Growing Food

With all the days of hot sunshine last week and this week's showers, our garden has really taken off. Yes, there are a lot of weeds we need to pull and our rows are a little off, but we are growing our own food.

Check out our buttercrunch lettuce and green onions!
Our squash and cucumbers are also coming along nicely as are the tomatoes, peppers and herbs.



I planted dill, basil, and some zinnias along the border of the garden to attract bees. And today my two-year-old and I planted sage, purple chile, and garlic chive seeds.

The "finer thing" about growing your own food is not just that you control how many, if any, chemicals touch your plants, or that you no longer have to buy produce shipped from California or Florida, or that you are teaching your children where food comes from.

Those things are all great and noble, but the "finer thing" to me is the connection I have with the soil as I stoop down and put my hands in the dirt. As I brush the hair from my eyes and dirt falls off my fingers, I can't help but feel close to Adam and Eve whose sin of disobedience to God is now my sin, their punishment my punishment.

By the sweat of your brow
you will eat your food
until you return to the ground,
since from it you were taken;
for dust you are
and to dust you will return.

Growing my own food, and the sweat and hard work that goes with it, is humbling. One day I will be nothing more than the dust and dirt that is in my garden. The vegetables, herbs, and flowers will grow in my ashes. Yes, I know that is a very dark and dreary image, but it's true.

Fortunately, though, my soul will never be in that ground. And that is, truly, a "finer thing."

This post is linked to Finer Things Friday at Amy's Finer Things.