not vegetarian like yours, I have noted how many fewer trips I make to the grocery store, and how many things I can just pass by, without buying. We are more comfortable when we know the source of our food and have bought most of our meat through local ranchers, and raised chickens for our own eggs for a few years now.

We lived in Greece during some troubled times in the early 70's and watched the people stand in lines half a block long to buy a day's worth of food. I stood in my kitchen and looked at this line, and remembered that when you control the food supply of a people, you control the people.

In Oklahoma, we have less than optimal growing conditions for much of the year, but with extra effort, we can still grow a lot of our own food, enjoy the outdoors, feel a sense of accomplishment, and also know that what we are eating is healthy and safe. I hope your presentations gave you great personal satisfaction, and I am sure they provided valuable information to those who attended.

Thank you all for sharing your gardening flashback of your own and with your kids and grandkids... indeed very interesting stories! I certainly wish my kids will involve with nature, learn and adopt about eco-friendly living. So far all three kiddos are having love with garden, they always want to play in the backyard. I hope they will continue to grow their love for nature!

Access to 'good' food is becoming one of the major conver our kids will phase. One of my analysis shows that by 2050, we will need to spend at least 1/3rd of our total income to buy food... rest you know. Troubled times of 70's is not farway, it will return for sure but in different way!

Carol, I am with your thoughts. One of the food policy expert was telling me that 40% of the total food grain goes waste every year just because not having proper grain storage facility and distribution mechanism. With growing pressure, govt has initiated few steps to curb the issues but not sure how long it will take...

Having vegetarian family, if we not have garden, must be visiting grocery every other day LOL and spending tons! another biggest advantage is that kids know how things grow and they love eating everything we grow!

My daughters are 36 and almost 38, and both garden somewhat. I grew up in Germany, and my dad had a garden about 3 miles out of town in a plot. Later, when we had our own house and back yard, we had a garden there.

Once I came to Oklahoma, and got married, I had a garden. I canned lots, and we ate fresh from the garden.

Now, that I once again live in my own house, with a nice size back yard, I garden with flowers, and produce. Both can live so nicely with each other.

I hope to have a larger planting area next year, as I continue to eliminate more and more bermuda grass.

Moni