It's been a long time since we've written about the garden, due to some surprising circumstances with our family. Nevertheless, we've still been busy getting everything in the ground on time, thanks to some help from Julie's parents and some good friends.
One of the social consequences that the industrial and electrical revolutions brought was that over time, neighbors didn't have to rely on one another the same way they used to. Air conditioning brought everyone indoors to escape the heat, as opposed to out on the porch, and even if we see someone, we hurry into our homes where it's cool and safe. People used to actually have to share an oven, so you'd rely on others to keep it going, and you'd do the same for them. With cheap oil came cheap, long-distance transportation (which is fading quickly), and you could hire people in another hemisphere who have a lower standard of living than we do, so things got cheaper... but now we never see who actually built that iPod or grew and picked the tomatoes (if you can call them that) we get from the grocery store in December, and food production has some stuff in it that we wouldn't tolerate in our back yard.
That's why we get surprised when friends and neighbors really jump in and help out, but I think that sentiment is going to change very quickly. It's really not like my neighbors were burdened while they came and helped us while Julie's been recovering. They all said they had a good time and would like to do it again. What the what?! They didn't even get the reward, or even the promise, of fresh picked produce (yet...), and they wanted to do it again? Yep, it's true.
Now I'm a detail guy, and I know my fair share about economics. There is an opportunity cost to taking more time from other activities to grow your own food. Our economy has been on the upside of the standard-of-living bell-curve for 5 or 6 decades, so home-food production took too much time and energy, compared to getting it trucked in from somewhere else. When we're looking at record unemployment, high inflation, and rising oil prices, it starts making sense again to put our hands in the dirt and grow our own food, even if a little bit.
What if every family with an unemployed person planted a garden this year? Community and rooftop gardens (like the one Rick Bayless has on the roof of his Xoco restaurant in Chicago) make it possible for those without backyards of their own. It wouldn't bump them off of unemployment benefits, nor would it be worse than sitting around watching television all day.* We have an obesity problem that comes from lack of exercise and eating processed foods. Let's kill the 2 fat birds with one readily-available stone.
*I don't think that every unemployed person is fat and sits around watching TV all day... but I'm sure there's a couple.
