Molly and the Earth

The happiness and excitement that Molly exudes when she’s running through the grass to get to the garden is something else.  Trying as carefully as her little hands can manage to cut some lettuce leaves with the purposefully dull pre-school scissors.  Filling the basket, flipping the still-growing yellow and red stemmed chard leaves back and forth, it’s obvious she’s wondering when we get to pick some more.  They are crowding each other out, and we need to make some space where we carelessly planted the seeds too close together, weeks ago, together.  The pride in painting her own little terra cotta pots with pictures of tomatoes and peppers and then getting a seedling into each one, with only a few casualties.  The tears shed over her worm collections, the first of which had its population devastated in what’s come to be known as “The Flood” – the night their screened-in “house” was left outside, presumably for some fresh air, only to encounter a downpour.  There was no ark.

 

It’s gotten to the point where we can dispatch her out to the herb garden with a request for a few cilantro sprigs or some mint, and she’ll usually return with what was requested, usually without dirty roots hanging on, but not always.

She redistributes toads around the yard to the gardens, thinking they’ll be more comfortable there, like a force of nature.  She’s the fifth wind.

It makes me smile when she asks a question that I don’t know the answer to.  “How many cabbages will be on that plant?  Where do the eggplants come out of?”  There’s something to be said for a 31 year-old learning the same things at the same time as his almost 5 year-old.

She’s obviously going to be a better gardener than me some day.  More than that, the building, the digging, the dirt under your fingernails, seeds breaking from the soil – I feel like we’re starting a family tradition – and a wonderful one at that.

She’s learning to work, to have a bit of self reliance in a world that seems to encourage otherwise at times.  She’s learning how good and simple food can be and how annoying it is gritting on dirt between your teeth when you try to eat something straight from the ground.  She’s getting slightly less afraid of things that creep and crawl.  Her pride is a sign, I think, of her feelings for her surroundings.  She may not know it, and certainly has trouble expressing it sometimes, but she cares.  Not just about her family, and her toys, and getting a nice plate of cheese & crackers to snack on in the afternoon.  She cares about this little skewed rectangle of ours, 96 feet wide, and 300 feet from the curb to the weedy fence all the way at the back that we alone are responsible for. 

Good for her. 

So, what to do with all the vegetables…A few ideas, you know, aside from just eating them straight:

1) Better salad dressing – try something different.  One of our favorites is a miso based dressing that was born to be customized.  The dressing gets its body from oil and miso (usually just white) – add some sweet, some sour and herbs and you’re all set.  You really need a blender to get it emulsified and a food processor is probably too big, unless you’re doing a huge batch.

In a blender – a couple spoons of miso, some chopped up chives, scallions or a little minced onion, a spoon of honey or sugar, a little bit of vinegar/lemon juice, a handful of fresh herbs (nothing too strong, hold the rosemary), and give it a blend.  If it’s really thick, add a little water.  While the blender is running, slowly pour in some oil.  I like grapeseed or canola for this (something plain).  The dressing will thicken up as you go.  Stop, taste, fix.  You can add more water if you want it thinner.

It would be great on steamed/grilled veggies as well as the basic green salad.

The picture isn’t fantastic, but then again, it’s just a bowl of dressing.

2) Wrap it – I’ve said it before, wraps are great for kids.  They are excellent for using up leftovers, and hiding ingredients that might be cause for strife (kale, I’m looking in your direction.)  If you don’t have any ingredients to hide, you can set up a big pile of stuff like this, and everyone can build their own (the fruit wasn’t going in.) 

3) Eggs:

Again nothing new, but a little different.  We had some left over spaghetti with pesto.  It ended up getting cooked into a frittata with zucchini, shredded chard leaves and a whole bunch of herbs.  Hard to go wrong with that.

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Comments

[Amber]

What an amazing post. Not to go all cheese on you, but it touched me deeply. I am just starting to build these kinds of rituals and traditions with Ethan, and I feel such joy for the experiences we share -- especially in the garden and in the kitchen.

Thanks so much for sharing.

[LyB]

Molly sounds so sweet! This was a great post. I so wish we could have a garden, I think it's very important for kids to know where food comes from, that you have to work to get something good. And your recipe suggestions are great, I love leftover pasta in a frittata.

[andrew]

Thanks! I'm really glad to have written this and reached someone...it was bouncing around in my head for awhile. Let the kids of the bloggers inherit the earth :)

[melissa]

and she’ll usually return with what was requested, usually without dirty roots hanging on, but not always.

That.is.awesome.

I was very touched by this post too, Andrew, though I don't have a child. I have heard other people remark on the "learning as they learn" thing. Almost as though you didn't know how little you really knew until you had a child asking questions.

You're very lucky. :)

And I truly love and appreciate your food. Your whole attitude about it, your sense of experimentation seems so relaxed. I want very much to feel that way someday, to not fret and fuss over everything so much. Food really can be just that simple.

[caren]

we didn't do a garden this year, but clay has his own personal area in our neighbors garden that is full of green beans... i guess after 3 years of clay sneaking in his garden daily and stealing fistfuls of beans, mike finally wisened up!

[andrew]

Melissa - thank you! I really appreciate it...and there's plenty of fretting here...just trying to keep it to a minimum :) It's definitely something that I've gotten better at...not thinking that it's the end of the world if something doesn't come out perfectly.

Caren - do you know Peter Rabbit? That's the image I have of Clay sneaking into the neighbor's garden.

[Rebecca (Foodie With Family)]

We also started the family garden tradition this year. It's amazing how into it the kids get. That, if for no other reason, is plenty of inspiration to keep learning and growing.

You wrote a touching description of the wonderful world of parenting in garden metaphor. Nice.

[Linda D]

Yeah for Molly!!! Gimme more :)