Given that my mother's family farmed in North Dakota and Montana, you'd think I'd have seen food growing in the ground before my forties, but I hadn't.
Mother always talked about how good carrots tasted when they'd just been pulled from the ground and brushed off a little. But I just started growing carrots about four years ago and had that experience myself at 50. Having been raised in Los Angeles, I'd of course driven by orange groves and fig trees and there were always farms on the side of the highways with something green starting up out of the ground, but that was about it. Oh, and in my 30s I went to Napa and saw grapes growing (boy this is sounding pathetic
.
When David and I moved into this rental house in 1994, there were tomato plants growing with ripe, gorgeous tomatoes on them. I'd never seen this before! The landlord said we could keep whatever was growing and we were blown away. The next year I figured we should put new plants in and, again, the miracle of tomatoes just amazed me.
Now I grow tomatoes (heirloom and hybrid), peppers, all kinds of lettuces, carrots (of course
), brocolli, sugar snap peas, kale, loads of different herbs, and am currently taking my first stab at bunching onions. We're looking to move somewhere in a couple of years where we can get 2-5 acres. Guess why
!
Anyhow, what was the first food you ever saw grow?