It always goes back to the roots

I've decided to start a garden this year! It will be my first ever but I figure better now than never! After days of hunting for a seed supplier I was able to find exactly what I was looking for, local organic heirloom seeds, and now we have 31 seed packets on their way. Each packet is a different type of seed, too. Since I have such a small yard I am going to grow mostly out of pre-made barrels and/or raised beds that Joe and I will make ourselves.

I still haven't found the fruit plants that I want but I'm still searching. What I'm looking for are goji, raspberry, blueberry, strawberry and apple. I'm also considering a dwarf banana tree! My top priority is the goji plant.

This plan to start a garden of my own is more than a spur of the moment idea, more than an extension of my desire to eat food that is pure and local. The need to have a garden and grow food for my family comes from a place deep, deep inside my heart that has been there since I was a tiny child.

My great grandfather built a log home and put down roots in North Carolina for himself and his family. One of his many children would end up being the greatest inspiration of my life. She would be my great aunt and I her great niece. Her own childhood was spent tending to the small farm, caring for her younger siblings and helping to make clothes for the family. They had an outhouse, no running water and no electricity, it was the early 1900's.

During my childhood my mother would frequently make the four hour drive south to Roxboro, N.C., to visit my great aunt with me and my siblings. By this time she was the only one still living in the log home her father had built. Since her childhood there had been some changes like indoor plumbing, electricity and additions to the house so it was much larger and you could only tell it had been a log cabin from the inside of the original part of the house. The kitchen still held a wood burning stove and a window which in days past peered out over the farm. During my lifetime the window looked through to where the laundry was but it was still there as a reminder of the way things were. What used to be the back porch had been enclosed and finished to include the only bathroom in the house, the laundry and lots of storage shelves plus a second refrigerator. The old water tank was still outside. The old tobacco houses were still across the street. There was a player piano that they had purchased in 1914, I believe it was. There was no shower in the house and only one telephone but there were two T.V.'s. The house had six beds in it but we always slept in my great aunt's bed and she would sleep at the foot of the same bed.

The time spent in that house with her was, and still is, the best time of my life! Yes, she spoiled us by giving us lots of candy, cake, ice cream and toys but it was more than that. We spent days harvesting her garden, feeding her chickens, playing among her flower beds, hanging clothes on the line to dry and cooking large meals for a large family gathering. There was so much love in that house and in that woman. She made everything from scratch and most of the food came from her garden or a friends garden. No one called it organic or non-gmo, it just was. It was pure, it was real. That's what she was about.

Other than these visits my little life was nothing more than what came to be the standard way of life, a rat race. Everything came from a store, from a box, from a manufacturer and every day was the same. We lived in a community of strangers and were too busy to spend time together. While in Roxboro people knew who we were and cared about us. We visited with neighbors, friends and other farmers. There was a closeness and a sense of community that I have never felt since then.

It's extremely unfortunate but my own children will never meet her and never visit the family home in North Carolina. It isn't our family home anymore, it belongs to someone else now. As sad as that is to me I have finally found my way back to her good roots. They are still alive in me and I am going to let them out! My kids will never know that place and time but I am going to do everything I can to make sure they know those roots.

I love you, Tean.