This is our first year tending to a garden, growing everything from tomatoes to kale, to butter lettuce and pumpkins, carrots, beets and berries. It has been a learning experience for us all. The process has transformed me. It has made me an advocate or backyard gardening. 

My recent experience in our own backyard led me to volunteer recently at the 18 Reasons farm and gardens in Sonoma. I joined several other volunteers weeding, planting, and picking beets, carrots, beans, and squash and then eating some of the fruits of our labor. I came home from the day exhausted, but with even more excitement to get involved in our own backyard project.

I love the fact that I don’t have to buy lettuce any longer. I love that the kids are scavenging around to find ripe strawberries, the pumpkin vines are creeping further into my backyard, the blackberries are starting to appear, and we are eagerly awaiting for the tomatoes to turn red. Soon, the pears and the apples will be ready to pick. And with the large bounty we seem to be having, I wonder what we could trade them for at the Marin Open Garden Project.

I have a newfound love for these foods – a zest for tasting something just off the vine. 

Now, I find myself eyeing the grapefruits hanging unattended at the house down the street, or the oranges just waiting to be plucked from the branches of the home one street over. I’m sending Greg over to make a trade, or offer to pick their harvest.