Wait...People Don't Know Where Food Comes From?

An Entry by Office Manager, Erin King

I had the privilege to speak on KOPN’s Women’s Issues Women’s Voices last night, and one of the themes that kept resurfacing throughout the night’s conversation was people’s disconnection with nature and less involvement in growing their own food. As a result, whether due to socio-economic status or generational gaps, there are people who don’t know how to cook or prepare food, let alone that vegetables grow from the dirt.

During the show, a caller unfortunately (later apologizing) misspoke in saying that people growing up in poverty don’t know about healthy foods or how to cook with them, but I would argue that the problem is a generational problem.

From my personal experience growing up, the combination of convenient options (microwaves, processed foods, fast food) and a two parent working household greatly contributed to my lack of connection with my food or knowing how to prepare it. My inability to choose only one or two extracurricular activities, alongside my two brothers’ crazy schedules, didn’t make this any easier.

My theory is that in general, the more cheap, convenient options available, the less likely people are going to know how to prepare their own food, let alone grow it. Convenience means you don’t have to make choices about your commitments you might otherwise have considered in another time.As I wrote in this blog entry last year, I never really gardened until I was in my second year working with the Columbia Center for Urban Agriculture. Even then, I didn’t know how to use vegetables in cooking. The role of vegetables in my household was either a side dish or in a salad. And you didn’t dare use real onion, garlic, or peppers when cooking the old family recipes.

Thankfully, I am getting better at knowing what to do with vegetables (did somebody say kale chips?), cooking with what I have in my apartment, (with or without a recipe), and have a much shorter list of foods I won’t eat. I attribute this, in part, to my experience as an Opportunity Gardens participant. Even though I graduated from the program last year after only one year of mentorship, I’m continually learning.

My most recent learning experience was in growing garlic. Talk about a huge contrast from my fast food culture upbringing! I planted four cloves back in October to overwinter, and it wasn’t ready to harvest until July. It was fun to see its progress throughout the seasons and watching the crazy curl of the garlic scapes I should have been harvesting. I could have had garlic earlier, but I didn’t know what to do with it.  

Last night, after my experience on the radio show, I decided to harvest my garlic and hang it up to dry. I only knew how to harvest and dry it for two to three weeks from my Growing Guide I’ve had since my first day as a gardener.

Once I successfully removed the bulbous bulbs from the dirt, I sprayed the roots with the hose. Then it was time for me to scout out a place to hang them. It was then that I realized just how important it was that I had harvested the scapes. The garlic was at least four feet long, and it was proving difficult to find an ideal drying place.

I eventually settled on hanging the garlic next to where I had dried my herbs last winter in my kitchen. After much MacGuyver-ing with screws, a hammer, a manual screwdriver, and some mason line, I got the bulbs up to dry.

Ok, so where’s the nice tiny ribbon to tie up this entry? I guess my thesis here is that unless we start living slower in this fast-food world, delaying our gratification, there will always be people who don’t know where their food comes from or how to cook it. What’s more delayed than waiting 8-9 months for garlic?