Growing Gardens to Feed Our Bellies and Our Souls
Photo taken by Rachel McClure, of Washoe County Master Gardener Cindy holding a lettuce bowl.
Community gardens are popular in the United States and around the world. They are often strategically developed to meet environmental and social goals in urban areas. They have been studied in many contexts from food production to social activities and urban green infrastructures, but gardening is more than that. It’s a way to tie us to our past, connect us to our present, and plan for what’s to come. It helps us share our story–what has shaped us–whether it goes back for generations or focuses on today. Gardening can be big, but small gardens can speak just as loudly and connect us to these important parts of ourselves.
Food is more than fuel. It’s culture.
Making and eating certain foods as part of a celebration can solidify social bonds. It provides more than just nourishment and as such food culture is an important part of connecting and relating to people from both our own background and others. Food culture is the beliefs, attitudes, and practices related to producing and consuming food.
On a subconscious level, we are tapping into centuries of food cultures and traditions. Sharing food with those we love, including ourselves, is part of what makes us human. Many of us have memories of family gatherings as small children sitting in the kitchen while our “aunties” prepare the recipes that our families have always made, tasting, laughing, and smelling what later become the memories of family, tradition, and home.
According to the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, some of the benefits of gardening include a decrease in depression and anxiety, and an increase in mindfulness. Also, physical activity has been shown to be beneficial. Not only is eating food that we have grown often more nutritious but the mental and emotional reward of eating what we sow is fulfilling.
Here in northern Nevada gardening can supplement our food source, keep us connected to our heritage and keep us well. Food insecurity is a very real thing in our local communities. Because the kitchen table is where so many of us celebrate and share our culture and values, when we are insecure about where our food is coming from it can affect more than just our stomach.
This is where we bring the past into the present and share the love of who we are and where we come from with others. For this reason, planting a garden can help carry on traditions and values as well as feed our bodies and souls.
Taken by Doreen Spires, of container tomato plants
A little goes a long way.
A small container garden isn’t going to feed a family, but it can make a difference. You can trim off the same parsley plant for an entire season. A $3.00 packet of cilantro seeds can be planted throughout the season for multiple harvests. A single picking lettuce bowl can provide for months. It all adds up.
If you are a student in a dorm or you live in an apartment, the opportunities to garden may be limited and a small container garden may be just what you need. Container gardening can be a cost-that effective, meaningful option for students that can allow them to grow in small places. This can allow the opportunity to grow mint for tea, herbs to cook with, greens for sautéing or eating fresh, and more.
In a container next to a window or on a balcony you can grow most of the ingredients for your auntie’s salsa, your mother-in-law’s kimchi or the mint for Mast o’Khiar. Gardening allows us to collect and share our stories, connecting us to where we’ve been and who we are. Growing a plant that is inherent to our identity is a wonderful, affirming art and experience.
If you have a food culture story to tell and would like to grow a container garden in order to help share that story and support the urban container movement, please considering joining the University of Nevada, Reno’s container gardening class for students. Tell your story by describing what you grow, recipes that are meaningful to you and your culture, as well as the significance to you or your family. Share your personal relationship by cultural gardening with other students.
If you want to learn how to create your own container garden, register today for the upcoming three-part workshop series, Wolf Pack Food Stories: From the Roots UP. Classes will be from 3 – 5 p.m. on February 16, March 9, and May 11. Participants will learn how to sow seeds, transplant seedlings, proper care, and maintenance, as well as share recipes and significance. The workshop is open to UNR students only. The cost of the program is $25 to cover the materials needed for the workshop. There will also be an opportunity to share your container garden and food story this gardening season at the Rancho San Rafael Community Garden, maintained by the UNR Extension Washoe County Master Gardeners, to help the community learn how to implement cultural gardening and share their stories. For more information or to register, visit Eventbrite or contact Rachel McClure, rmcclure@unr.edu.
Written by Rachel McClure
Rachel McClure is the Washoe County Master Gardener Coordinator at the College of Agriculture, Biotechnology & Natural Resources Extension. She received a B.A., in Communication Studies from California State University, San Bernardino, with a concentration in Public Argumentation and Rhetoric in 1997. Rachel spent years in the private sector managing stores for Target and Borders Bookstore, leaving it for the family Horticulture business. The small crop specialty production nursery provided ornamental perennials to local independent nurseries in Nevada as well as edible flowers, specialty herbs and mushrooms to local restaurants in Nevada and California. The nursery had great partnerships with local high schools, FFA and local communities, helping to create high school berry programs, orchards, help establish the petunia basket program for Gardnerville, Minden and Carson City, on site classes partnering with the department of Agriculture and garden clubs in Smith and Mason Valleys.
