Engage With What You Eat

For me, finding locally grown food isn’t hard.

I have plots in 4 of Tacoma’s community gardens, in order to conduct a research experiment on biosolids and urban soil. I also have a large veggie garden at my home, and help to tend a large garden at the sewer treatment plant where I work. So the growing season finds me running around a little crazy, planting and harvesting and trying to eat and give away and process all the food that I have grown.

Don’t get me wrong, I love the situation I’m in, and spent most of the winter planning and preparing to do it for another season. But for me, much of the challenge comes from the reality of dealing with the food once I’ve grown it, and making sure that all my hard work doesn’t go to waste.

There was the time I showed up at a fancy fundraising dinner with 50 pounds of carrots in my trunk and then handed out dirty carrots to people in formal wear.

And the time my partner brought boxes of pears from our tree to the family vacation to recruit help in cutting them up for the dehydrator.

Growing your own food is fun! And in many ways, that’s just the beginning of a whole new process of engaging with what you eat.

So I intend to share some of the fun and challenges that come once you’ve got a garden full of amazing food. Also, I spend a lot of time in the community gardens, which are beautiful little places full of interesting people who come together to grow food. I hope to use this space to share some of their voices as well.