Last night I attended the KSTX Town Hall meeting on Obesity and Diabetes, and pronounced it a "wide-ranging discussion." And it was, for its inclusion of the Mayor's and Metro Health's broad initiatives to include the built environment and public safety as contributing factors to these problems in underserved neighborhoods. These are truly essential insights, and the monumental efforts to involve schools, neighborhood associations, and various City departments are impressive.
Where Have All the Gardeners Gone?
I did hear community gardens mentioned once. If there was another reference to people's ability to grow some of their own as a way to access healthy food, I missed it. Of all the ways to get hold of healthy food cheaply, putting a seed into the ground and getting back pounds of produce should be top of mind.
San Antonio, even or especially in these underserved neighborhoods, does have a tradition of growing yard gardens, and this is overlooked in many of our discussions. Many people grow their own salsa ingredients, for example. No doubt, the specter of long rows with too many of one crop, overgrown with weeds, requiring hours of labor that working people don't have, stops many of us from doing much more than that.
However, with small raised beds or container gardens, vegetables can be grown, along with flowers, in less labor intensive and more appealing ways than many of us grew up knowing about. I'm (finally) reading Eric Herm's Son of a Farmer, Child of the Earth, and here is what he says to introduce the topic of gardening:
"The easiest long-term solution to ensuring a family or individual's healthy food supply is growing one's own in a personal garden. Many people are intimidated by even thinking of starting a garden. It's not as hard as you'd think, and it requires much less real estate than most imagine. Growing your own food is one of the greatest freedoms most never enjoy."
Walking the Talk
Part of my front yard this winter is a greens garden. This might be the most important, and easiest, part of our diet to grow, and we can do it year-round. My kale, collards, and Chinese cabbage laid down during our several hard freezes, but to my astonishment, they got back up. Not so the chard; it turned to mush, and I had to replant it. With a little planning, I could have used some row cover and saved even that.
You really can do this any time. During the drought of 2009, I grew lettuce all summer long, in a container under a shade tree. Every season is different, and we learn something new.
You don't have to do it all the first year. Start small, adjust, and enjoy! And don't forget, when we talk about access to healthy food, it can come from your own back (or front) yard.
