Season of change

ON THE GARDEN PATH by Carolyn Herriot

portait of Carolyn Herriot

If you wanna make the world a better place, take a look at yourself and then make the change. – Michael Jackson, Man in the Mirror.

Each morning, I start my day perched on a wooden milk stool at the door of my greenhouse. From this perspective, I survey the food garden and take time to contemplate what I see. Birds and insects are always in the viewscape, as well as a riotous colour of plants and rustling leaves. At the same time, I often reflect on the state of the world and what I feel.

Many changes are coming because people are driving them and I am glad about this because it shows what I consider to be true democracy at work. I feel reassured people are finding their voice and standing up to the destructive practices of money hungry corporations and swindling tax evaders. But I also feel rising anxiety and tension as political, ecological and climate instability become more evident. The government is in denial about climate change and there is a subsequent scarcity of solutions to the potential havoc ahead so I continue to ask myself, “What can I do to alleviate this situation?”

For me, the answer is to be the change I want to see so a few years ago, I planted a garden full of food, fruit trees and berry bushes – we raise chickens too – so I could better safeguard my future. What joy to live in a ‘Garden of Eating’! In the process of creating my ‘edible masterpiece,’ I learned so much I wanted to share it with others. Making sure my neighbour is fed is my definition of food security, as we are all in this together. So I share my knowledge by writing books and articles on how to garden organically, how to grow food year-round and save seeds and just recently, how to connect the garden to the kitchen in The Zero-Mile Diet Cookbook. Writing this book has made me more aware of nutrition and the vital role food plays in determining our well-being.

It amazes me we have figured out how to send probes to Mars, but still haven’t figured out how to feed ourselves on planet Earth. Perhaps it’s because in school, we aren’t teaching our children about nutrition and our doctors aren’t learning about it either. Unless we seek out the knowledge ourselves, very few of us understand the importance of the 51 essential nutrients we need in our diet every day to maintain the healthy functioning of our body. The human body is a finely tuned and complex organism that needs to be properly maintained and serviced, just as we do for cars, but they actually come with a manual on how they work and how to look after them.

It’s time for change. Neighbourhoods and community associations are now gathering to address how to feed themselves in the face of disruption to the global food supply. By reaching out to neighbours and growing more food together, people become part of a forward thinking collective movement. The best part is that, as we work together to sow the seeds of greater food security, we also sow the seeds of community. Seeing this happen makes me feel more hopeful for the future when I look out at my garden because it’s clear these changes make the world a better place to live.

Carolyn Herriot is author of The Zero-Mile Diet: A Year-round Guide to Growing Organic Food and The Zero-Mile Diet Cookbook: A Seasonal Guide to Delicious Homegrown Food (October 2012 release, Harbour Publishing.) www.earthfuture.com/gardenpath

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