Tis the Season for Giving and Receiving

Ah! this strange time of year when we attempt to cram 12 months worth of passive caring into a few weeks of crazed, focused attention. Whether that resembles doting on family, co-workers, employees, or our neighbors in the community, why don't we take a longer-view, like we do in the garden.

So gift whenever the mood strikes you. Space out that adrenaline rush we get from haunting the malls and specialty stores between Halloween and Dec. 24th. Keep that child-like excitement alive every day by exploring ways to give something of yourself. Wrapping not required.

And if you're stuck with the most difficult person in the world to buy for, the one who has seemingly everything, wants nothing but will be disappointed if overlooked, may I suggest: SEEDS!

• http://www.off-grid.info/food-independence/heirloom-seed-suppliers.html

Actually I would suggest this gift for every single person you know. But they need to be heirloom seeds! These are the gifts that truly keep on giving.

This year each of my four children will be getting seeds I saved from my garden this summer. I was gone the entire season, walking in Europe, and my housemate insists she is clueless with the garden so nothing was done. When I returned in late August, the nasturtiums were creeping along the edge of the raised beds for several feet and the blossoms were the size of teacups! Marigolds had created a hedge and the zinnias tall with massive stalks and brilliant colors. It was a riotous and unkempt border around the area where a garden would have been. And seeds everywhere. As they dried, I carefully collected them and stashed them in my refrigerator. Until now. I happily pass along to them the beauty and energy of hardy annuals to add to their own gardens next season. And maybe they will think of me as the flowers bloom. ; )

There is no greater gift of life, longevity, love and compassion for the Earth our Mother, than continuing the inherent diversity which has sustained us for millennia. Buy some for yourself and buy seeds to give away....to family, friends, seed banks, community gardens,* schools. WOW! The list is as endless as are the varieties. Spread the joy!

Happy Merry Solstice Yuletide and may verdant gardens and luscious foods finds their way to your homes, 

Yvonne                

  *Now is the time to envision your school or community garden projects for the coming season. Need a little financial boost to put things in motion? Check out this list of available grants from Kitchen Gardens International.

A college where the football field became the farm

Yes, it's true. A small private college in the urban confines of Dallas, Texas, wasn't scoring with their football program. In fact, the college was losing money. A lot of money. So of course, there was only one thing to do: create a farm! And that's just what they did. (Note the goal posts.)

The WE Over Me Farm at Paul Quinn College is a story of a courageous reversal of mindset from "business as usual." Paul Quinn took a dreary situation--a financially challenged sports program--and turned it around--or rather upside down. Dug up the football field, planted a garden, started a farming program and brought fresh vegetables and fruits to an area of a large city notoriously recognized as a food desert. The students sell their organic produce--which makes way more than ticket sales to their football games--and donate 10% of what they grow to food banks and feeding programs in the Highland Hills community. Stories like this give me goose bumps and hope.

And here are 14 more things to smile about this week from Nation of Change including a book produced by the FAO, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, promoting small-scale, sustainable farming as the most potent method for feeding the increasing population. Check out:  Save and Grow - A new paradigm of agriculture

And finally a must-see video, a visually enchanting movie exploring our human relationship to the soil, the skin of the Earth, and the use and misuse of agriculture as well as deforestation and development. Listen to the voices of some of the most esteemed scientists, farmers, and ranchers share their work and their connections.  If you love the Earth and wish to understand how the most dynamic, powerful and complex activity of the planet is going on beneath and not above the soil, you will be mesmerized by Symphony of the Soil. 

"Study how a society uses its land, and you can come to pretty reliable conclusions as to what its future will be." ~ E.F. Schumacher

Till next time...many blessings, Yvonne

“Pick battles big enough to matter, small enough to win.”~Jonathon Kozol

     Welcome to my blog, which is certainly inspired by Kozol's quote and the idea which is the basis of my book, simply garden small!

     In this space each week, I want to highlight everything that is healthy, that is healing in our food growing methods, in our communities, gardens and farms. I want you to regain some balance to the mass-teria hurtling at us on Facebook, Twitter, other social media and the news services in general. Instead, I want to share with you the ideas, individuals or groups that taught me or shared with me how they were "winning" big battles with small endeavors, literally from all over the world and across the creativity spectrum.
     One such person is Dr. Job Ebenezer, the gentleman in the middle of this photo and founder of Technology for the Poor. Ebenezer took container gardening to a whole new level when he took over the roof of parking garage in Chicago and covered it with.....kid's swimming pools. You can learn how he did it on his website and in my book where I write about Dr. Job and others who have courageously sought simple solutions in contrast to unsustainable, unlimited growth, especially for that most fundamental of needs (next to air and water): food.

     When I was young, my brother and I were often admonished by our mother to eat everything on our plates as there were "starving children in China" and we shouldn't be wasting food. There were two thoughts from that statement that haunted me for decades: 1) how could anyone, especially a mom or dad let their children go hungry, and; 2) how did kids in China eat Brussels sprouts with chopsticks? OK, I was very young and practical, to boot. Today you could fill in the blank with children going hungry in probably every country on the planet.
     So while the problem of hunger still exists, even in a world that produces enough food to feed every single person, I chose to begin this blog after publishing my book by the same name as an antidote to the hand-wringing and political ranting that is so much a part of our lives today. Yes, we still have genetically modified seeds, and, yes, our soils are depleted and fresh water supplies from our aquifers are drying up. I know that. And so do you. Yet....there are many more hopeful indicators and inspiring programs around us if we will take the time to see them, connect with them, replicate them, expand upon them.
          Wise people, beautiful, soulful people, like my mother, realize that food is life and life is a Blessing, given to all of us equally. Feeding a child or a family or even a nation starts not with mega-millions of dollars or thousands of acres of land. It begins with a single seed. Planted perhaps in a small wading pool. That seed is hope.
     Here on simply garden small! we will bring you all that is positive, uplifting, wise, wonderful and helpful about growing food, tending the land and feeding people, from all around the world. Programs, projects, books, resources, and, yes, even recipes. These may not make the national news, but if they benefit one person or school or non-profit, mission accomplished. And that's just awesomeness! Till next time...keep dancing!

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Many blessings, Yvonne

PS:  Buy my book. It's awesome! (And helps support a great organization, too.)