Describing America: Gardening

Before he left to join us here in the US, Randy was peppered with all kinds of questions from some of the people at work about his life growing up and living in America. One that stuck out for him was whether he gardened before moving to China. His answer then was that his mother did, and he certainly helped her out when he was young and lived at home. He promised to show them pictures when he returned.

On talking about this earlier this week, we realized we weren't sure if the woman who asked meant a vegetable garden or a flower garden. We're now really curious what her response will be when she sees this picture.  This is Randy's mother's vegetable plot, about half the size it was when he was younger. Right now no one can eat the lettuce fast enough, and already we've been cooking up the onions. All winter long the family will be dipping into the the canned tomatoes, carrots, and pickles. And the frozen rhubarb. How could I leave out the rhubarb?

We are wondering what the response will be to a vegetable garden this size.  It isn't that the family today would starve or go broke without it.  Randy's mother gardens mostly because she enjoys it.  Yes, you cannot discount the fresh vegetables and possible economizing, but the mix of vegetables in this garden aren't everything they eat.  There are many they eat but don't grow themselves, buying from the grocery store or Schwann's like everyone else. But she loves her garden, and it shows. She even grows peas, not for freezing, canning, or even cooking. The peas are for the kids in the family to eat right off the plants when they are at their sweetest. The peas are a row of vegetables she tends truly just for fun.

Just as so much about American life is about abundance, are hobby gardens a sign of that, too?

Down the road from Randy's parents' house is this sign for a property for sale. I love the description of it.

A 15 acre hobby farm.  According to this article from 2006 published by the Texas Farm Bureau, the average farm in China is 1 to 3 acres. Folks in Beijing might be familiar with Green Cow, an organic farm that is partnered with Mrs. Shanen's and provides dairy, eggs, and a variety of vegetable products. It covers 14.8 acres.  Yes, a working business farm in Beijing City is smaller than a Clarion County hobby farm. Talk about the luxury of leisure!

It isn't just Chinese vegetable farms that are smaller, by the way.  Randy and I were listening to a story on Marketplace last week about Egyptian cotton.  The main thrust of the report was the shocking number of young children who work these farms.  But since the average family-run cotton farm in Egypt is 5 acres or less, the government ministry that would normally monitor this basically ignores it.  Randy coughed at that 5 acre number.  A few years ago when he was still working in Mississippi, he had an engineer that would sometimes need time off to work his father-in-law's large commercial cotton farm.  That farm, owned by one family, was more than 100,000 acres of cotton fields.  I can't even wrap my head around income difference between these two types of cotton farms.

Every time I think I have considered and exhausted my fascination with the abundance that is still the USA, I discover new ways to look at it.