In the Garden…
I wrote this piece at the end of April 2020 as one of my weekly send-off emails to the Upper School team at SFS. So much of trying to bring our best to our work with students and families in this most unusual time created by the COVID-19 pandemic requires a digging in, a slowing down, a taking root. My family could find no better way to do this than by establishing a vegetable garden…
I grew up with my parents growing our own food, not because they were early believers in the “slow food” movement or because they enjoyed the craft of it...my parents grew our own food because their move from San Francisco, just about 50 years ago, let this immigrant couple have access to a bit of land - after having none during their life as young parents in their San Francisco apartment.
4 years later, they had added 2 more children and their family of 6 was living off of my dad’s income. They grew their own food because that is how they could afford to feed us all fresh, healthy food. I took for granted the tomatoes, rows of green beans, endless zucchini. I turned up my nose at the bitter melon they grew - and still today have never acquired the taste for it. I lamented the chores of being sent to the yard to pick beans for dinner, to get the hatchet to cut the squash off the plant, or to water the rows of vegetables and handful of fruit trees that gave us golden delicious apples, bright fuyu, and grapefruit-size Eureka lemons. I am experienced enough now to have deep respect for the gardening skills of my parents. They could grow anything. And the gift of my mom’s specialty apple crisp made from homegrown apples, or vine-picked tomatoes that she took the time to seed and then cut into a salad, or roasted zucchini picked minutes before slicing it and putting it on the grill...I know now what a lucky kid I was.
The yard in Danville, where I lived for 10 years was too extreme. It froze in spring mornings and the same day could be what felt a 90 degrees! We hardly were victorious against the gophers, deer, and ground squirrels. Then we moved to San Francisco--the sun seemed to hide so often and the fog blanketed our yard so frequently that we never did plant anything in our postage-stamp yard. And now, here I am full circle - a block or so away from the home where I learned how to tend a garden...
We started this weekend to establish our own vegetable rows and herb patches in our East Bay home. The history of San Leandro soil is that it was some of the most productive farmland in the Bay Area before home developers came in.
This weekend I was moved to settle into my history and that of the land - to remember my mom kneeling next to me coaching about what was ready or not to be picked and my dad telling me to be careful as I climbed the wobbly ladder to get the already-too-big beans off the tip-top of the vines. We broke ground on our new vegetable garden. Our sheltering-in-place has provided that opportunity as it has for so many others...to slow down, dig in, take root. We are so grateful to have a patch of land and don’t take that gift for granted.
I hope each of you have found some meaningful time to slow down and drink in this time this weekend ...whether it’s with a new grandchild...dear friends...an adult child who’s home...your restless little ones...or needed quiet time just for yourself. And as we turn towards our work together, let us continue to take care of this other garden of ours, our school community and the work we do with our students. I am so appreciative to be tending this shared garden with you all.